Another day in the life of a teacher

Ah, Friday before a 3-day holiday.  This is one of the reasons I chose to become a teacher for a new career after working in publishing and sales.  We return to a 4-day week before leaving for a one-week Thanksgiving break.  Where in the “real world” do you get those kinds of vacations?  I keep telling my students, “become a teacher, or you’ll find yourself with 2 weeks of vacation a year.”  They usually moan, and lament, “no, I don’t want to deal with kids!”   Where are we going to find future teachers? 

So many teachers are coming up on retirement age, and yet we see few student teachers signing on for this profession, especially after student teaching at an inner city school.  It’s not just the students who cause people to flee, even though my students seem to think that.  It’s also the issues of constant testing, constant criticism of teachers, constant bureacracy.

I will definitely enjoy my 3-day weekend.  It will give me an extra day to grade projects and enter grades into the computer.  It will give me an extra day to plan the next week’s lessons.  Of course, even when I plan, the tyranny of the moment can change all those plans.  Just like next week, I had planned a checkpoint for my Marketing I students’ big project, but then today I realize I will be gone all day for a district meeting and will have a substitute.  So, there go my great plans.  But it doesn’t stop me from making those plans.

Tomorrow is a new day.