A year ago I almost quit teaching. Like you, teaching is extremely important to me, but a condition existed and built until one day I found it impossible even to attend class.  It wasn't the first time I'd been that stressed or disgusted.  It wasn't the first time I wondered if the rewards of teaching were worth the aggravation.  It was the closest I've ever come to leaving teaching and it wasn't pleasant. Soul searching, discussions with many supportive colleagues, and attendance at a professional meeting convinced me that being a math teacher was indeed what I really wanted to be.

      At that time I thought of all the frustrations I'd had in teaching. At this time I think of the reasons I've been able to rope, to grow, to remain a teacher.

      I propose the following suggestions.

1. Provide early exposure to the classroom so students will be able to determine as early as possible if teaching is really their vocation.
2. Demand a second career of potential teachers so the teachers' room lament, "What else could I do?" would not be felt and voiced by so many.

1. Budget professional days for each faculty member.
2. Direct principals to find and suggest professional meetings and courses for their faculty to attend.

1. Find a comrade in your building or department who can answer your questions but still keep quiet.
2. Find a teaching comrade NOT in your system or area upon whose shoulders, you can cry or to whom you can complain.
3. Don't grade a poor set of papers in one sitting. Grade the same one question on every paper and complete at least part of the job.
4. Follow the suggestions "For the experienced teacher".

1. Assign each new teacher a buddy teacher to provide information on school politics, clarification of math concepts, a shoulder to cry on, and who also can keep a secret.
2. Don't give a new teacher, or any other teacher, all high stress courses or all low stress courses as an assignment. Variety is the spice of life!

1. Don't let teaching become boring to you. . If it's boring for you, imagine how boring you are to your students. Challenge yourself. Try something different — often!! Learn to use better vocabulary, use a new manipulative, write a better test, use writing as a teaching technique, play a game in class, make a game for inclass use, write an article for a professional journal, make your blackboard work more organized, teach a new course, take a new course.
2. Evaluate your teaching every time you finish a lesson. Ask: "What should I have included, left out? How could I have better answered that question? Is there a better way of presenting the lesson? Who didn't I reach?"
3. Give yourself that pat on the back when you've done a good job. You may be the only one who knew how great you were.
4. If you become depressed, try to pinpoint the reason. Combating the depression will be easier.
5. Get away from teaching and someone else's kids in the summer. If you think this isn't a possibility, try working as a temporary, perhaps: in that second career you may have contemplated.
6. If you become very stressed, get it out of your system. Write a letter to yourself. Seek out a trusted friend or stranger or colleague and verbalize, expound, emote, problem solve. GET IT OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM.
7. Be prepared for stress out of school to surface in your teaching or interaction with people.
8. Learn how to take a mental health days, Take one when you need one.
9. Repeat all or part of number six but don't sweat the little stuff.  Given two identical situations, one may be more stressful than another because the former has occurred at a time at which you are already stressed.  Stress may build on stress.
10. Once something disturbing or stressful occurs, stop and evaluate the degree to which it is worth being remembered. If it's not worth worrying about, forget it!
11. A cut in pay may not be as had as It looks if it means you'll still be teaching.
12. Ultimately, your teaching excellence and enthusiam is your precious gift and responsibility. Guard it; nurture it; and display it proudly.