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)

Oh My, Where Did the Summer Go?

I went into my classroom today. We don't have to report until next Wednesday, but you can never get everything done in one work day. That's all we have since the others were taken with the furlough days. So, I went in to find everything piled high on my reading table in the middle of the room. It felt....overwhelming. It does every year. Even though I have taught for 26 years--it still feels overwhelming. I will start to have "teacher nightmares" pretty soon.

I immediately counted the desks lined up all pushed together--23. I tried to imagine 5 or 6 more desks in there--and I felt the dread. I thought 22 kids all last year was a challenge--but 28! In the "olden days" that was the norm. They lowered class sizes when the district got a mill levy, years ago. It had been such an awakening and I don't know how I ever taught with 32 kids in my class. We are expected to do more with a lot less. And since we are teachers and care about our kids--we will.

I will be heading to the office supply stores to stock up for my classroom. I will buy markers, and pens, and tons of folders, spiral notebooks, sticky notes, and any other thing I think I must have. I blame the teaching profession for my school supply addiction. I have to admit, my pulse races when I enter a Staples, Office Max or Office Depot. My eyes wander over the endless brightly colored supplies, all wrapped and tempting--just waiting to be purchased. I seem to lack the ability to JUST SAY NO! I picture my future class with bright smiles on their faces just thrilled with their writing folders that I have made, or using the brand new markers in the writing center. That's what drives me to buy.

I have been trying not to think about going back yet. It seems like the summer just zips by. I had an awesome summer--with lots of bike riding, and some new adventures. I didn't go anywhere--not like last summer with my Prague adventure. Now, it's about over and I have to focus on teaching again. It's hard to get my mind back on teaching--it's so all encompassing. It takes over my life and my play time is forgotten. I don't look forward to staying until after 6 pm every night and then doing more work when I get home. Once the kids are seated in my classroom with their new school clothes, cute haircuts and shiny smiles, I'll be okay. But in the meantime....I'm coming back kicking and screaming and trying to get every last drop of playtime out of my Summer!