#TeacherStruggles?

Teacher stress is more common than students may realize.

Christian Brothers hosts different events every day to benefit their students, faculty, staff, local community, and alumni. From sports practices to college workshops to free concerts, the adrenaline-pumped school can only operate like it does under the care and supervision of a dedicated faculty and staff.

Teachers, the people who come Monday through Friday ready for students, make up a lot of the staff, so I knew if I looked in the right places, I’d find plenty of…#TeacherStruggles.

When I popped into Ms. Chrys Cassetta’s classroom for the first time in months, her face lit up. I gave her some photos for the yearbook — she’s a literature teacher and the yearbook adviser. I asked her if I could get an interview.

“I’m just tired,” she said.

Oh, perfect. She digs right in.

“We’re reading A Streetcar Named Desire in my honors class and I just finished grading 62 3-5 page essays. And I’m collecting another 27 from the Mastering the Essay class, and all [these baby pictures] and senior pictures for a yearbook deadline in December,” the teacher says.

Like Ms. Cassetta, a lot of CB teachers take on multiple roles around campus. In addition to teaching four Freshman history classes, Mr. Tom English moderates the Senior Student Council and serves as a Vice Principal. Ms. Annie Hoekman and Ms. RoseAnn Holmes both teach classes and run everything that has to do with student actives, from rallies to prom. Ms. Holmes and “Cap’n Hoek”, as she is referred to by the council, run this town.

But the heavy lifters are everywhere. With extensive programs like the forward-thinking PLTW and KBFT, the school needs competent leaders behind the scenes, and more often than not, those leaders are teachers.

“Anybody else have to deal with $150,000 worth of equipment?” says Mr. Brendan Hogan ’95, KBFT’s program director.

Even with his annual load of video journalism classes, the tech-savvy teacher streams sports events for the school, shoots videos for the administration, and sets up presentations for assemblies of all kind.

“When the bell rings and students walk in, I gotta start talking and outlining a project or going over the assignment,” starts Mr. Hogan. “When did I prepare what I was going to do? That’s a whole ‘nother job outside the bell. If you’re not quick at putting together a lesson plan, if that doesn’t come easy to you.”

“This job is a burden,” warns the energetic teacher.

So why do so many teachers put themselves through the trouble?

“I’m working because I really love what I’m doing” shares Mr. Robert Boriskin.

The part-time ceramics teacher spends his days in clay-stained polos and overalls, often helping out with events catered to art students. Mr. Boriskin says CB is rarely a stressful environment, which makes this Boriskin Stress gif useless, though he finds “one of the hardest things is actually fully engaging students in what’s going on.”

It’s the little things, those tiny habits people bring to a working environment, that color any place.

“I like the room to smell nice,” says Ms. Linda Moulton. Nice smells remind the math teacher of home, so she likes to take the extra step to create that kind of environment for students.

“You know, I really like my job” admits Ms. Cassetta. The students make her feel alive and young, or as some might go so far to say, spunky. “It’s why I come to work every day.”

So does that mean daily struggles might be essential to working towards any goal of actual significance? And my article is taking the wrong approach and should be rewritten to reflect how much teachers enjoy teaching?

I’unno, maybe I should listen to the people who teach.

“I like being a part of this community. I feel like I’m part of a team trying to accomplish a mission,” Mr. Boriskin delightfully revealed.

“I’m trying to think of anything I would want to change,” paused Ms. Moulton. She couldn’t do it.

It seems CB cares for it’s teachers just like it does any student or faculty member — with respect and the ambition to produce students ready to serve the world.

“Yeah, there are some long days. Some of the meetings can be difficult,” Mr. Boriskin admits. “But [the students] are so important I think they overshadow that frustration.”