This Week in Teaching

I am fresh off of a week of Spring Break, and boy, I feel better.   The days leading up to a break are excruciating for all – students are all like “why do we have to do any work? It’s almost Spring Break!” and teachers are all like “We can’t just sit around and chat for a week – there’s still Stuff to Learn!”   But inside, teachers are saying the same thing as the students.   Don’t let them fool you. In this particular case, that blasé attitude is complicated by the fact that 3 rd quarter grades are due the day after we return to school.   I cannot possible type a representation of a heavy enough sigh.   Grades are always the bane of my existence.   I enjoy and am quite good at planning a curriculum of learning, constantly pulling in and trying creative ways to keep kids engaged in the task at hand.   But the grind of grading all of the paper that is produced from engaging learning?   Ugh.   The worst. Simple math problem for you...

I very nearly begged off of this week’s post.   I’m tired.   This time of year, I’m always tired.   I entertain extreme fantasies of quitting my job and winning the lottery.   Notice, that’s backwards.   This time of year, I’m backwards and I don’t care. I have enough experience with myself and with life that I can refrain from following through on the beginning of this fantasy.   I know that this too, shall pass.   It always does.   The sun will come out tomorrow, and etc.   Plus, I need the paycheck. This week, we didn’t have students on Friday because in this district they cancel school for Parent Teacher Conferences.   That’s right, twice a year (once in the fall and again in late winter), students sleep in and lay about watching YouTube in the comfort of their own home instead of in my class, and instead of wrestling with angsty teenagers, I wrestle with delusional parents. To be fair, they aren’t all delusional. ...