Today’s writer’s group story spark was “Life is a journey”. One of the ideas was to write an acrostic poem entitled “JOURNEY” That’s what I chose to do. Following the writing of the acrostic poem, I went further and defined what the meaning behind the poem was:
J une
O verworked
U nfinished
R elaxed
N ervous
E xpectant
Y early
June is generally the last month of the year. That is if you are a school teacher. Things begin to pile up with all of the responsibilities you have to end the year with your class and that you must accomplish that are necessary so that students are ready to move on.
Working hard to get to June is nothing compared to the amount work you do during June. The nights preparing for completion of lessons and projects; the writing of reports; the meetings with faculty to create classes for next year. You are truly overworked in anticipation of the summer to come.
No matter how much work you do, you never finish it all. There are concepts that aren’t taught, bits of information you just can’t find the time to add to reports because you just didn’t do them. And second guesses that just happened after decisions had been made.
Then comes summer; a time to relax you would think. My summer starts with re-reading my journals of that school year and writing a final closing statement on what I learned from another year of teaching and thoughts about where I might go next year with my new class. After reflecting, I take the time to let my school thoughts rest. They will return.
As summer drones on, I begin to think more and more about what the upcoming year will bring. Will it be a good class? What issues will those students bring to the table? Will I be prepared to deal with them? What will I do differently to keep my creative juices flowing? Nerves begin to build in anticipation of all that will come.
The closer I get to the start of the school year, the more expectant I become. My nervousness evolves into focus. My expectations grow. Any courses I took over the summer help build towards a positive transition to September. I am ready to begin. I start my year the night before school starts. I take out my journal and write about expectations, goals and anxieties for the upcoming year. I set the tone for how I will begin another school year.
This yearly occurrence happened every year of my 33 years of teaching. It is sad that following retirement I have neglected some of the writing that occurred throughout those journeys. Hopefully over time I will find new journeys to foster and let the adventure continue.
