by Cari
As humans, we do what we can to survive. It’s in our chemical makeup. In the case of our caveman ancestors, they just needed to be able to run faster than the guy next to them. Today, it’s not quite that serious. Or violent. However, as a teacher, getting out of bed and dragging yourself to school during the final quarter of the year, feels about as monumental as outrunning a saber-toothed tiger. At least at 5:00 a.m. before coffee, it does. Being that I am a “glass half full” kind of girl most of the time, I have found that some positive self-talk does help lower the anxiety just a bit. I mean, I’m not standing in front of the mirror in the mornings like some kind of wackadoo, telling myself how awesome I am, but at night, before I lay my head down on my pillow and set that God-forsaken alarm clock, I like to get my mind right. Or lie to myself. Call it what you will. Either way, here are just a few of the things I tell myself when I am facing the final nine weeks of the school year with Seniors who are drowning in Senioritis and freshmen who think they are already done:
- · This didn’t kill you the last (insert number of years you’ve been teaching) times you had to do it.
- · Most, if not all, of your professional development is over. There’s something to celebrate.
- · Other people are about to work the next nine weeks and NOT get the summer off. It could always be worse.
- · There will be so much testing going on, you will probably only have to do about six days of actual teaching. You can handle six days. Hopefully.
- · You’ve done such a bangup job of teaching the previous three quarters that your kids will be fine no matter how many days you end up flying by the seat of your pants. Not that teachers do that. Ever. I’m just sayin’.
- · By the time you factor in all of the end-of-year awards and trips, you will only see about half your kids most of the time, anyway. Their numbers will be weakened, thus their complaining will not be as loud.
- · It could be worse. You could be starting the second nine weeks tomorrow. That would mean you only had a quarter behind you, but now, you only have a quarter to go! (Try not to be too impressed with my ability to do simple math.)
And last, but definitely not least…
- · There are (insert number of remaining leave days here) days that you can take off when none of the above motivators are doing the trick.
In all seriousness, we are in the final laps. We are no longer learning names and assigning seats, but we are the masters of our classrooms. By this time, not only do we know Little Johnny’s name, but we know what class period he’s in, who he can and cannot sit beside, and all about his obsession with Japanese Anime’. We’ve got this licked. We’ve survived this before, and we’ll do it again. I have faith in us. And Jesus. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
