On Returning to Work...

Yesterday, several teachers were lamenting how they slept like babies all vacation long, but the night before returning to work, they were awake all night.  They slept hardly a wink. 

In my case, I often wonder on the eve of returning if I still remember how to teach?  Will I actually remember one-hundred and seventy names?  Might I have grown rusty in the interim?  What about all that content? These feelings are most pronounced in September when I additionally ask myself:  Will I have a nice bunch of kids or will they attempt to eat me alive? 

With each passing year, every time I return to work, including yesterday, I find teaching, content, questioning skills and one-hundred and seventy names come back to me even better than riding a bike.  And, every year, when I step back into that classroom, I know I belong there.  I've grown accustomed to its face.  It almost makes the day begin.  Like breathing out and breathing in...

So, I am pleasantly surprised how smoothly things go and how lucky I am to teach some really great kids.  Every day is not a diamond, but with each passing year, I wonder how I got so lucky and if I might possibly teach some of the best kids this side of heaven.  And every year, I confirm to myself and my students as I look around my school that these current "reformers" who would brand so many teachers as degenerates know so very little about the value of public education.