I'm here to answer the question that everyone in the free world is asking teachers: "I bet you're excited for all your time off?"
No. As a matter of fact, I'm not happy at all. This week is supposed to be Spring Break, a time to enjoy moments away from the stresses of school. Instead of enjoying this week, I've watched ridiculous amounts of national news, cried on my couch, cleaned and disinfected my house more than most humans clean in a year, and contemplated what long-term absence from my job will mean for my students and for me. I'm not happy about my time "off."
The general public is clueless about what we do day in and day out. Online, people are complaining about taking care of their own children, but on a regular day, they are down our throats because with 100+ kids each day, lessons, meetings, paperwork, etc. we aren't doing enough for their ONE child. I have to be honest that I'm glad parents are experiencing this period of homeschooling because I hope it causes a shift in attitudes toward education and teachers/administrators/nutrition personnel. I hope higher ups in school systems and county commissioners start working together to fund schools properly, to provide technological options that can be used in the face of crises like the current one we're in as a country. Sumner County doesn't have the technology per student to facilitate online learning; we just don't have it. We do have online programs that are awesome resources for reading, vocabulary, and math skills, but it's parent responsibility to make children sit down and focus on the work. That doesn't happen most of the time when school is in session, so why is everyone freaking out now about options their kids have for online learning? That's a whole post in and of itself...
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Back to the assumption that we're enjoying our time off:
I have fought tooth and nail since August to remediate and progress various skills so that students can move on to high school and feel confident in their abilities. Being out of school for weeks or even the rest of the year worries me to death, maybe selfishly, because everything we've worked for is called into question. I hate standardized testing...always have...but it's an evil over which I have no control. States and districts push the concept, forcing more and more unrealistic expectations, and now what? That joker is canceled. Yet again, state testing is not the determining factor in "did they learn?" Someone asked me recently how I would feel if state testing went away completely: I responded that I hope it does! Public schools are struggling so much these days because we've squashed love of learning and resorted to teaching to a test (something I often refuse to do in many ways but still manage to do in my own way...if that makes sense). We've changed testing companies several times in the last few years, we've given bummed tests that still counted toward teacher and school performance, and we've (in TN) watched the swift decline of our state department of education (it's a mess and too many positions are open and desperately need to be filled by educators NOT business leaders). Again, all of this to say the test won't even be a determining factor in student or teacher success this year -- and I'm ok with that.
I hope that while you're home with your children, you teach them manners (those who have forgotten), how to make macaroni and cheese, how to clean a toilet, how to play a board game without a device, how to tell a corny joke, how to go on a walk/run, how to play with the family pets, how to do laundry, how to have compassion for others, how to read a book before bed, how to watch the news and research the credibility of the information, how to call and check on a grandparent, how to change a bed, how to bake cookies, how to put things back where they belong, how to take care of things that don't belong to them or how to preserve what is scarce but in high demand -- I hope you remind them that you're the adult and they the children. Discipline, routine, and follow through are forms of love that your kids need right now. No. I am not enjoying my time off. As a matter of fact, if I could take on all 100 of my kids and teach them all of these things right now, I would love every minute of it, even the minutes where I want to throat punch them for acting squirrely. I hope this time of self reflection really sheds light on how our perspectives need to change in so many arenas.
Enjoy your time "off," y'all.
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