10 Signs You're an Urban Teacher

1. You dress for the job - flats or uggs, no purse (because you're not worried about having it taken on the street, but on the job) no woven fabrics that will pucker or pull on splintered chairs or desks, and, of course, layered to adjust for temperatures that unpredictably change from too hot to too cold - sometimes, in the same class period. You drive a car that won't tempt a thief - AND remove the CD player when you park it.
2. Teacher In-service questions begin with "So if a kid tells me to go F*** myself..."
3. You secretly think of yourself as an operative in "the combat zone" - and have the same single-minded focus on the mission as those veterans. New teachers who have military experience fit right in. When rookies have their first crisis, you congratulate them on becoming "battle-hardened".
4. Your new staff outweighs tenured teachers.
5. The mission is to teach as many kids as will let you, as often as they come to school. Everything else is secondary. The mission is complicated by: classes with skill levels from non-existent to truly gifted (but often lazy), no materials that aren't bought by you, aging textbooks, deplorable facilities, interruptions by PA, parents who have to talk to you, right now, probation officers checking on their "clients", prank fire alarms and bomb alerts, inability to make copies for a class (which doesn't stop the memo deluge from administrators and guidance), and, sometimes, sheer exhaustion.
6. You can entertain a party with true stories about your days. They laugh, but secretly don't believe you. That's OK - we only tell them the funny ones. The truly tragic, we keep to ourselves.
7. When a student hits you, you think "Great! A few days vacation/assault leave."
8. When you hear a disturbance, you secure your valuables and your room, then head toward the fight. Rules of thumb: help the injured, and, whatever you do, NEVER get in between two girls fighting.
9. You start to speak in a language your friends and family can no longer understand.
10. You could never teach anywhere else. It's too boring. Although you've left many a time at the end of the day (or year) swearing to get another job, doing anything, you're right back in the fall. Because the work you do has meaning. Because you make a difference. The kids you teach, REALLY need you.