Teacher Appreciation Week

I made a comment earlier that needs some explanation. I said “Just for the record worst teacher appreciation week ever!!!!!!” “Sandi, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do.”

Most of the time I feel like being a teacher is an honorable profession and that what I do is important enough to get up for every day.  May is a hard month for teachers – we’re done with our FCAT so the kids think we’re done, we’re all tired and everything seems to be too much right now.

So this week in May usually gives me a bit of a boost, a reminder that what I do every day is GOOD.  I get those warm, fuzzy feelings and it gives me the energy to keep on for the rest of the year.

Not so much this year. We’ve gotten our little gifts from our administration, we had a luncheon today, which was lovely, but I’m just not FEELING it.

I have one class this year that is challenging to say the least. The days I wake up with this class, I often wake up with a headache.  It’s just stress, but I can’t seem to get over it.  It’s not my biggest class, and it’s not horrible kids. It’s just a strange combination of kids. It didn’t start out this way, but I realized that out of the 21 students in the class, only 6 were in my class the first day of school. It’s utterly exhausting and it just sucks the energy right out of me. This class makes me feel completely incompetent and like the worst teacher ever.  Nothing works and it frustrates me that I can’t get through to them.

I also had a situation this week where I felt like I was kind of left hanging out on a limb.  All I could think was that 10 minutes of support would have gone a lot more to make me feel appreciated than the candy in my mailbox.  (Not that I don’t love candy, but still.)

I just keep thinking it will all be over soon. I only have that class 8 more times. I can make it. Right??