Teacher woes

   So as a teacher I LOATHE being out. When I miss a day, I feel like the kids miss a day also. I know that we have fabulous substitutes, and they very rarely disappoint. I just don't expect a sub to have to teach the math we do (some can and some cant, it is stinking hard.) I teach 6 segments (all subjects, same kids) in a day, and it is "wam-bam-thank you mamm" all day. Last week, I was relegated to the couch for 2 days because when I go, I go big. I make sure EVERYTHING is infected at the same time. Being preggers does not help, if I could take my allergy meds a lot of this could have been avoided. I digress.

    I will fully admit- I am control freak when it comes to my students and classroom. Most teachers are, and the current political environment forces it upon us. Potential pay for performance (funny enough, it is my student's performance that dictates that, not mine,) has us all stressed out. Now, I play very well with others. I love planning with my 5 team members, and sharing ideas. But when I step in my room, it is on. If I had another teacher in my room, for whatever reason, I could deal with that, because I know they want the same thing too- successful kids.

    Today I felt like we were on a speeding train. We spent over and hour finding out who did what, who was missing something, what they actually got finished with in the lesson plan. It was a total differentiation tornado in the room. 29 kids doing 20 different tasks. But we got it done! Now to grade everything, and that is where the "I have so many other things to do" comes in. I pulled an extra tutoring session with 2 kids today (not paid, but when an 11 year old asks to stay and get some extra help and some extra time to get work done- ABSOLUTELY!)

    The moral of the story is today (when I left the house at 6:20 am) I imagined a messy classroom, my own messy desk, incomplete assignments, a long list of names for talking, a pile of assignments to be graded, and a pile of parent conferences to finish. All of that was there- don't get me wrong. But my desk - it was clean. Thank heavens- I left it a huge mess. BUT I also feel VERY accomplished as I sit at home in my hubby's recliner. I had almost everything graded by the time I left, the talkers sufficiently punished, most conferences handled.

   The monster under your bed is always scarier until you grab it by the neck only to discover it is an old pair of panties your dog chewed up and stowed away under there. I will still stress out every time I have to be out- but I will hopefully always be just as surprised when I return the next day.