Everyone says how great it must be to be a teacher and get your summers off.... and yea, I have to admit, having 3 months off was pretty darn nice! However, next year, I probably need to start doing something 'continuing education'-wise so that I can retain my license....... but you don't want to hear about that.....
I did enjoy my time off - it was the first time since I was 15 that I didn't have work, or classes to contend with (we're talking 27 years - you do the math!) I was able to read some great books that I had never really had a chance to read, or was made to read and never really had a chance to enjoy. I was able to spend time with my daughter, which I really haven't done much in the last 4-5 years due to working full time and going to school to get my teaching certificate. I just wish we had a little more money so that I could have taken her to a few places for overnight trips and such - places like Schlitterbahn, The Alamo, Fiesta Texas, or Seaworld in San Antonio - next summer I guess..... I was able to go home to Michigan to visit friends and family with my husband and daughter. I was able to just lay down on the couch and take a nap if I was tired - what an incredible luxury! My husband told me that he didn't want me to take a part time job or anything else for the summer - to just take the time off and enjoy it. I did, but I must admit - not having a job to go to made me feel.... disassociated, without purpose, no identity except for 'so-and-so's wife/mom'.
it made me appreciate Betty Friedan's "Feminine Mystique" that much more.
So, last Monday - I had to go back for three days of professional development - as if the morons in administration could ever think of anything that would develop me professionally (I do need professional development, but they stink at providing it)- and a couple days of working in my room. It was good to get out of the house and see some friends - get back into the swing. This Monday - the kids come back - and I won't be able to sleep on Sunday night. Kids don't realize that teachers are just as nervous/excited as they are on the first day. I guess the tough thing about this year has been trying to switch gears without ruining my transmission, so to speak. I go from teaching/coaching track in the spring - being gone from 6 am until 6 pm most days - track meets until 10 pm once a week, trying to plan my lessons, perfect them at home, grading papers (again at home).... Saturday was the one day that I always kept for ME - to do what I want to do, and let work be. Otherwise it would be all-consuming and I might as well be divorced! But going from that to...... nothing. just nothing...
i was a little depressed for the first two weeks of vacation. I missed my kids (I cried on the last day of school when they left). I had nothing to do but sit and think about them, clean my house, do laundry, read, watch TV.... It was a tough adjustment.
Well, now I have gotten comfortable with having free time - giving myself permission to take that nap, read that book, look at the sky and daydream....... and not feel guilty. Monday that all changes - teaching and coaching (this time Volleyball - which I love) - having no time for anything (except for my Saturdays).... it's going to take me a couple of weeks. And if I said I wasn't a little sad to see the summer go, I'd be lying.
Time to pay the bills -
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Welcome back to the work world. How come school starts so early in the year in the South?
I remember those days . . . school days . . . getting your classroom ready and looking forward to the kids and of course, all the really uplifting notes and e-mails from parents telling you how much you suck and how you've ruined their kids chance of becoming president or dictator of a small landlocked nation. I do miss it, well, at least I will until October.
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