* This is a post only teachers may get.
The end of the school year is like no other time of the year. I have had several different types of jobs and there are always busy and stressful times of the year in each job, but the end of the school year tops them all. The number of meetings increase. The parent conferences increase and become far more crucial, heated, and stressful. The paper work increases. The kids are all climbing the walls, figuratively and at times literally. Most of the students have already begun their summer with usually a full month of school left. The graded assignments are more important to you and much less important to the students. The parents start emailing, calling, stopping by to discuss grades that you gave their student as far back as August. Principals start asking you nominate students based on their integrity and scholarship when you both are at your lowest. The weather goes from being 70-80 degrees and ramps it up to 90-100 degrees. End of the year banquets start stacking up and the number of little speeches you have to give start adding up. Emails from the Administration go from a couple a week to double digits daily. Kids cry for extra credit. Parents corner you at the grocery store about some comment you made in August about Georgia football that made them angry. Other teachers start asking you to cover their classes in your "free periods" ,but they do not return the favor. I could keep going, but will save us all.
All of this to me feels like what I can imagine it would feel like to be stuck inside of a pressure cooker. Everyday you feel a little more "cooked". You find yourself coming to work earlier and earlier only to find you are still late to work. You find yourself leaving later and later only to know each day you really are leaving too soon. You find yourself always behind. The stack of papers begins growing till it could easily overtake me and you. Every night you find yourself at a banquet giving a speech being watched and critiqued by hundreds of eyes. It is all a little much. In terms of canning or radio, I am ready to put this year in the can. It is all seeming a little overcooked or at least I am feeling that way. How about you?
The end is in sight, (I hope!)
David
Mhmmm scary. My pressure cooker is crazy too. Mine is talking to friends, actually people you like, but secretly hoping they fail a final because then your ranking will go up. It's taking an exam knowing that we all got the answer right so it comes down to who in this room is better at articulating that topic and will my articulation put me within the curve of the higher ranked students.
ReplyDeleteSorr you're under pressure. I've gone into an avoidance hole where I only speak to people when I have to and a majority of the time I have an iPod in or earplugs.
Love you Broskey!
Dave, I have 8 working days left and I feel there is at least 2 months of work to squeeze into these few days. God willing, we will survive!
ReplyDeleteThe best is the parents who throw money and activities at their kids all year long and do not really concentrate on their averages or even know what they are learning......then it is near the end and the figure it HAS to be the teacher's fault that their kid has a low grade or has not turned in the homework, etc. It blows my mind. They cannot blame the kid or themselves, so it must be the teacher's fault. It is too much. I found out today that lifeguards in California start at $150,000 a year because of the Lifeguard Union......maybe you should head there?!!!!
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