A few months back, we asked TpT’ers about why they love teaching high school. Their responses were honest and real, and we were excited to share many of them here: I Love Teaching High Schoolers Because…
The special sentiments kept rolling in so we said: “Why limit the responses to just one blog post?” So without further adieu… more reasons why TpT’ers love teaching high schoolers: 
“My favorite thing about teaching high school is the vulnerability of learning TOGETHER. My students have commented that they enjoy me because I make them feel like a real person and not just a child, and I want to tell them that they make me feel like a real person as well. High schoolers have the ability to appreciate learning alongside one another in a collaborative way that makes me feel unstoppable.” – Naomi Wiliams – Lit Lovers
“I love, love having ‘adult’ conversations! Talking with my students about everyday happenings always reminds me of all the great stuff they do and the great people that they are. It can be so easy to only think of them as the kid in chem class but they are so much more! I like hearing their opinions and listening to them explain why they think that way.” – Teaching Elements 
“I love treating them like adults and children simultaneously!” – Let’s Algebra
“My favorite part about teaching high school is helping my students figure out their strengths!” – RedHeadHippie 
“I love helping teens deepen their understanding of themselves, their goals and dreams, and their relationships with the world at large!” – Resource Master
“My favorite part about teaching Spanish at the high school level is that I can teach them some slang!” – Tapas for Two
“My favorite part about teaching high school students is getting them to realize that there’s more than one path to the ‘American Dream.’ We don’t all have to attend Ivy League colleges and universities or rack up a mountain of student load debt to be successful in life. This lesson is particularly important at my school, due to the demographics of the local community.” – The Teaching Room
“The best thing about teaching high school students is that, with over 150 students per day all requiring individualized attention, you never get the chance to get stagnant as an educator.” – Bridget Riggs 
“My favorite part of teaching high school students is helping them find their career path and exploring education in a fun and exciting way through hands-on projects, smiles, and lots of encouragement!” – Growing and Cultivating Students
“I teach adult ‘high school students’ and I love watching their eyes widen in wonder about topics that they thought they knew about and yet are now truly appreciating in a whole different way.” – Different Drummer Secondary Resources 
“I enjoy seeing them experience important milestones such as getting their drivers licenses, taking the SAT, going to prom, getting their first jobs, and more. It’s such an exciting and nerve-racking time in their lives!” – OCBeachTeacher 
“My favorite part of working with teens is feeling the gratitude and appreciation when they realize that all my rules and quirks were designed to make them more self-efficient and independent critical thinkers.” – Mizzz Foster 
“High school students are mature, yet love to be silly. They’re laid-back, but serious about graduation requirements. They can decide who they want to be, but are still in the midst of deciding. These are a few of my favorite things! 
” – Kacie Travis
“They’re old enough to mess around with but young enough to still get excited by silly things like stickers or stamps on their papers. I can be very sarcastic and while I know it doesn’t work with some students, it does work with a lot of them — and it’s never in a mean way about them. I like to make jokes about weird stuff, observations about the world, and more. And a lot of them like that. They know how much I hate corn nuts and pumpkin, they love it when I use the fart machine in class, and they even laugh when I make silly jokes. I love that I can totally make something up and they’ll just believe it because it’s coming from ‘a teacher’ until one of them has the courage to say, ‘You’re just joking, right?’. And I’ll admit that they caught me — it’s never about important things, but silly things like telling them that ships in a bottle are made by putting the bottle on the ship tree and waiting for the fruit to grow inside it. I get to see most of my students for two years in a row, and it’s so neat to watch them grow over that time period. I’ve even been lucky to have some students for 3-4 years, and I never forget them.” – Frenchified 
“I love that they’re still little kids, and that part of my job involves getting them ready for life after high school where things won’t be the same as they ever have been. I like being able to talk about their future when it’s right around the corner. High school students look to us for guidance, even when we feel like they couldn’t care less. They get my corny jokes and have great senses of humor. I teach Special Education math to 11th and 12th graders, and I love clearing up their misconceptions that have built up over the years. Teaching high school is the best job there is.” – Scaffolded Math and Science
