Senior prank 2009.Friday was the last day of school for the year!!!! I’m still not feeling up to the great critique of our education system that I feel like I need to get off of my chest soon, but for now I’m just happy that this year is done and wanted to write a little about the last couple of days.
First of all, I know that teachers like myself are incredibly lucky to get a huge amount of time off! In the face of our three-week Christmas break, one week off for Spring break, and two-plus months for summer, it always feels a little whiny to make any negative comments about the teaching profession. Very few people get to have perfect jobs, much less all of this time off, but teaching high school still feels tough, and I’m not inclined to be apologetic about it right now. I just feel so happy and relieved to be done for a while!
As I wrote before, there were many things that made this year particularly hard. But my one main relief right now is the same one it always is: being finished with the homework! Not the students’ homework – they don’t do it anyway - but mine. I’m sure that everyone knows that being a teacher implies bringing some extra work home. The problem for me at least (I’m sure that there are some teachers who don’t share this issue) is that there is always something to be done; some more papers to grade or some lesson that needs to be created or that could be made just a little bit better.
For me that’s the biggest one: planning lessons. Even after all this time I worry every night and wake up early every morning with the feeling that something is not quite right, and that I’m walking right into a death-trap. It’s not totally paranoia either, as I notice every day how a tiny change of one verb in the instructions for an assignment, or how a change in one pause in describing instructions to the kids can make the difference between success and failure; which can be the difference between knowing that you have given the students a hand in having a better future, and having all of your desks tagged up. No teacher can control everything in their classroom (the weather has just as much effect, and a bad air-conditioner can destroy any lesson plan), but there are so many details that can make or break a school period.
The amazing thing is that how often it seems to work out. It’s really one of the things that has made me the most religious: the amazement almost every day that things don’t go horribly wrong. It really feels like God is helping me out, and I am constantly grateful. It could be luck, but I’ve seen so many “small” miracles (that seem huge at the time) that I can’t help but feel incredibly blessed - although there are just enough power-outages in the computer lab, or fights in the back of the room to keep things interesting.
So the last few days after finals are pretty nice. There is the last movie (Gridiron Gang this year – don’t rent it, but if you’ve got a class of 14-year-olds it’s great) when only the first-year teachers are still trying to get anything done. And usually there is a nice party with one or two of the better classes. This year we had a great one with my fourth period (usually not a good period since it’s right before lunch), who were (mostly) wonderful! One student brought pork tamales that he had made which were amazing!! The worse classes always feel like this is unfair, but they don’t bring anything, and I couldn’t really care less at that point.
Tamale-maker Daniel left.
And then finally there is the last bell!! Here are two pictures I took right before the final bell, and while it was ringing. It’s not really possible to express my happiness when I took the second picture.
At the beginning of every long break, like this one, I wish that I could take the relief of being finished, and the expectation of so much rest and enjoyment and put it in a bottle for future use. That’s how I feel right now; not exactly human yet, but pretty sure that in a few weeks (and after jury duty, boo) things will be pretty great for a little while – I really do enjoy the vacations!
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