The Friday Crash is a phenomenon that I would daresay most educators are very familiar with.  There is the initial excitement that it’s Friday and the weekend is here, just like anyone else with a so-called 8:00-3:00 job (insert sarcastic laugh here).  However, what usually happens is this; all the plans for going out to dinner and a movie or doing something “fun” are completely replaced with a glass of wine, a throw on the couch and falling asleep watching Netflix.

I’m certainly feeling that Friday Crash tonight, however there’s one big problem – it’s only Tuesday and we’ve been in school all of two days since break.  I’ve been thinking of going back to bed ever since I woke up this morning. This certainly is a problem.

For anyone who has never experienced the joy of teaching a classroom full of students of any age, but particularly younger students, I don’t know that they understand the amount of energy needed and expended to keep those students engaged and hopefully learning.  Oh sure, we can do summative assessments to make sure the kids have remembered enough just long enough to answer questions we want the answers to, but are they really retaining anything?  THAT takes time and energy.

It’s not just physical energy of course, it’s mental and emotional energy as well, the triple whammy.  If it were just one, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, but most educators put everything they’ve got into their teaching.  That means not only being prepared professionally for the act of teaching but dealing with students who have unique personal difficulties, all of whom need to be addressed throughout the day.  The body language interpretations, the constant tweaking, the behavior management, the reading, studying… the list goes on an on and it takes a toll.

Perhaps a scheduled nap during the day would help.  First of course we would have to schedule regular bathroom breaks.  Don’t see that happening soon, so chances are a nap isn’t in the cards either. Perhaps during our half hour lunch, which isn’t really a half hour once you catch up on the bathroom breaks. I can eat in 10 minutes so that leaves 10-15 minutes for a power nap. Otherwise it’s taking a nap during class, although the kids would probably notice if I took a snooze on the desk.

So 15 hours after I woke up and thought about going to bed tonight, I’m going to do just that.  And tomorrow morning, I’ll get up and think, it’s only one day.  I can do anything for one day.  Or two days.  Until it’s Friday and I can crash again.