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[MUSIC] When I'm not doing my teacher things, I like to spend time outdoors. My husband and I will go hiking quite a bit. My name is Mike. I am in Orem Utah, and I teach social studies. We have these things in our life that can bring a little bit of excitement even on those days where we are just drained. This is my eighth year teaching and I'm being challenged and stretched in ways that are certainly far from comfortable. We are not just teachers, we are project managers, event planners, accountants, data entry specialist, graphic designers, computer programmers, first responders, counselors, mediators. Today's uncomfortable challenge was assisting a student who had a grand mal seizure in the middle of my class. Luckily, we were able to help the student and they should be okay. But the reality is after this incident, the teacher is then left to pick up the pieces and support the other students in class, academically and emotionally. My teaching career has been kind of a roller coaster. I started off by being very excited and that excitement over time has kind of come and gone. I think in order for me to stay in the classroom for the rest of my career, I really need to find my purpose and being in the classroom and kind of that larger goal. So another thing that will help me decompress is finding antique or vintage furniture that has seen a lot of love in its day, but it just needs to be brought back to life. With teaching some days I'm feeling that same excitement as I was on day one. And other days I'm feeling tired, worn out, and I'm unsure of why I'm doing what I'm doing. And so I am really excited to talk to educators who hopefully have experienced some similar things that I've experienced throughout my career and just how they've approached those periods of time where maybe they were not feeling like teaching was the career for them. And glean a little bit of advice and maybe encouragement from each of them to keep moving forward. 

Michael finds a lot of joy in teaching, but that’s just one part of his job—because teachers play so many roles in the classroom, from project manager to graphic designer to counselor. He knows that each day is going to be a new adventure with highs, lows, and everything in between, and he’s looking for encouragement from other teachers who have experienced the same uncertainty he feels about his purpose.

Michael Morrell, High School Social Studies Teacher, Orem, UT

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