Those Who Teach

Here I am again. Last day of February.

Today, Leap Day, my coworkers and I sat in staff meeting for 2 hours. We heard the gritty details of a new student's past, got over the return of an old student, became updated on both the improved and decreased testing scores, listened to a presentation on time limits and, mostly and predictably, fretted over the kids we watch struggle on a regular basis. This is normal for a Wednesday, but similar conversations permeate every school day, every week. Possibly...in the morning when I'm still puffy eyed and my bag has just hit my desk, in the mid-day as I scrape my sometimes unrecognizable food from the kitchen tray, during shift change as my coworker switches back and forth between his opinions on pop culture and a choice student or two, or after school, as we all fit in one more concern before we can go home and attempt to shut off completely.

It doesn't sound glamorous, and it doesn't even sound worth it, but the people I surround myself with for 8 hours a day are either impressively dedicated (coworkers) or desperately in need of help (students). Today was a regular Wednesday, but it wasn't. Looking around the room, I saw a look on most of my coworkers' faces that could only express sincere distress. I heard, "I know we've tried a lot for so-and-so, but there has to be more we can do." "Yeah, we haven't done everything; what can we do?"

We think about these kids all of the time. We adapt lesson plans. We listen to their interests. We build a rapport. We take their backlashing. We stand up as their advocate. We see them as kids, not criminals, or failures, or whatever else they may have ever been labeled. Us teachers, we give a lot. And yet, what more can we give? In that moment, I'm pretty sure the room could have exploded by the amount of heart being poured into our low salary jobs.

Now, I'm not saying that I am or that I work with the most talented teachers ever, there are great teachers everywhere, but we are a super group of people dedicated to a cause. If I'm going to spend my days doing something other than dreaming about the beach, than I'm going to be working for a cause.

I keep telling myself and my students, "There's no end in sight, waiting on a free ride."
(Sara Bareilles "Free Ride")

Update: I've done great on my exercise resolution, exercising not twice but three times each week. My shin splints still persist causing me to sport super cool purple tape on my legs. The February Fitness challenge has been fun, and my last three days of the month have been refined sugar-free (serious feat for me, sadly). And, this post is completed a whole 40 minutes before March.