Teacher Diaries: What It's Like to Date a Teacher
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I love Buzzfeed and recently, they shared a post entitled 23 Things You'll Understand If You're Dating A Teacher. The ones that really stood out and are 100% true for me are:
1. Weeknight dates are out of the question. I am a creature of routine, and it's almost painful for me to break from my routines. Weeknight dates are usually out of the question unless it's a stone's throw away from home, and it starts/ends early. Weeknight disruptions that I can easily let go of, though, are wing nights at the local All Star on Mondays :)
2. Staying up past 10:00 p.m. is impossible. I have tried in the past to hang out with my coworkers on Fridays and by 10, we are all yawning and struggling to keep our eyes open. It's a sad sight, but after a full week of teaching, being on our feet, and often times, spending every moment we get prepping, correcting, and planning, it's no wonder!
3. Getting up way too early for work. Luckily, I don't suffer from this since I am a 10-minute drive away from where I work, but I have coworkers whose commutes end up being close to 2 hours if they're not in their cars and out their driveway by 7:00 a.m.
4. Waking up at 7:00 a.m. on weekends is considered sleeping in. So true. I rarely sleep in on weekends unless I happened to be up really late the night before on those special occasions when I can force myself to stay awake. My favourite time of day is the morning anyway, so I guess it's not too hard for me to wake up early.
5. Marking every night and falling asleep in front of the tv. I've been doing it more and more lately. If it's report card season, you can bet I have piles of student notebooks, assessments, rubrics and my teacher planner with the students' grades/scores open.
6. School holidays are a teacher's saving grace. Although I know the general view is that teachers "have it easy", I am being 100% serious when I say that we do 12 months worth of work in just 10. Although it seems like we work short hours and have long holidays, the time we do spend at home is still on work. During the summer, at best, I only get about 2-3 full weeks of actual relaxation since July is mostly spent on professional development (taking courses that last 2-4 weeks and cost upwards of $800/course). After the courses, I relax for maybe a few weeks, and then I'm back in my classroom, preparing for the 10 months ahead.
7. Expensive holidays. As I write this post, both my sister (and her boyfriend) and my parents are all on vacation where it is much warmer and prettier than Canada right now (they're in Aruba and on a caribbean cruise, respectively). They were able to snatch up some amazing deals and escape the snow and cold temperatures. Unfortunately, the reality for me until the day I retire from teaching will be overpriced airfare (I'm looking at you, European dream vacation -- you will be empty my savings) and always travelling during peak season.
8. Kids everywhere, all of the time. I love living so close to work, but the downside is that I also end up bumping into my students all of the time. There are three students in the school that also live in my condo complex. D and I were ambushed at a book store once during the holidays by some students of mine, so he has experienced it first-hand. Grocery shopping, getting my mail, going out in general -- I can always count on seeing a student somewhere.
9. All the chocolate and booze at Christmas. Chocolate -- yes. Booze... not as much. I am neither a big chocolate eater, nor do I love drinking, but I have taught students whose parents are also teachers, and I find they're the ones who end up giving me an LCBO gift card or bottle of wine/liquor. Truly and honestly, I don't like receiving gifts from students, but I will happily accept a Starbucks gift card (or even Aritzia or Kate Spade -- I've gotten a couple of those) since I absolutely LOVE my coffee (and shopping).
10. Getting colds all of the time. My first year "teaching", I was placed at two different schools for my practicums while trying to obtain my teaching degree. I got bronchitis 4 times that year alone. Many veteran teachers have told me: "Don't worry. You'll build up an immune system the longer you teach." I've only gotten bronchitis twice more since 2012, so maybe those older teachers were right! Although, I wasn't able to fight off conjunctivitis or a sinus cold earlier this year...
11. Accidentally using the "Teacher Voice". I have definitely done this with D and my own family. I have also embarrassingly shushed strangers, or my own colleagues when they have been especially rowdy or too chatty. Oops! Force of habit, I guess.
12. Paint and glitter everywhere. With younger teachers in primary grades -- absolutely. The odd time I do relent and agree to face the mess that is arts and crafts, I have marker, paint, glitter, and who knows what else stuck to my clothes and on my skin.
13. Being a bag lady. I tend to be an overpacker anyway, even when it comes to short weekend trips, but I carry 3-4 bags on a daily basis to work, not including my own purse. Part of getting a car was for me to avoid knocking people over on the bus everyday with all of my stuff.
14. Getting excited about new stationery. YES. My favourite part of visiting my top bookstore (Chapters/Indigo), other than picking up a good book, is checking out the stationery section. I am in love with Papyrus and if I could, I would pick up everything they've got. Also, I have a weak spot for Kate Spade. Ideally, I would buy a Kate Spade daily planner every year, but I understand that my money can be better spent, say on the basic necessities... I do love my Sharpies though. I can never say no to the amazing colours!
15. Teacher gossip. I'd say every lunch I spend in our staff room is teacher gossip hour. I know of students that I have never even taught before, but this is our way of letting off steam, I suppose. It gets especially funny when we know exactly which student another teacher is talking about without even mentioning any names!
16. Students giving funny test answers. I have yet to get any stand-out answers, but my students do a lot of "funny" things sometimes. The best story I have is when one of my students last year ended up getting blue ink all over her hands after taking a pen, prying it all apart, and attempting to put lead into the ink cartridge. She was, somehow... convinced it was a lead pencil...
17. Dreading report card season. Every. Single. Time. Although I've been at this for three years, now, I swear, those report card deadlines just sneak up on you! Especially the ones that come right after we come back from Christmas.
18. Working too much and harder than anyone you know. The first time someone else recognised how much work teachers do was when my mom told me "Ivy, this is the hardest and longest I have ever seen you work, including your years in university." She told me this after observing many nights in a row where I would be up until 6:00 a.m. working, prepping, and correcting during my teaching degree. After finishing, I would end up napping for about 30 minutes, and then getting up finally at 6:30 a.m. to get to my practicum school for another full day of work, only to repeat the same thing all over again the next day. I don't think I actually work longer than anyone else, but I think those that believe teachers "have it easy" and/or "barely work" need to stop, and spend just one single day in our shoes before saying that to a teacher again!
I respect your profession so much. I don't have the patience for it!!
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