Cruel and unusual punishment.
That's what going back to work Monday was - cruel and
unusual punishment of the worst kind.
First we had the hurricane interrupt school, after that was Veteran's
Day that wasn't even Veteran's Day, then we had four straight days of half days
with conferences in the afternoons and evenings so my sleep pattern got all
fried, then we had a short week with another half day, then four days off. Today was back to the grind full-on with no
relief in sight for weeks.
Oh, sure, there are those of you who think my job is all
cushy and fluff. It can be - if everyone
is behaving and no one's hormones are out of whack (including mine), but you
try convincing one hundred thirteen year olds of that. We can't even convince them to shower and use
deodorant more often than bi-weekly.
Truth be known, though, it's a great job. Middle school is the only place other than a
mental institution where the "inmates" are as equally unstable as the
"staff."
If life is a box of chocolates, then middle school is Pop
Rocks. Think of it this way. Pop Rocks is predominantly carbonated sugar
that explodes or fizzles at the most inopportune moments. Kids are made up of carbon, are hyped up on
sugar most of the time, and can laugh/cry/dance/read/sleep/love/hate/smile/frown/act-out/shut-down
all within the course of an hour (maybe even less - I've seen them run the
gamut at alarming rates that rival Indy qualifying lap speeds).
And so it goes that messing up our normal routine as
teachers is bad enough, but add in the conferences and the mixed-up schedule
and the Thanksgiving break and the end of term report cards… and we become
quivering masses of babbling gel, occasionally staring blankly out the window
wondering what we're doing in here while also occasionally slobbering rabidly,
wondering if we are accidentally re-teaching material we just shared with them
… and they being too comatose themselves to mention it. Almost as comatose as we teachers are.
Unusual.
Cruel.
Unusual and cruel.
Cruel and unusual.
And that's just Monday.
It's going to be a loooooooooooooooong month. (Insert winking face here, kids.)
