7/17/2018 0 Comments Gimme a BREAK! Oh wait, I've been on break all summer. An inside look at a teacher's thoughts as the school year approaches.Holy smokes. How can it be that we're already more than halfway through summer break? Why is that so scary? How is it a FACT that once the scales tipped and the school year became closer as opposed to farther away, suddenly I'm checking the date and keeping up with what day of the week it is. WHY THE HELL is it seemingly IMPOSSIBLE to relax completely and actually enjoy the remainder of break? Why does July 17th seem so scary freaking close to August 13th? Why do my to-do lists keep getting longer yet the time feels like it's running out? Suddenly I can't think about anything but school. My chest is heavy with anxiety and responsibility. Thoughts about impending "ROCKTOBER" and students that will push me to my limits. PD and deadlines and zone charts and observations and paperwork that starts to pile up. Late night lesson planning. For goodness sake, can't even relax in my SLEEP! I even dream about it. Not the fuzzy, happy dreams. NOPE. The nightmares where nothing is prepared and I have absolutely no clue what's going on yet here are all these little eyeballs looking up at me and I'm expected to mold these young people's brains and be a good role model and reach these kids' hearts. I think that pre-school nervousness / anxiousness actually just means that you care.Granted, this statement has absolutely no scientific validity to it. But generally, we don't get too nervous or concerned about things and situations that we don't care about. Or at least I don't. So if you really care for these kids, it makes sense if you're nervous. It makes sense that I'm nervous. Let me repeat, it's normal. Especially if, like me, you're just coming out of your first year and you've had a little bit of time to reflect, and you just feel like there are so many "oops" moments and missed opportunities from your first go at it. It's exhausting to think about the possibility that you might make those mistakes again. That you might miss out on something that you could have done better. but hey , you're gonna do better this year. |