Those of you who are either A.) Not in education or B.) Lazy (no offense) may not understand all of the "other duties as assigned" that come along with being a teacher. At the primary levels, well - let's just be honest: Elementary school teachers are crazy. They willingly let 20+ children with runny noses paw at them all day. So that is pretty time-consuming and whatnot. Plus, you have the whole "please go put your Dolphin on the beach" or "change your stop light from green to red" thing when misbehavior occurs. And they have the Room Mothers that go all crazy over planning parties and then there are all the field trips and the crying.....They have to do all sorts of crap that I would not have the patience for. Hence my decision to teach high school.
At the high school level, the additional duties take on a little different look. I started with one extracurricular club and ended up with all kinds of responsibilities. A sampling:
- FCCLA sponsor (formerly known as "FHA" for anyone who took Home Ec)
- faculty council for National Honor Society
- Advisory Period ("homeroom") planning committee
- Teacher's book club
- Junior class sponsor = plan prom
- Senior class sponsor = plan senior picnic and graduation
- "Sunshine Committee" - did all the recognizing of staff birthdays, weddings, funerals, etc.
- Diamond Dolls - kind of like a pep squad for the baseball team
Diamond Dolls led into the most time consuming extra duty available.... Assistant Cheerleading Coach. Granted, I did either volunteer or agree to all of these things, but still. I wonder how I ever had time to do lesson plans or grade papers. Or sleep. Being a cheer coach means that you are pretty much at school events ALL THE TIME. 6am practice. Football. Volleyball. Basketball. Cheer banquets. Cheer camp. Cheerleader tryouts. You get the idea. While I was there, the best the football team ever did was 2-8. Many years, we were 0-10. Ouch. When you are at every single football game, you REALLY want some wins.
I left teaching high school about 3 years ago. The year after I left, the football team got really good. And they have just continued to get better. They have been in the state playoffs for the past 3 years and are currently 14-0 on the season. They play a semi-finals game this weekend and we are probably going to go. I'm tempted to wear my old cheer coach outfit.
I bet I could get into the game for free.
5 comments:
That would be the funniest thing ever....as long as you had a flask tucked away in the waist band of those awesome pants. VIsible to the public, of course.
Oh I remember...I got pep squad the year they allowed boys so most of the girls quit, UIL, freshman, sophomore, junior and senior sponsors, scholarship committee and student council, forever it seemed. I don't care if I never see another concession stand!
Make a fashion statement and go in your cheer coach outfit! I dare you! ;)
Miss it?
Mom, I do miss the kids. Don't miss the 6am practices.
(Should be at the football game right now but I had to work. Listening to it online - they are down 14-10.)
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