Are you in the right profession?

So here is a bit of a miserable post.  A reflection on some challenges that I have faced over the years.

Teaching is a great profession.  Teachers are passionate, committed to their students and their learning, and, they are hard working - in the main.  There are a few exceptions as with every profession.  I do meet them in the context of my work from time to time.  They exhibit signs of

• not wanting to improve or shift their practice
• being satisfied with mediocre
• negative energy towards their leaders
• negative energy towards their students
• disruptive behaviour that they would not tolerate from their students
• lacking in perseverance
• unprepared to challenge themselves

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In their behaviours, I sometimes see myself as the disruptor in earlier years when I was feeling dissatisfied with the status quo.  Sometimes all that is needed is a quiet word in their ears - just saying I have noticed that their behaviour is that of a non-engaged participant.    Sometimes I just to ask them what they do with a student in their class who is disruptive/ apathetic /unengaged when they throw their digital tools out of the cot.   This often brings the change in behaviour that I desire.

As a facilitator, it is my job to engage these people in much the same way as a teacher would strive to engage a reluctant student.  I look at my practice and the language that I use.  I  ask myself how they have got into this state - which is a bit of deficit theorising, but I do also often ask myself - have they asked themselves if they are in the right profession?