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Summer time and the living is easy...finally!
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Teachers have been off for a full week already and the whole world is green with envy. During this past holiday weekend, I got to see old friends that I hadn't seen since last summer and they all asked the same question, "You're done with work right? Wow, so now you get to do nothing?!"
Well, yes, I am done and technically, I can sit around and veg all day but it won't be what I will be doing. I still have to plan for next year because, after all, a teacher's work is never done.
However, the common misconception is that it is done at exactly 2:30 everyday and then we have the rest of the day to relax, kick back and watch daytime TV on the DVR. Some have even said that maybe I work 6 hours a day, maybe....I wish I only worked 6 hours, I wished I only worked an 8 hour day.
These people who think I have the easiest job in the world fail to realize that besides developing a unit of study for 8th, 9th and 10th graders, figuring out an interesting way to keep their attention so that they will want to learn the material, and adding in all the "innovative" strategies that my administrators want me to use, I still have to control 30+ children who don't want to be there. I have to deal with the constant interruption of yet another late comer strolling in and making a scene while they take their seat. Then I have to compete with the ipods and cell phones that ,of course, were not taken from them at scanning. Rarely, have my students been ever so willing to just put them away, it is always a 5 minute ordeal when usually results in profanities being thrown around. (Those are not even the crazy things that happen!) Then maybe, I teach.
The bell rings and 4 more times, 45 minutes each time, I will have to do that over again.
Teaching in an urban NYC public school is beyond difficult. I doubt that the person who said that maybe I work 6 hours could do what I do. We have had substitute teachers walk out in the middle of a period, the ones who survived a day have requested never to be called by our school again. I saw it as an adventure; at least I was never bored at work.
At 2:30 we do have some peace but that is short lived when we have to make the slew of phone calls to parents because homework wasn't handed in, or their child cut or walked out of class, or they threw a book across the room. When I finally manage to leave the building, I usually have an evening of grading, revising worksheets, and answering e-mails from parents, which I have done until midnight sometimes. This is done by all of us, core subject or not, we all recognize our responsibility as educators. We are aware that the parent's of our students trust us to work as hard as we can for the betterment of their child.
So, yes, I look forward to the end of the year. But it's not just for my vacation, it because at the end of the year it always becomes clear why I do what I do. Despite how hard this year was, and out of my 3 years this one was the hardest, my students and their parents made me see that I did my job well. Society may not appreciate what I do, but they did. Through their e-mails, cards, and letters I know they saw how much I cared, even though I yelled and gave out detention. I did it to make them better people. A simple thank you goes a long way in this field, and even the kids who didn't say thank you kept coming to school after graduation just to hang out in my room. They became my cleaning buddies and willingly lugged boxes and books back and forth just to help me out. That in itself says so much on the relationship we built over the year. They saw that I didn't give up on them and that was all they wanted. They were so used to having teachers walk out on them and I guess they were surprised when I didn't. And I won't, next year I'll be back, stronger and better prepared for the adventure.
For now, I will enjoy my time off. It is well deserved and my time to regroup, and reflect. So when you start to complain on how unfair it is that you have to work when I have 2 months off, just remember the 10 months of tiresome, endless, sometimes insane days we teachers must go through to regain our sanity.
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