I
have to be honest with you. Well, no,
actually I don’t because it’s my blog and I can pretty much say anything I damn
well please, but for the sake of propriety, let’s pretend I’m being honest with
you.
I
don’t want to go back to school Monday.
Don’t
get me wrong – I really like what I do.
I teach middle school. This
means, at least according to teachers who work in elementary schools and high
schools and colleges, that I am insane.
When
someone asks me what I do, and I respond, “Teach,” they smile and nod. Then they ask the inevitable, “What grade
level?”
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| (The shade I created out of trash bags.) |
As
soon as the words “middle school” leave my mouth, people usually bend away, as
if I am infectious. Sometimes they purse
their lips and make that sucking-in-air noise and then do the low whistle that
indicates something really, really bad.
You know that sound I mean. It’s
the sound you make when you see a really gross, horrific, gaping injury after a
bad accident, like when a friend falls off a bike and lands on a barbed-wire
fence face first. That sucking-in-air-low-whistle sound.
Worse
than being insane, the school isn’t quite ready. The move to our temporary digs didn’t go
smoothly, kids keep getting added to classes where there aren’t enough desks,
we haven’t been given our supplies yet, and our promised “prep time” post-move
never happened. We’re hitting the ground
running through huge piles of literal and figurative pooh.
But,
you see, that’s what we do. That’s why
middle school teachers are the best at playing Dodgeball and Tag and Jump Over
the Flaming Lava Pit (I seriously mean a real pit of molten lava – we could so
do that). We are given a problem, we
flip out, we stamp our feet and refuse, and then we just fix it. We usually fix and solve the problem so well that
we’re really good at hoop games. We are
awfully used to jumping through them.
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| (My class flag ... 4" x 6") |
This
year is tough. I’m not sleeping well,
and I haven’t yet had the yearly summertime “Back to School” nightmare. Maybe it’s because I’m living it trying to
stay on top of everything right now.
Maybe I’m trying not to have a nervous breakdown. Maybe I’m trying not to become a screaming
banshee. Maybe I’m trying not to drown
in my own tears of frustration, and yes, I did burst into tears Friday after
someone did the complete opposite of what was promised, and it was that straw –
you know, the one that broke the camel’s back – for the week.
Honestly,
I kind of want to go to school Monday. I
enjoy my job, and I’m anxious to see former students and new students. I’ve met some of the newbies already, and I
like them immensely. I guess I’ll just
put on my lava-jumping shoes and head for the top of the volcano.
What’s
the worst that can happen? (Don’t tell
me. I’ll be truly honest with you – I don’t
want to know.)
