I want to talk to my mom

 I can handle life. I just sometimes want to run things past the one that knows my entire history. Nobody understands you like your mom. I don’t need financial help or material things. I just want

1.  To tell her what my husband and I are doing

2. To tell her what the students did today

3. To discuss the shows we’re both watching

4.  To tell her what the pets are up to

5. To share what my kids are doing or going through

6.  To share what my friends are doing or going through

7. To listen to how she is, what she’s thinking, what she’s doing or planning to do

8. To tell her I love her.

Call your mom today. 

“Why yes, I‘ll work for free, who wouldn’t?”

 As I enter year thirty-two of teaching, I am excited to see my students. I am excited to see my colleagues. I have new ideas for what to teach and how to engage today’s screen-oriented children. I am also mad as a hornet, once again. Evidently I am expected to get in my classroom and have it ready to go - for free. 

A strongly worded note from the boss insists that we spend days for which we are not paid to get our classroom ready. You see, we are required  to pack anything away over the few weeks of summer break, because the floors must be polished. So we have to put back all the furniture, rearrange and re-assemble everything s well as update the decor and bulletin boards. Most teachers do this alone or in teams of friends. Music is fairly isolated, so it’s mostly alone for me, unless I ask for help. 

I know that everyone has seen how many extra hours teachers work. It’s a fact that walks alongside a profession that is the scapegoat for society’s problems.  My contract pays $$ a year for 186 days of work. (And by $$, I mean kind of enough. But that’s another story.) Of course, since I am flat out told to have that room ready by close of business on the day before the 186 days begin, I’ll work for free. Wouldn’t anybody? Grrrr. 

Counting the minutes

 It's been happening as long as I've been teaching; but especially more since we went back to school during a pandemic.  Teachers with planning time are asked to fill in as substitutes for any other teacher that may have to miss work.

This afternoon, I am a fifth grade teacher, yanked from the comfort of my beloved music room.  I bear no ill will against the absent teacher.  I have also taken days off that required "coverage", as it's called. I say I bear no ill will - however there have been occasions when I am thrown into one classroom or another with no plan, no work for the students.  I don't mind using my wits, but some sort of emergency preparation is greatly appreciated.  Today, they have work to do, thank goodness!

I also don't blame the administrator that assigned me to cover.  With health protocols right now, no substitutes are allowed in the school building.  The administration has no choice.  They actually divide the day amongst two or three teachers so that we can still accomplish our planning and nobody is in there too long.

I suppose if I were to direct my frustration somewhere, it would land equally on Covid 19 and students that have the mindset that they can get away with breaking known rules just because there is a different adult in the room.

Therein lies the reason I go home grouchy some days, or have that extra glass of wine on others.  I cannot fight the pandemic and its effects on my workplace.  None of that can be helped.  I DEFINITELY cannot change the decades-old practice of students misbehaving for the substitute.  Therefore, I will count the minutes, days, weeks, and years until retirement removes the pleasure of never knowing what a day may hold when I walk into my workplace.