This morning, I started my day with about half an hour of prep time followed by a post-observation evaluation meeting. Then I went straight into a parent meeting. I got a 15-minute break and called into a conference call about an artist-in-residence program. Then I prepped one of my classrooms for a guest musician presentation. Right before that started, I found out a piano was supposed to be moved for a talent show, so I ran off to help with that.
There were two presentations in a row. The ideas was to let the students see these musicians in smaller groups so they could interact with them more and both of these experiences went really well. After the second presentation I run upstairs to a wonderful affinity group celebration. All of the MS affinity groups had a celebratory lunch together, which was all kinds of awesome.
I got a little time to breathe before I had to set-up the stage for a 6th grade parent presentation. I got my 6th grade band kids ready for it, ran the presentation, and then I was done.
First off to clarify, the presentations happened during my class time, and my 8th graders were away on a trip. That’s why it didn’t seem like I actually taught much today.
What made the day so tricky wasn’t the amount of stuff that I had going on, it was the fact that I had to switch roles, and deal with so many different projects and situations. In some ways it would be easier to simply teach 3rd grade classes all day long.
As I left the house today, I told Diana, my wife what was going on today and she told me to do something for myself. So, on the way to school I stopped by Starbucks and used up some gifts card I got. The drink and breakfast sandwich was nice, but in some ways it wasn’t quite enough.
I looked and I found some ways to stop and smell the roses. During one of my short breaks, I played a piano duet with one of the other music teachers. I hung out after the affinity group lunch to chat with a teacher about our work in a really meaningful way. I made a point to see the face of my 3rd graders when they watched in wonder as our guest musicians perform for them. When my 6th graders performed, I stopped conducting, allowed them to play on their own and enjoyed them as a teacher, and an audience member.
Life as a teacher can be really hectic. There’s always stuff going on, and the job is never done. However, we are so lucky, because there are “roses” everywhere to smell. It’s stopping to chat with a student, saying good morning to a colleague, or something as simple as pausing at a bulletin board of student work and taking time to read their words and/or experience their art.
There’s a lot to do, and not a lot of time, but please take a moment to enjoy being a teacher before the year is done. You won’t regret it.
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