For the Love of Spring Break!

I just experienced my last spring break. It feels kind of sad. I am just like the kids at school in their excitement for the one week of freedom that we long to experience during the hectic school year. My last one.

Yes, I know….I've heard it before--"teachers have it made with all of those vacations." When you work so closely and intensely with students--we both need breaks to recharge to come back strong again. It's a job that you don't leave daily. You take it home. If not papers and planning materials, then it's worry and constant thoughts of what needs to be done. We are NEVER done. Even if we come in on the weekends (which many of us do) or stay late into the evenings--there's always more that could have been done. Those who say that about the vacations have never been in one of our classrooms for a day. The pressures of teaching are just growing and so is the workload.

I think I was able to stay in teaching as long as I did because of my school breaks. The spring was always the beginning of my training for wheelchair racing or the hand cycling season. I always looked forward to it with excitement and vigor. The summer breaks were when I would really train hard and go to competitions. I couldn't have done that if I didn't have the two and a half months off in the summer. That was a time when I really did manage to forget about work and concentrate on myself. My thoughts were on equipment, training techniques and where I would go to compete. My alter ego of "wheelchair racer" or "hancyclist" would get its turn. I trained and played hard for those months and enjoyed them immensely. However, even on those trips--my thoughts still went back to teaching. I would look for books or materials to buy and use in my classroom. Sometimes I would find some artifacts to bring back that I know would fit one of our social studies units. I would even bring my students addresses so I could send them post cards from my travels or even little trinkets to give them when I returned. Those brought more excitement to them than I would ever know.

Spring break is short (maybe not to others) but it seems to fly by. You have to grab all the gusto you can before it's time for that last long push to the end of the school year. This year, I will savor it, remember it and be thankful for it as it will probably be my last. (but never say never as who knows what my next career will bring)

Checking off the "lasts"

I just had parent conferences last week and realized they were the last conferences of my career. Let's see...25 conferences twice a year (averaging my class size which was 18 to 32 kids) times 25 years ( I won't count my years in special ed--but there are less conferences but much longer.) That equals out to about 1,250 conferences that I've held since I began teaching. That's a lot of conferencing.

I think back to when I first held my first conferences. I was so nervous. What was I to expect? Would the parents be upset by a grade I had given a child? Would they question what I was doing in class? Would they be supportive when a behavior problem was brought up? Well...it turns out that it is all of the above. Some of the conferences we hold are easy as the child has many strengths and there are some things they can do to improve. Parents appreciate the feedback and are usually supportive. Then there are the "hard one's" in which there are many things to bring up that a child needs to work on and you are grasping at straws to find their strengths. Often, those are the times when you end up sitting there hearing the family problems, seeing the tears, and understanding why the child is having so many problems. I feel bad sometimes that there is only so much I can do. I can make the child feel safe, give him a snack if he comes to school hungry, but you can't fix the things at home. Many times, the child sees me more than their parents since so many kids are in daycare before and after school. I do start to feel like a parent and I don't take my job lightly.

Conferences are where we get to know the parents. It's a place of building trust. It's where we come together and try to figure out what's best for their child. It takes more than just teachers to help educate a child and I think that's what some people forget. There are many learning opportunities for a child--not just the classroom. They need to develop their character in their homes--then we are there to reinforce it at school. We want to help the child learn to make the right choices.

So, thinking about checking off my list of "lasts" is bittersweet. I had my last school party at Valentine's day and I'm sure there will be others by the end of the year. I won't forget the conferences I've held. The times I've laughed and cried and really got to know the parents of the children I have loved so well. I won't forget them--and I hope they will have thought I cared for their child and wanted only success for them.