Sunday, July 15, 2012

Why Teachers Love Summer, and Why You Shouldn’t Hate Them For It

Why Teachers Love Summer, and Why You Shouldn’t Hate Them For It

    My fellow teachers and I love summer vacation. We are not quiet about it, we will usually shout if from the mountain tops, or at least post it on Facebook, how much we are enjoying some time off. Unfortunately sometimes our joy is stomped on by folks in the non-teaching world, who for some reason think that it is a personal assault on them when we get summer off and they don’t. I think it is time to spell out the reasons why teachers love summer, and why we really shouldn’t be hated for it!

1. When a teacher talks about, cheers about, or cries tears of joy about her upcoming summer vacation, it is in no way meant to rub it in your face...
             

We aren’t trying to rub it in that we have a few weeks off and you don’t. (Well, some of us might tease our very best friends about it, but it is with humor and love.) We don’t mention it to try to make you jealous, angry, or upset. Counting down the last days of school to summer is just one small way we get our joy!

2.  Just because we love summer doesn’t mean we hate being teachers...                                      

In fact, the opposite is true. We love teaching and we love our students.

3. We love summer for a lot of little reasons... Such as going to the bathroom when we have to go to the bathroom...

With a room full of kids that can’t be left unsupervised, going to the bathroom is one of those little chores that often has to wait until lunch. Not always so easy after a couple cups of coffee! Feeling that need to go at 10:03 AM? Too bad, Mrs. S, it is math time, better wait until 11:17 when the kiddos go outside. Summer vacation means we get to go anytime of day we need to!  Don’t hate us for wanting a couple months where we don’t have to ‘hold it’ all morning!


4. We are really tired, physically and emotionally...

Sometimes if teachers mention their complete exhaustion, others in the non-teaching world like to come back with something like, “Oh and MY job isn’t hard? MY job isn’t tiring?” I’m sure it probably is! Please know that we aren’t trying to accuse others of having it too easy, we don’t see it as a contest about who has a more tiring job. Just understand this... As teachers, we are ‘on’ all day. We have to be physically, intellectually, and emotionally available to a room full of kids all day long. We are micromanaged by the powers that be, letting us know when we should check email, what we are expected to have posted on our walls, and how much we should update our webpage. We are expected by parents and the public in general to prevent bullying, teach character traits, and turn students into pillars of society. (First, though, we have to teach them to tie their shoes and spell their last names). This is huge amount of responsibility, and we take it seriously. By mid June we are spent, and we really need some time to recharge.

5. We enjoy days off that we don’t have to accumulate or sign our life away for...

During the school year, we can be out of school if we are sick or attending a workshop.(Of course we still need to arrange and prepare for a sub, a chore in itself). However, if I want to take a week off in February to sit on the beach on some island somewhere, it takes a lot of organization. First, I have to save up my vacation days. I get one a year, so I have so save them up for five years. Then I have to turn in the official HR paperwork requesting my days off, arrange for my sub, do the five days worth of sub plans (after 14 years of teaching, I can finally do a days worth of sub plans in about 30-45 minutes, so 5 days worth will take me on the conservative side, 2 1/2 to 3 hours), and put enter my time into the official ‘mytime’ site.

If I have legal business that can’t be done out of school hours, I can request a personal day. Again back to the official paperwork. This time I need to give every last detail as to what I will be doing that day so the higher ups can decide if my activities are worthy of a personal day.

Teachers like that in the summer our days off are just days off, no worrying about sub plans, paperwork requests, or being scrutinized for what you want  a day off for.

Loving summer doesn’t mean not loving being a teacher. And when Labor Day rolls around and you as a parent are at your wits’ end from having your kids home all summer, just thank your lucky stars that the teachers had a restful vacation and are ready to take those kids off your hands for 9 more months!

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