This is the time of year when I start to yearn for summer! This is when I start to feel the pressure of assessments coming up, when I start to wonder if I'm a good teacher. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to jump out of my skin and run my fingers down my whiteboard in my classroom (it doesn't quite have the same effect as a chalk board, though). The students ask the same questions over and over. I tell them to do tasks, and they still do not put their names on their papers, they still ask me to explain something right after I've explained it. Insolence starts to abound. I've seen one too many teenager's sullen eyes looking back at me. I've heard one too many whiney voice ask me why they have to complete the assignment. I've been to one too many meetings, wondering why I'm there, wishing I could be in my classroom, grading the mounds of work that I have to do. There are so many aspects of teaching that have nothing to do with teaching. This year I've just felt all I have taught is assessments. And I'm not sure the students have gotten it as well as I would like them to have.
I'm thoroughly convinced that this is why summer was invented, for teachers. I can hear all of the rantings and ravings from the public now, criticism of what cushy jobs teachers have. But summer is what lets a teacher come back to teaching. A teacher needs those two and half months to forget. It's like childbirth. A mother forgets about what it was like, and she has another child (so I'm told; I had twins and that was way enough for me. I haven't forgotten.). After summer, I kind of forgot about the pressures and irritations of the year before. I actually get excited and psyched for the upcoming year. I actually start to miss it.
So, I'm starting the countdown. I've got three months. I think I'm going to make it.
