Relationships, relationships, relationships

And then, in the blink of an eye, summer was more or less over and the nose is, once again, at the grindstone.  Usually I don't feel so 'grindstone-y' about school, but it's been a bit of a tough start.  I'm writing this from home, sick again in February, in what seems to be a habitual forced respite.  I look back on last year's emails, and see that February 2014 was also when I first fell off the health wagon for that year.  Why, you ask?  Well, I think any teacher will agree that it's relationships, relationships, relationships.  And high school student bugs, of course ... but I'm more interested in examining the former - I hand wash and sanitise, so there's not much to consider with the latter except bad luck.  And that I should touch my nose less.

When I go down, it's always the throat first, followed by the lungs, and the voice.  At school we are speaking, speaking, speaking, performing, facilitating, moving, moving, busy, busy. We are dealing, as most schools are, with some very large classes and limited resources.  Stress is immediate, with technology double-booked, professional relationships to once more give time and love to, and students asking when that first piece of work will be back, having handed it in two days ago.  This year I feel like I'm cracking a bit more, but my memory has always been shocking, and my husband tells me it's the same every year.  I'm going to choose to believe him, because, if it is actually getting harder every year, I don't want to think about what is to come.

I've really only had to talk to my family (and some friends, admittedly) during December and January.  That's 6 people, maybe 20 tops if you include those aforementioned mates. Suddenly, upon return of students, I'm engaging with 140 plus students, daily, and another 40 staff. I think the body goes into shock. Plus, a lot of those students are new to me - I've never taught them before.  And so, the re-negotiation of how the classroom will work begins.

Forming relationships is hard.  It's not something that happens overnight.  It takes little actions, on a daily basis.  It takes consistency and humour.  Even though some believe you don't have to like a student to form a working relationship with them (and you don't, as a student, have to like a teacher to form a relationship with them!) there surely has to be SOMETHING there.  Maybe respect?  Well, respect doesn't come cheap, either.

Click on the picture to see the animation

So much time and energy is (quite rightly) given over to figuring out what, as one of my very dear colleagues and mentor from another school used to say, is the bridge for the gap between you and the student. I'm really not surprised that I'm sick, I'm more surprised that my colleagues aren't, too!

There's that old saying 'teachers aren't in it for the money' or something similar to that.  In some ways, that's not true.  You need to feel like you are able to live a decent life outside of school.  And I think that teachers are paid okay.  Obviously, if you were to add up everything most (not all, for sure) teachers do, you'd have to be paying them much, much more.  

In many more ways, it is very, very true.  Teachers (mostly) ARE NOT in it for the money.  It's the feeling, for me at least, of helping teenagers try to be the best human/adult they can be that keeps me in this vocation.  I think teenagers, for the most part, are amazing.  And if they're not yet, they have the potential to be.  It is eye-roll worthy, but it is a privilege to potentially affect how another forming human being sees the world.

So even though my lungs feel like they're collapsing, I'll probably end up marking even though I should be sleeping.  And even though my body is sending me definite signals in this first period of lurgy about SLOWING DOWN and eating properly, I'll probably still end up having my lunch after school, as was the case most of last year.  I don't think that's martyrdom or anything, it's just that simple thing it always comes down to: do the good old pros outweigh the good old cons?  Thankfully, I don't need to write that list down to know that the pros are still winning.