Q: Do you ever start losing steam during the school year? When?
A: I know the EXACT MONTHS when I feel completely and totally deflated. I always swear I could sleep for a week and still not feel fully recovered. It happens every school year in September and March.
For the last four years, I have had horrible allergies and/or flu after the very first day of school. Last year I lost my voice completely for four weeks. FOUR WEEKS. I couldn’t squeak out anything more than a whisper. I had students reading from index cards for me. It was awful.
But you may say, “Wait! Ms. Dame?!? September? You just got back from summer break! How could you possibly lose your steam the first month of school?” What you guys don’t realize is how incredibly difficult it is to transition from summer fun to the school year. And no, you do not suffer as much as your teachers, I promise you.
Picture yourself sleeping until 10 am, maybe 11 if you were up particularly late the night before. You are peacefully resting until your mother slams open the door, starts screaming about how she hates waking up early while you sleep in, and THEN throws a pile of papers on your bed that needs to be read by 3 pm. You groggily check your phone to find that you have 137 missed calls that need to be dealt with by…tomorrow. You also realize that your computer has crashed, your laundry needs to be done, and you have a meeting at 6 pm—a meeting at which you must have the next nine months of your life and the lives of your 137 friends entirely planned out.
This, dear Sparklers, is what it feels like to go from summer break to the first day of school: complete and total chaos.
The second month of the year that makes me want to pack my bags and head for the ocean is March. Believe me, they don’t call it March Madness for nothing. This is the seven-week span from the end of February to the beginning of April we have without a break. This may seem like no big deal, but I promise you, it is awful.
The weather stinks. It is freezing, snowy, slushy, and gloomy. Everyone has had enough of winter and is ready for spring. Children do not want to venture out into the cold, so they just stay home or cut class so they can beat the forecasted “30% chance of snow” in the afternoon. I have to call at least twenty parents a day.
This is also the time of year when I teach my Shakespearean acting unit. I have to be on point with active, fun lessons to cultivate love for the Shakes. This requires full-throttle energy on a daily basis. I also work with Shakespearean teaching artists in two of my classes, so I have to spend extra time outside of class meeting and planning with them. All that preparation goes out the window on show day when Desdemona doesn’t turn up because the slush is too thick, and then her group can’t perform.
I am ready to collapse by the time April comes around! I run as fast as I can for the door the minute the bell rings, and my goal is to completely forget about the fact that I have to go back in a week. Now you can understand why I don’t assign work over breaks: I need one, too!
Miss Dame is the 10th grade English teacher and National Honor Society advisor in the Bronx, NY.
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When do YOU start losing steam?
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