Monday, Dec. 02, 2002
Back in the high life again, posted at 5:30 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com The rest of my day went better than the start of it. I got a lot of work done, suprisingly, and now am home to get some more done. I'm going to attempt to grade all of my kids' in-class essays tonight. It'll be close. Tomorrow I have a new set of essays due, and I really would like to have these done before those come in.Life as a teacher is so much more pleasant when things are well-planned and there is not a stack of essays to grade in the old wire basket. The thing is, those moments become pretty rare after a while. Being a teacher is stressful precisely because there are no bounds to how much time can be put into the job. You as an individual make the frame in which you will work. There is never a moment when all the work is done, except maybe on June 25 when all the kids have gone home and grades have been turned in. Until that point, it's pretty much a breakneck pace. To do the job well, one either has to be a master organizor and a time management guru, or has to bring work home. This is the reason that teachers are underpaid. The work never gets done, and to do the job well, you have to work 70 or 80 hours a week.
Luckily, when things are going well, it's a pretty rewarding job. And there's that whole influencing the future and making a difference in a kid's life stuff that makes you feel good.
Some days, though, you just have to remind yourself about those a little bit more.