The Ups and Downs of Teaching

It’s been an emotionally draining week. Below is a rundown:

Monday – After staying in a hotel and calling off work due to an extremely late flight, I drove the 3.5 hours home from San Antonio. I slept some more and then arrived at school during last period. Within 5 minutes of arrival, I was shuffled off to the funeral home. One of my students was in a very serious car accident Thanksgiving weekend which took the lives of her mother, father, and little brother. Her sister is in critical condition and she (I’ll call her Angel) escaped with only a sprained ankle and seat belt burn. We went and saw her in the hospital. I don’t think I can capture the bravery and maturity of this child without directly quoting her, so let me just recap what she said.

Teacher A: “Can you tell us what happend?”
Angel: “I could tell me brother was dead. My sister kept screaming and she was covered in blood. My Dad kept telling me to get my brother out…to look out for him.”
Teacher A: “It’s okay to cry.”
Angel: “I can’t anymore. Sometimes I want to cry, but the tears won’t come. I’m done crying. My Dad worked so hard all the time so that we could have everything he didn’t. He wanted us to learn. I’m going to make sure I graduate and that my sister graduates. I want to do well in school.”
Me: “That is very brave Angel. Your parents always had such an intelligent, brave daughter. You make them very proud.”

This student was an amazing child before the accident. She has is kind, brilliant and polite. She helps my special ed students when no one else will. She sticks up for students and teachers. Her report card was blinding. It just seems that these kids are kicked when they are already down. I have two students with one parent each battling cancer. Several have parents in jail or killed. I just had a student get expelled for bringing a joint to the alternative center. I guess it was naive of me to think I wouldn’t get involved. It hurts.

Tuesday: Back to teaching…and building a float…..and choreographing a dance…and trying to get a newspaper pubished. The beauty of it? I got to spend $85 of the school’s money on fake snow ) At 11:00 at night, I managed to write my lesson for the next day and steal most of the moves from “Mean Girls” to use for the song “Jingle Bell Rock”.

Wednesday: More meetings…this time for Student Council…putting fake snow on the float and trying to find a place to park it. Candy grams sales also started meaning I get to see whom is dating whom. That’s the part I like.

Thursday: Finish the dance, finish the float, write a test, sleep more than 4 hours.

Friday: CHRISTMAS PARADE!! I hate elementary schools for the non-busy parents and obscene amount of money they spend on their floats, but ours was pretty impressive nonetheless. Students driving me crazy getting too close to the wheels.

Saturday: BOOTS!! I finally got my cowboy boots from Mexico and they are fantastic! The most comfortable shoes ever! I also got to decorate for Christmas.