How do I keep teaching when I'm underpaid and unsure I'm getting through?

You pass on something you love, and you do it underpaid, stretched thin, and unsure any of it is landing. That is a discouraging place to teach from. But the doubt about whether you're reaching them is almost universal among real teachers, and it is often loudest precisely in the ones who care the most. You rarely get to see the harvest. A seed you plant now may not show until years after the student has left your room, in a moment you will never witness. The lack of visible proof is not proof of failure. It is the nature of shaping a life instead of a product. Much of your best work will be invisible to you. Since you can't measure the whole, tend the part you can touch. Reach one student well this week. Notice the small signs, a question asked, a face that lit up. And take the underpay seriously too, protect your energy, ask for what you can, don't martyr yourself into empty. You are handing forward something that outlives you. That is worth doing, and worth surviving to keep doing.