If This Is You... Teaching Might Not Be for You

Mar 20, 2026

Teach Like a TopTEN™ Blog

If This Is You… Teaching Might Not Be for You

A real talk blog about the habits that keep teachers stuck—and what happens when we’re willing to examine our own practice and get better.

Teaching is hard. And sometimes the hardest thing to admit is that we’re making parts of it harder by repeating habits and strategies that simply aren’t working. I know because I’ve done it. This post is not for everyone. Good. That’s the point.

I remember the exact moment someone called me out.

I was standing at the front of my classroom—again—waiting.

“Class… I’ll wait.”

I had already said it three times.

A few kids snapped to attention.
A few didn’t. It was like popcorn.

And if I’m being honest? I started losing the ones who were already meeting the expectation.

My savvy kids were practically giving me the side-eye like… she can’t be serious right now.

And there I was—losing time, losing momentum, and getting more frustrated by the second.

Later that day, a coach pulled me aside and said:

“You know, when you say ‘I’ll wait’… you’re actually training them to wait you out. And you’re lowering your expectations for everyone else.”

And just like that—I couldn’t unhear it.

Because she was right.

I didn’t love hearing it. But I was honestly shocked at how ridiculous it sounded once it was pointed out.

And the worst part? I wasn’t the only one doing it. I still hear teachers say it all the time.

The Real Issue

That moment changed how I looked at everything.

Because it wasn’t really about one phrase.

It was about something bigger:

The habits we hold onto
The things we keep doing—even when they’re clearly not working
The way we can practice a bad strategy until it becomes our normal

For me, the bigger question eventually became:

What am I repeatedly trying to manage that I could be teaching, building, or doing differently?

That is a much harder question than blaming the class.

But it’s also a much more useful one.

And here’s the hard truth:

You can change your practice—if you’re willing to examine it.

But some teachers aren’t.

And that’s where things fall apart.

So yes—if this is you… teaching might not be for you.

Not because teaching requires perfection. It doesn’t. But this profession demands reflection, learning, feedback, and growth.

If This Is You…

1. You’re not growing

Everyone loves to throw around the “10,000 hours” idea.

But here’s the problem:

If you’re practicing the wrong things, you’re just getting really good at bad habits.

Teaching takes feedback, modeling, coaching, trying, tweaking, failing, reflecting—and being willing to try again.

You have to be willing to notice what isn’t working without immediately defending it.

That might mean changing your teacher language. Rethinking a routine. Watching how students are actually participating. Asking another teacher what they notice. Or admitting that the strategy you’ve used for five years simply isn’t getting the result you want.

Classrooms don’t improve on autopilot. They improve when teachers do.

2. You won’t do the reps

This one might be unpopular.

Getting really good at teaching takes reps.

It takes planning. Practicing. Creating. Watching what happens. Thinking about your students’ experience. Trying something that doesn’t work and coming back the next day with a better move.

And yes—sometimes becoming better at your profession requires time and thought beyond the exact minutes you are standing in front of students.

But the goal is NOT to work endlessly.

The goal is to invest your time in the things that eventually give time back.

Build the routine now.

Practice the teacher language now.

Think through the student experience now.

Earn your time back later.

There’s a huge difference between professional growth and glorifying burnout.

Do the reps that make you better—so eventually the work gets stronger, more intentional, and easier to carry.

3. You don’t seek or apply feedback

This one is huge.

The entire story at the beginning of this post happened because someone was willing to tell me something I couldn’t see for myself.

Did I love hearing it?

Nope.

But once I saw it, I could change it.

If you’re never getting feedback, you’re relying on your own view of your classroom—and every one of us has blind spots.

Watch great teachers. Invite a coach or trusted colleague into your room. Record yourself teaching and watch it back. Read. Learn. Ask someone what they notice.

But most importantly:

Watch your students.

Who is talking? Who is thinking? Who is participating? Who is waiting for you? Who knows what to do without being reminded? Where does learning stall? Where are you doing work students could eventually be doing themselves?

That is feedback too.

Effort matters. But effort without reflection can leave us repeating the same move harder instead of trying a better one.

4. You blame everything but your practice

In more than 20 years in education, I’ve taught some challenging students and worked with some challenging groups.

There are absolutely things teachers cannot control.

Class size. Student needs. Staffing. Resources. Schedules. What happened before students walked into your room that morning.

Those things matter.

But they can’t become the end of the conversation.

Because the most useful question is rarely:

“Why are these kids like this?”

The question that gives us somewhere to go is:

“What am I doing—or not yet building—that may be allowing this to continue?”

Maybe students need a routine you assumed they already knew.

Maybe your directions need to change. Maybe the expectation hasn’t been taught clearly enough. Maybe students need more ownership. Maybe your feedback is only showing up when something goes wrong.

Or maybe what you’re doing is solid and the situation is simply hard.

But examining your own practice gives you something valuable:

A place to act.

You can’t control every variable in a classroom. But you can keep getting better at the part you bring to it.

5. You’re negative about everything

Teaching gives us plenty to complain about.

There are frustrating policies. Difficult days. Decisions you won’t agree with. Students who test every ounce of patience you have.

Venting once in a while is human.

Living there is different.

If every conversation becomes complaining, blaming, and listing all the reasons nothing can work, eventually that mindset follows you back into the classroom.

And students feel it.

If you truly don’t like teaching anymore, it’s okay to decide this isn’t the career you want.

But if you stay? Then keep getting better.

Not because better teaching makes every difficult thing disappear.

But skill gives you more options. And having more options makes hard days much easier to navigate.

What Strong Teachers Do Differently

If you’re still reading this, here’s what I know:

You care about getting better.

And the strongest teachers I know are not perfect.

They make mistakes. They try things that flop. They have groups that challenge them. They lose patience. They rethink lessons.

But they keep asking:

What am I noticing?
What can I do differently?
What do my students need me to teach more intentionally?
What am I repeatedly managing that I could build instead?

Great teaching isn’t knowing exactly what to do all the time. It’s being willing to notice, learn, adjust, and build something better.

What Changed Everything for Me

Eventually I realized I didn’t need a better version of “I’ll wait.”

I needed to build what happened before I ever got to that point.

Instead of relying on:

constant reminders
repeating directions
reacting after something went wrong
doing work students could learn to do themselves

I became much more intentional about building:

✔ Routines that created independence

✔ Expectations students understood and experienced

✔ Teacher language that reinforced what mattered

✔ Feedback that helped students understand WHY something worked

✔ Opportunities for students to talk, contribute, reflect, and take ownership

✔ Relationships strong enough to hold high expectations

And I started noticing the smaller moments too.

How do students ask for help without immediately coming to me? How do they disagree with a classmate? What do they do when they finish? How do they help someone without giving away the answer? What does listening actually look like in our classroom?

Those little moments can become big classroom-management problems when we assume students already know what to do.

HIDDEN ROUTINES™

If you keep correcting the same behavior, there may be a routine you never intentionally taught.

That was the real change.

I stopped thinking classroom management was mostly about what I did after students didn’t meet the expectation.

I started thinking much more about what I could intentionally build before we got there.

Build it FIRST. Manage it SECOND.™

BUILD YOUR CLASSROOM™

Stop Collecting More Classroom Management Tips. Start Building Your Classroom.

If this post has you thinking about something you want to do differently this year, that’s exactly where Build Your Classroom™ begins.

This is not a done-for-you classroom plan. You won’t get a list of routines every teacher supposedly needs or a script for managing every behavior. You’ll work through proven frameworks that help you make intentional decisions for your students, your teaching style, and the classroom you actually want to teach in.

START WITH A DIFFERENT QUESTION

“What am I repeatedly managing that I could intentionally build instead?”

Use the frameworks to intentionally build:

✓ Routines and Hidden Routines™ that build independence

✓ High expectations students understand and can meet

✓ Teacher language and feedback that reinforce what matters

✓ Student voice, relationships, participation, and ownership

✓ Learning experiences that help students understand how your classroom works

SELF-PACED PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Build the Classroom You Actually Want to Teach In

Work through the Build Your Classroom™ frameworks at your own pace and turn your ideas into intentional decisions you can actually use with students.

Start Building My Classroom →

Self-paced • Complete in about 7 focused hours • Lifetime course access

Keep Reading

Want to keep building? These teacher favorites dig deeper into classroom routines, community, student ownership, behavior, and the small decisions that shape how a classroom actually works.

01 The One Ritual That Transformed My Classroom Culture

02 How One 15-Minute Weekly Habit Transforms Classroom Behavior and Classroom Culture

03 Classroom Organization That Builds Community, Not Just a Pretty Room

FREE ACADEMIC BRAIN BREAKS

12 Brain Breaks That Keep Students Moving—and Thinking

Brain breaks don’t have to teach students that learning is the boring part and fun starts when academics stop.

Grab 12 simple, low-prep academic brain breaks that add movement, conversation, connection, and engagement while keeping students thinking.

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ABOUT SARAH

This Is Not Another Classroom Management Quick Fix

I’m Sarah Legault, founder of the Teachers Empowerment Network, instructional coach, and veteran educator who has spent more than 20 years learning what actually helps classrooms work better.

And I learned a lot of it the hard way.

For years, I thought becoming better at classroom management meant finding better ways to respond when things went wrong.

Eventually, I started asking a different question:

What can I build before I have to manage it?

That question changed the way I taught.

Today, I don’t give teachers someone else’s classroom plan. I teach proven frameworks that help educators intentionally build their own—through the routines, expectations, teacher language, learning experiences, relationships, feedback, and opportunities for student ownership that students experience every day.

My work is rooted in three core pillars: High Expectations, Student Voice, and Relationships.

When those pieces are built intentionally, students gradually learn how to participate, contribute, work together, solve problems, and take greater responsibility for the classroom they are helping create.

And classroom management no longer has to do all the work.

Build it FIRST.
Manage it SECOND.™

Real Talk. Real Tools. Real Results.

If you’re tired of piecing together random classroom management ideas and hoping they work, you’re in the right place.

Build the classroom you actually WANT to teach in.

Some links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share classroom tools and teacher resources I’ve personally used or genuinely believe can strengthen teaching and learning. Thank you for supporting the Teachers Empowerment Network aka Top TEN Teachers Network.