It's summer.
The part of the year when "teachers have off work".
Let's cut that bullshit right now-- if you're reading this blog, you know that is the #1 farse about the teaching profession. Even if you did give yourself a break, (BTW, you better give yourself a fucking break) by the time we are rounding the corner of mid-July, your brain is now probably going into full-on prep mode. Maybe even some light panic is starting to build.
Photo by Angelo Pantazis on Unsplash
You glance at your Google Calendar at least once a day, counting down to the quickly-approaching "report date" (AKA the day you have to be back in the building for the first faculty meeting of the 20XX school year). You spend at least a few hours scanning Pinterest and TPT, reading teacher blogs, and overwhelming yourself with the 3246385657 possible ideas for how to theme your classroom. Does your classroom need that fuzzy rug? No, but you have read about flexible seating and are ready to try out some new strategies.
Then you decide to go to the pool and relax for a couple hours. Enjoy the sunshine. While packing your poolside bag, you head to the bookshelf to grab something to read. You sigh sadly at the overflowing shelf of TBR books, and instead of grabbing one of those, you squat down to your "Books My Students Are Reading" shelf instead and pick up Artemis Fowl and Bud, Not Buddy, tossing them in the bag instead. Oh, and might as well grab a pen and notebook so you can jot down questions, vocabulary words, and possible activities that you may need to reference later for these books.
Finally, relaxing at the pool, you can enjoy a moment of mental vacay. Your phone dings-- a text from your teacher bestie arrived and read: "SOS! Meet me at the teacher supply store tomorrow at 8:00 AM sharp for 20% off sales!" Time to spend your hard earned money on stuff for your classroom. You begrudge your school for not offering to help financially (you're lucky if they supply a new pencil sharpener), but you also know you love when your classroom space is organized, inviting, and a positive work environment for you and your students. Besides, you can never have too many scented stickers.
You glance at your calendar (again...) only to be reminded you have a three-day professional development conference scheduled next week. As much as you enjoy learning new things and harnessing your craft, these things can be quite tedious. Eight hour days in frigid cold hotel conference rooms listening to one speaker after another. You jot down pages and page of notes, but your head is spinning by 2:00 PM. Can't wait.
But, it's all worth it. All the stress and time and planning and learning and reading makes you a better teacher and *hopefully* better prepared for the year to come. I've said all this to *hopefully* make you laugh but also to realize that you're not alone.
Repeat after me: I. AM. NOT. ALONE. If you follow this blog for no other reason than to get that gentle reminder, then I will be happy. Teaching is a very isolating profession; one often feels alone and broken and like no one GETS IT. Your family and friends can't possibly understand if they've never been in a classroom of 25+ students and all hell breaks loose. Probably because of a roach or lizard running across the linoleum floor.
But you got this, teach. And I got you.
