Hot Showers and Expletives

Forgive me...it's been awhile since my last confession. But, it's been a rough year. I'm coming to the realization that this teaching thing is the hardest job I've ever had. The first year of teaching is a BEAST, a monster with a pulse of its own that will gladly consume you - if you let it. But now I'm in my fourth year and it's still kicking my ass. I've been comforted, however, by veteran teachers that say they are still working long hours, even after teaching for 20 years. You see, each year your class has a new life. The students bring different challenges to you as a teacher and no matter how many lessons I've already taught or fabulous worksheets or games I've designed the year before, it's rarely (if ever) plug and play.

I was thinking about the things I do to maintain my sanity outside of work. Sometimes a hot shower is the best. But as I was taking a shower yesterday, suddenly I caught myself thinking about school again. We've been working on a unit about water conservation and we have discussed the need to take short showers, in order to conserve water, our most precious resource. Well, here's one place where I'll preach it alright...but I can't say I practice it regularly. So now I'm trying to enjoy my long hot shower and I'm wondering how big of a hypocrite this makes me. But sometimes, when that hot water is running down my back I like to comfort myself with the justification that I don't drive an SUV and I'm damn committed to recycling. Some of the best showers have been when I take a cold beer in with me, and then of course recycle the bottle afterwards.

Anyway, as I was saying before, this job is tough. There's never enough time in the day and there's always more to do. I cringe every time I add another paper to the already huge mound of papers in my "to be filed" box. But it's just not the number one priority. I told a colleague the other day that when I win the lottery, I'm hiring assistants for all of us. Seriously, I'd be on cloud nine if I just had someone (of reasonable intelligence) that could help me organize, file, grade papers, and help make copies...those hundreds of copies I make every week! Although, some of my few adult interactions in a day are at the copy machine. It's a rare chance to check-in, share ideas, or just say hello to the colleagues I rarely see. The majority of my day is spent with 10 year olds. A great audience for my juvenile sense of humor, but sometimes I long to speak to an adult, if only just to say the "f" word.