Here in North Carolina, we’ve just had four snow days due to
four inches of icy mess. This whole
concept is rather annoying to a few groups of people: parents of school age
children, Northerners and teachers’ spouses who have real jobs. But as for my dog and me, we’ve gotten along
just fine with it by the fireplace.
There is nothing more attractive than the recorded voice of
the school system spokesperson on the other end of the line. (Except maybe for the man at the UPS store who has
been making me 100 free copies a month this school year, and COLLATING and STAPLING them to
boot…that’s pretty sexy too). For a
teacher, the adrenaline rush that comes with that “no school” phone call (ironically) ranks right under the high we feel on the first day of school.
What is it that makes us equally excited for the first day
of school and an unexpected day off from school? This ambivalence of feelings sums up the contradictory
nature of this job. We work from sun up
to sun down for 180 days a year in exchange for those 100 days of summer. We pour our efforts and resources into those
few kids who need the most help in exchange for one or two of them making the
growth we’re hoping for. We grade endless
papers and pen thoughtful feedback that may or may not ever be read by the
student or their parents. We prepare for conferences only to be stood up, especially if it’s scheduled for 7:00
am. And we write out perfect winter lesson plans only to scratch them out continually with the changing
forecast.
Perhaps there is no less predictable job. We can plan out every second of every day,
but the truth is we aren’t any more in charge of our classrooms than we are of
the weather. It’s all about our
students: their moods, their behavior, their effort, their participation...
we’re at their mercy whether we want to admit or not. So we learn to be flexible and we adjust-
every second of every day. And the
truth is THAT’S when we’re at our best- when we’re winging it, because that’s
where our experience lies.
They say meteorology is the only career that allows you to
be continually wrong and keep your job.
I’d beg to differ and I’d add education to the list. We rarely get it right the first time and I
used to think by the fifth or sixth, surely my accuracy would improve. But the truth is, I’ve never once gotten it
exactly right- and that’s okay. Because
just like 4 inches of sleet got us 4 days off school the same way the 8-12
inches of snow they were calling for would have, a lesson that only gets taught
halfway because so many students had questions still does the trick. Sometimes the right thing isn’t what you
planned or expected and you just have to go with your gut and do the best you
can.
You can study all the models, watch for certain patterns,
and write out that five day forecast lesson plan, but in the end, teaching
is an inexact science. Go easy on yourself,
and next time the weatherman misses the forecast entirely and we miss out on a
two-hour delay, go easy on him too. We’re
all in this together.
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