I can't speak for other teachers, but here are things from my perspective:
I taught 7th, 9th, and 11th grade for about 5 years. 7th grade World History, 9th grade Geography, and 11th grade American History.
You get 25 - 30 students per class, most of who don't want to be there. You get a kid one-on-one and he's fine, but put him in there with his peers and he's going to cause trouble. He feels he's safe because he's got the #'s on his side. Many students would not cause trouble or make trouble if it weren't for the attention they get from their peers for their disturbance.
You try to get parents involved in the process. Sometimes it works, but for the most part their attitude is "you're the professional - just deal with it" or "what am I supposed to do about it...he/she won't listen to me". My favorite is when they say "My kid's not a bad kid, they just make bad decisions". No....if you're kid mouths off, gets into fights, or sell drugs on school grounds...they are bad. Take responsibility.
You have to go to teacher "enrichment" seminars that are really a waste of time. It's funny, because this is when teachers sort of behave like you teenagers. We don't want to be there, but the school makes us....lol. We would rather spend time with friends & family.
It's difficult to motivate kids to learn for the enjoyment of learning. You really can't tell a kid, "hey, one day you're going to need to know this stuff" because they don't see the immediate benefit of learning it. After all, they are only 12 - 18 years old and don't have that kind of perspective yet. I've had so many young adults come back to me a couple of years after getting out of school and say, "Mr. L, if I had only listened more in school...oh I wish I could go back in time".
I'll post some positive stuff later.
