The Weekend is Here.

Day 13 Ah, the weekend is here!

I love Saturdays. I don’t have to get up at any particular time, and definitely not around 6 am! I take more than 10 minutes to eat my breakfast. I have time to think about what I want the day to be, and what I’d like to do. Always on my list is trying to get schoolwork out of the way early, so it doesn’t hang over my head. Usually I fail at that.

Sundays are a different story. This year in particular, my anxiety level slowly ramps up through the day, as hard as I try to keep it down. But Sundays alert me that the next day is Monday. And Mondays are just hard.

I love teaching. I love those moments when kids are struggling, and are okay with that. I love the light bulb moments – the “OH!” moments. I love when some non-academic nugget proves to be gold. (Mindfulness, growth mindset, kindness, etc.) I love my teaching team and collaborating with them.

What I don’t love about Mondays this year is a long list.

• They are the only morning I feel comfortable being in my classroom with my mask off – at least until the kids get there. Then with the exception of a quick drink of water, it’s on until I get back into my car.
• Being face-to-face 6 feet apart. (This is from the center of a desk to the center of the next desk, which makes me the “don’t move it” monitor.) I miss sitting on the carpet and being able to see & hear my kids.
• Wearing masks and only seeing eyeballs & foreheads. But this is way better than mask wearing that shows noses! That’s a no-no.
• Specials in our classrooms, so I have to pack up what I want to do, clean my space, go find another space, unpack & try to work. Only to do the reverse near the end of my prep period.
• Lunch. Some days there is no space to eat, especially with poor weather. Once it warms up, I’ll be outside for my 30 minute lunch, assuming I can find an empty spot at a picnic table. Otherwise I’m sitting on grass.
• Mask & movement breaks – two short 10-15 min breaks to get outside & walk the bus loop. We ALL need to get up & move. The fact that we need these is what bugs me. Everyone is sitting in their seats almost all day long, me included.
• Tiredness. Teaching this year just seems to require more energy than in other years. Other teachers have told me they feel the same, so this isn’t just me. 
• Gratitude. I have to dig deeper in my gratitude bucket on Mondays. I get to go to work because I have a job. I get to work face-to-face with my 17 fourth graders. I get to leave when the school day is over & take the rest of my work home so I can do it there. 

Okay, so I know most of my items happen on more days than Mondays. I know this. And yet, I can’t help dreading Mondays the most. So I try like heck to appreciate what I have, to be grateful for the light in my life and to squeeze every drop of love out of my Saturdays. Because like it or not, Mondays keep coming.

#SOLSC21