Teaching-The Commoner's Favorite Thing-

Being a teacher is a very commoner type of job but that's what I am.  My guidance counsler in high school, Sr. Margaret Casey steered me away from that profession because she said jobs were hard to come by.  She steered me away from sports marketing as well because the field was too narrow.  She 'guided' me toward marketing and said I should look for a career in the business side of cycling.  She was a genius at what she did.  

So I went to CW Post/Long Island University and received my degree in Business Administration in Marketing and Management and made Dean's List........fast forward a few years and I find my self in California and working as a teacher.

People who know me in other aspects of my life, especially those places like when I ran Youth Ice Hockey in the state often say I can't believe you are a teacher.  Well neither can I.  

I'm not your typical teacher.  I'm competitive, I think outside of the box, I'm analytical with data to a point of obsession, and I become very bored very quickly.

I fought it from the beginning and I fight it still.  I won't dress the part-that's for sure.  It was the easiest thing in the world for me to become.  It fell in my lap before I even took a class in how to be a teacher.  Never-the-less I am a teacher.

But there are a lot of things I love about being a teacher-even though I would persuade my children NOT to be teachers.  Here are some of those things.

• The days are never boring
• You never do the same thing the same exact way twice
• You make the rules
• Summers
• Thanksgiving Break, Christmas Break, Winter Break, Spring Break
• Getting out at 3:30 on days when I want to run
• working 1 mile from my house
• You get to hang out with kids all day, and let's face it they are fun.
• Your office is pretty big
• You are up to date on all the latest fads, One Direction, Justin Beiber, who ever else.
• Students want to like you and most of them at the age I teach will always tell you, you are the best teacher ever-hence good self esteem.
• You get to read great books from your childhood and pass them on to a new generation.
• You get to keep your math skills sharp.
• You get to use crayons all of he time, and white boards, and construction paper.
• You're the Queen of your queendom
• Watching them 'get it'
• Talking sports with kids to whom athletes are still heros
• Hand drawn pictures which children will spend hours perfecting for you.
• The kids are NEVER the problem

I'm not a lover of the first day of school because I like to get right down to it and don't like all the figuring out of who we all are in that room.  But there are days that I absolutely love.  

I love my birthday because it reminds me its something to celebrate.  I love the last day of state testing because the pressure is off.  I love the last day before Christmas vacation because the love and delight in the room is palpable.   The excitement they feel means you are forever caught up in holiday magic, and the belief in Santa Clause and all the traditions of a school community.  And let's face it-I get presents.  I love presents.

Friday December 14th was our last day before break.  The day held the usual supply of  cookies, and gift exchanges, and gifts bestowed on me by my very generous class and family, a showing of Matilda which we had just read in class.

Showing that movie at the end of the day and having the party before hand meant at the end of the day it was just me and my class.  I gathered them, wished them a Merry Christmas (they all celebrate) and for the first time ever I told a class to be safe and that I loved them.  Then I sent them home.

Being a teacher really is my favorite thing-(although I still advise my children not to do it.)