It’s like waiting for your birthday to arrive when you were a kid but in reverse – kind of.  My kids at school get so excited to celebrate their birthdays that they will tell me months in advance that it’s coming.  For instance, someone shares that their birthday is the day after tomorrow to which someone else replies “mine is in July!!” The excitement builds and builds until the actual day where it reaches its height and then slowly fades to relative calm.  For teachers, the countdown until the end of school is similar, the excitement building as we get closer to that last day, however, the day after, most teachers just collapse and sleep for a week.  Or get sick for a week.

Is it awful to say that we look forward to the end?  I think it’s truthful.  I have worked many different jobs in my life, from fast food rushes to an administrative assistant for an accountant, putting together book length quarterly reports, to working in a trust department handling large accounts to subbing for PE teachers  – me, the queen of non-coordination.  And while all of those can be stressful for periods of time, all of them rolled into one can’t compete with the stress of teaching.

But, you LOVE teaching, you say.  You have a passion for educating young people in the ways of music, you say.  All true.  I have never been a classroom teacher, but from what I understand, there is some time when students have seatwork or there is small group instruction to do and you’re not teaching everyone for every minute of the day.  For classes like music, art, and p.e., we are up and teaching from the moment the students walk in until they leave and preparing for the next class during the five minutes between classes – if one class doesn’t leave late and the next one comes early.  I can inhale my lunch in 15 minutes and use the other 15 minutes for going to the bathroom and setting up for the afternoon.  When I leave the building, I am usually in need of a nap, until I get home and see what needs to be done there.  So, forget the nap and try to get to bed on time – right.

And if it were just teaching all day, leading activities, giving assessments, guiding children, filling young minds with great knowledge, that would be enough, but NO.  On top of that, as I’ve spoken of before, there are surveys to fill out and required committee meetings and staff meetings, and required professional development and grading and planning. This list goes on and on and unfortunately doing all of this does not fit into the 50 minute plan or the required arrival time before class starts and the time has to come from somewhere.

Nobody ever really prepares you for how emotional teaching is going to be.  There is obviously that passion for children and for teaching, but you’re not prepared for children saying disrespectful things to you and about you.  You’re not prepared for the child who says “I hate music” when you’ve tried so hard to get them to like it.  Nobody prepares you for the parent that says that music is just not important.  But then again, nothing prepares you for seeing that kid that breaks down in tears because the musical was so much fun, or the joy you’ll feel when that one kid who wouldn’t sing all year joins the class in song on the next to the last day, or the kid that hugs you and tells you that music is their favorite class and they want to be a music teacher when they grow up.  It’s a roller coaster of emotions, intertwined with a crazy, non-stop work schedule for a grueling ten months.  Yes, I said ten months.  I begin at the beginning of August and end at the end of May.

So yes, I’m exhausted.  The kids are at that height of excitement and their energy is ridiculous.  Some kids are excited for all the fun they’re going to have and some kids are dreading being at home all summer and are acting out because of it.  And yet, we will continue in our professional manner for the next six days because, despite what some believe, we ARE professionals and we will finish the year, getting all of those little details accomplished, filling out paperwork, recording grades, storing materials, and choosing things for the next school year.

And as August approaches, just like our kids who get excited for their birthdays, we will get excited for another year of school so that we can use things we’ve learned over the summer with renewed energy and that professional attitude that gets us through year after year.  But in the meantime, it’s six more days.