It is that time of year. The days get longer. Warmer. I've worked at my current job for 6 years now. Going on 7. There is a point in the year that I know we're on the downhill slide. The kids get wilder. Staff gets more tired of trying to be nice to one another. I leave work each day to sunshine and the smell of the mown lawn. Our school is half underground, so the maintenance folks actually mow the roof. It is pretty funny. You can hear the mowers go over sometimes when you're teaching!
Today we celebrated the retirement of a lady who has taught at our school for 29 years. PE teacher. One of the best people I have ever met - hands down. We dedicated the gym to her today. It was pretty special. she said she had so many stories to tell, funny, sad, weird. And that she had tied many shoes in her career. I cannot imagine just how many shoes she has tied in 29 years. All I can say is that I wish she had been my PE teacher. If she had, I know I'd be better about loving sport and exercise.
But it is time for the school year to be over. I understand that people who are not with kids all day, may think teachers are wimps or work is easy for the money, but I am here to say that I have never met harder working people than the teachers I work with. It is tiring to try to teach a classroom full of 25+ wiggly little people to do anything, much less to do the basic things that will set their lives for the rest of, um, their lives. They take a lot of your internal energy. You cannot get irrationally angry. You can't swear. You have to remain patient. All new things to me. If a child is being naughty, very likely there is a really good back story and reason why. But you must, and I truly do mean must, remain professional. Why anyone would willingly choose to do this for a career means that more than likely, they are very dedicated. Maybe there are some lazy teachers out there - but they certainly do not work at my school.
I love it though. Truly. I have been hit, kicked, yelled at, scratched, pinched, publicly humiliated, sneezed on, coughed on, thrown up on. Peed on. It is not glamorous. I cannot say that the monetary rewards are stellar, for me anyway. I had to really think if it would be worth my time. I get paid an ok hourly amount, but once my 9 months of work checks are stretched out over 12 months, it is a little frightening to see what I'm working for. And insurance money and taxes and union dues taken out on top of that. Yikes. But I realized a long time ago, it is not the money (or lack thereof) that keeps me walking back into the place each day. I truly love my job. Sure, I'm getting tired about this time of year. And I've never enjoyed being pinched. But you know, that happens rarely. And I'm always itching to get back to school each year. I miss my little munchkins during breaks. I have many good people I can call friends. I simply have to ask and help is always available. No one is stingy or selfish with their time or their knowledge. If I want to learn how to do something, all I have to do is ask. I learn as much, if not more, as the kids do. Each day is different, the same thing rarely happens twice. I know what I do is important to someone's life. I help get them started. They take it from there. It is gratifying.
I am ready for summer. And I know I'll be more than ready to go back in September.
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