Summer school and I don't really get along. I don't know what third dimension my mind was working in when I thought it would be a good idea to teach summer school, but clearly my sanity cannot persist in a healthy state when the weather is nice and there's a class full of students who are aware of this fact. It was bad in the beginning, started to get better in the middle and now that we're running out on the end stretch it looks like neither the natives nor myself can agree to preserving the peace treaty we signed a couple of weeks ago. AAAAAACCCCKKKKK! Just turn into Wednesday, July 16th, 12:30PM for cryin' out loud already!
In the first place, you've got a class full of kids from three different schools who are used to three different kinds of discipline, then you've only got four weeks with them (which is usually how long it takes to get your own kids practiced and formed to your own rules at the beginning of the year), then you've got the sunshine factor--they can just about hold out until recess (10:15AM) and then they're outside and realizing that "Hey, I just got reacquainted with the sun and remembered that HOLY COW IT'S SUMMER! And someone's been keeping me away from it all morning!" Then there's the district Reading Nazis who insisted we test them all day and to death on the first day of summer school so that we can see where they are--such a great way to start out and totally conducive to feeling comfortable in a new environment and learning new rules.
FOUR MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From time to time, you hear arguments from educational outsiders that today's public school system should be beyond the traditional farming/summertime holiday schedule, given the fact that farming is a such a minimal influence on most people's contemporary lives. I say HECK NO; the weather's influence alone is enough to disprove that idea. The sun is a powerful drug--don't you underestimate it--and it holds way more sway during summer months than any of us existing in adult regions of society could ever hope to have with those in minor-land. Learn from me and don't attempt control in the summer; it'll only strip you of all your authoritative confidence and sense of self respect.
2 comments:
Not to mention you need a vacation yourself to soak up the sun. Teaching is intense.
As someone blessed with living in a country that offers people an entire month's paid summer holiday each year, I'd say that even in the adult world the call of summer is strong.
I take it you survived?
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