Spring Break

Every night Tina and I do a little bit to plan our upcoming spring break. We are pretty lucky. This year our spring breaks are during the first week in April which is great. I know that I am really, really, looking forward to this.

Here is a bit of insider information on what it is like to be a teacher. The first semester is pretty good. It is hard to feel burnt out because there is at least one three day weekend in September, fall break in October, the Thanksgiving holiday, and finally, the week and a half to two weeks we get at Christmas. Just when you are feeling like you are going to implode there is a break that gives you time to rest and recharge.

The second semester is different. January really isn't a problem because you have just come back from Christmas break rested and recharged. In February there is President's day. But, once you pass Presidents' day you enter the empty quarter of days off. There is not a single day of vacation from the middle of February until the second week of April and it is brutal.

Now if you are reading this, you might be thinking,"This guy is a whiner." But I will say to you, until you spend a month in a classroom with six kids with severe mental illness and you would want a day or two to regain your sanity.

Being a teacher is tough because there are no breaks in the day. Your lunches and periods of the day when you don't have kids are spent making lesson plans, planning units, and, if you happen to be a special education teacher, spent dealing with the Everests of paperwork which go along with that. Aside from that there is the day-to-day grind of telling Johnny not to put pencils up his nose, telling Sally no she can't go to the bathroom because she just went five minutes ago and then reassuring her that she does not have a mouse's bladder and will be fine (really, she just wants to leave the classroom and you know this is true because you did the same thing when you were in school :-)

All in all I love my work. I love working with kids. I love being here to see kids make progress and move on to better things. So with these things in mind, I can survive one more week, and then will finish out the year in a blaze of glory.

Chris

p.s. For those of you wondering, the football player at the top is defensive lineman "Mean" Joe Greene of the famed Pittsburgh Steelers steel curtain defensive line.