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What a day.
Teach my classes, go to a lunch meeting, and this list.
I got to work at 6:30am and left at 6:30pm. Crazy.
My own children and our students had the same day. And then they went home to do homework. I went home to collapse. I wonder how they do it.
The thing about days like this is that the teaching suffers. I think teaching is a cross between theatre and marketing. My job is to sell something to teenagers that they would prefer to avoid. If you've ever spoken to teenager about something they don't care about, it's a marathon of eye rolling and long sighs. And that's if they're polite.
Monday was a busy day. My classes were fine, but they weren't inspired or interesting or funny. I didn't have the moments to build relationships, to turn something not that exciting into a game, a comedy, a poem, a drama. It was just math.
The more days I have focused on paperwork and meetings, the fewer days there are that are great for students. That's my real job, to create awesome for kids. On this day, the best I could do was put stickers on their tests. I hope that little bit of happy was enough. I gave myself one too.
And then I tossed the post-it in the trash.
Time to do some teaching.
Hello Tuesday.
I love that your goal is more than just "getting by." Your passion for teaching and for your students is so inspiring! It was teachers that desired I enjoy what I learned in high school that I remember most. :) Keep it up! You're changing lives!
ReplyDeleteThank you Clohe! I'm pretty confident that most teachers love the teaching most of all and wish the paperwork would go away... I think my friends in the public schools have it especially bad. I work at a school that values my creative time and allows me the freedom to teach in innovative ways. I fear there's so many fingers in the public school pot trying to measure the stew that the teachers have very little time to do the actual job. I'm glad that you had some good teachers in your life. All students need that.
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