My Job

I don't think I can accurately sum up what I do on a daily basis to anyone. It's not just part teaching and part paperwork; it's part everything...
This week was Red Ribbon Week. It was my first year as the coordinator and while I made tons of mistakes it went very well. However, I was exhausted everyday after school. Everyday I immediately came home and changed into comfortable clothes, which is ironic because this was the only week we could wear jeans to work! So by comfortable clothes, I mean pajamas.
Red Ribbon was a lot of fun for the kids and a big headache for the teachers, I'll admit. One of the greatest things it did bring though was healing.
This week we showed a slideshow about the Student Assistance Team (which I lead). We just wanted to let students know we're out there and we care. We help students with all kind of problems. While we've had the Student Assistance Team in our school, this is the first year we've been this visible. After we showed the slideshow we had some students who were visibly upset, remembering what happened last year. However, one of them said, "if only we had this last year."
We had three referrals just in this week. And while it means more paperwork for me and my team, it also means more help for our kids. It was good for me today just to sit and talk to a student. We just talked for about 20 minutes and it was great. Don't know if it made a difference in her life, but it did in mine. I think we need to take more time just to talk to our students. We need to get to know them.
I love my job. Even with all the paperwork, annoying parents, immature kids, and my low paycheck, I still love teaching!