Teacher Summer

I walked out of school last Thursday pleased to have finished my last day. That’s right; while the rest of you have visions of teachers chilling on beaches during their summers, we’re actually at school planning our curricula for next year, interviewing teachers to join our department, and boning up on content so that we’ll have what to teach when our students roll through the door in the fall.

I left the school fairly ecstatic that my vacation is starting. I imagined a summer that looked entirely like this:

And this:

And lots of these:

Instead, it’s shaping up to look like this:

I’ve got a new prep next year. Psychology, regular and IB. As every member of my family has helpfully reminded me, in high school I stomped up to the Social Studies teacher and told him that psychology was a bunch of new-age gabble-babble, and he should offer AP Euro instead of Psych. But now that I’m preparing to teach it I find a new enthusiasm coming over me. People and the decisions they make are so darn interesting.

My spare time, when I’m not poring through psychology books, planning units and finding sources, are spent on my three summer masters classes in teaching, and writing a curriculum unit on human agency for my Charlotte Teacher’s Institute fellowship. That’s right, most of this summer is actually going to be a welter of research and writing. Teachers have helluva lot of homework. Like the kids, I think I should get paid for doing it, but hey, nobody listens to students—why should they listen to teachers?

Lest that not be enough to keep me occupied, I just had gum surgery. Last summer, while living in Hell, Oklahoma, undergoing the psychological manipulation that TFA calls “Institute,” I picked up the nasty habit of grinding my teeth to siphon off stress. One year away and a blissful two semesters among schoolchildren who have much better human sensibilities than the the TFA Institute staff, I have kicked the stress, but the tooth-grinding habit remains. (Y’all TFAers who’ve told me you share the tooth-clenching quirk, see a periodontist pronto). So now I’m hopped up on pain meds, hoping that my postings in my masters class forums are not in any way exaggerated or psycho.

So, to sum up my summer:

·      New psychology preps

·      Master’s classes

·      Curriculum writing

·      Gum surgery

If one more person tells me how lucky teachers are to have summers off, I will kick them in the face. No worries, I can recommend a good periodontist.