I have to say this:
AAAAAAARRRGH! I can’t take this anymore! I’ve had enough! I won’t do it! I won’t! I wooon’t!
Ok ok. I’m done. Let’s get back to work.
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Teaching is really not what I thought it was. Not when I was in elementary, or high school, or college, or even until that time when I actually took the job. It really wasn’t. It’s not as easy as stepping into a class and saying some BS that made sense, and giving out exams for the heck of it, and out-of-town holidays for the summer. No, it’s not. It’s piles and piles and piles of endless paperwork, and a mountain of responsibilities, and emergency meetings that takes up whatever time for rest you squandered for yourself. Oh, and your classes of course, those wonderful adorable classes. Sarcasm there.
God, I miss student life.
There are times in class when I just want to shout, “You idiots, you don’t know what you’re missing! Life’s cut out for you and you’re just sitting there like it’s unfair?? You should check out my life. Ingrates!”
Ah, but we’re teachers and models, and society demands decency. So, the teacher drones on and the students sit there bored, both wishing for each other's lives. We’ll never really know what we have until we lose it.
Well, maybe someday I’ll miss this life to. I could imagine it now. I’m bald and old, and nobody is in need of me. I’ll probably wish for work then, for a chance to be useful, to be alive. That’s when I’ll hope that I’m still a teacher and half of the work was killing me, and the rest of it beating what was left to a pulp.
I guess I should learn to love the teaching life. I have to admit it also has its beauties, like having a decent job and being independent, the sweetness of mentoring, of sharing a part of yourself to someone who will grow by it, and there’s the absolutely full rights to the books in the library. Being a teacher, I can freely read all day without being afraid to look uncool or geeky. Come on, I’m like being paid to read. Hah! And there are those delicious books in the Teachers Section that I coveted so much back in high school and I thought I’ll never get to read. Oh ho ho, they’re mine now! Ah yes, I could learn to enjoy this life, one paperwork at a time.
So, here’s one for me when I’m old. I promise, when we’re done, we’ll never be regretting.
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This is an illustration of a portion of my paperwork. Just to give a picture of how awfully relaxing life as a teacher is. And why that last statement is oozing with sarcasm.
I have 7 classes with roughly 35 students each.
So, when I give a quiz, that’s about 245 papers to check for a week.
Ok, the minimum number of quizzes you could give in one quarter is 5.
So, in about two and a half months, I should have a minimum of 1225 quizzes to check.
We have 4 quarters in one school year. That’s like 4900 quizzes.
Four thousand nine hundred papers to check in one year.
And that’s not counting projects, recitations, and activities, and grades for 245 students you have to calculate. Oh, and there’s the lesson plans, syllabus, and test drafts.
Way cool, huh?
Ah, well, it’s a living.
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Note: Today is Sunday, and I have to go to school for work. No, not because I'm getting paid to do it. But, because I have to prepare for the work I'm getting paid to do. Twisted.
