a ramble on the subject of working long

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Home : 2003 : September : 10

a ramble on the subject of working long
By sj

I'm the one that usually turns on the lights in the school in the morning and the last one out at night. When I was a busy mom, I left earlier, but now I have less urgency in my life. Now I spend a lot of my time during
the day at school socializing--mostly related to school, so I guess you could make it sound better by calling it networking! After everyone leaves, I clean and plan and grade and then I come home and get on the computer and research and spend time on chatboards such as this one discussing school stuff. I do a lot of things for the whole school and for my grade level. All of my talking

during the day lets me know what needs doing, how to help, etc. No one is surprised when they find an activity or pattern or printout from a website in their mailbox in the morning that I thought they could use. While my coworkers that have young children or boys playing football, etc., rush out the door at 4:00, I stay and create lessons, research for units, find ideas, run papers, and otherwise prepare things that I use, but can share with them. I'm much more motivated to do things well when I know that I will share them, so this works very much to my advantage. There are things that just make the school run better that I spend that time on..UIL, various committees, etc. There are so many little piddly things that need doing for a school to run smoothly...finding a good place for a field trip, figuring out a schedule for the computers, learning how to run a new program that everyone will be needing help with, typing a note to parents, etc...I do a lot of that stuff after hours. Somebody has to, and I figure that it's my turn. Probably some older teacher put in hours doing those things when I was rushing out the door to the babysitter's some years ago, and that maybe I can contribute to the family life of my coworkers by carrying some of that load for them now while they are trying to be good moms. Sometimes they don't even know it was done, or don't realize how much time it took, but I feel good about it, so I just count it as doing volunteer work! Most if it benefits me, too, so I'm no saint! I know teachers who unwind by getting away and watching movies or going to the gym and such. I unwind by tying up details. It's a little, I think they say "type-A", some say weird, but it's me.... So, I've learned that it's best not to throw any stones at the ones who work short hours, and those of us who work long need to realize that we do it because we want to and quit feeling sorry for ourselves (which I am prone to do sometimes!). When I can consider it a hobby, volunteer work, or a gift to my coworkers, I don't throw such a big pity party. Teaching is like housework. No one ever finishes it, but there are a lot of interpretations of "clean enough". Don't beat yourself up trying to live up to somebody else's standards, but don't feel sorry for yourself when your own standards add hours to your day. It's ok to go home at 4:00, although some of us feel a little guilty when we do! There really are a LOT of things we do that we don't have to do...decorate, grade every paper, organize to the max, make games, create things..etc. There's a quick and easy way to get around most of it, but those of us who are a bit perfectionistic and/or creative aren't satisfied with what somebody else made or thought up...teachers have their own variety of crazy, don't we?