Worries Mount Up on the First Day of Teaching
This column could be entitled: confessions of a teacher teaching for the first time who, according to Brock Counsellors, “has nothing to worry about”.
My name is Mr. Carter and I don’t know anything.
I have new dress pants, a new dress shirt, a loose tie and I didn’t sleep last night. I am worried.
What if my alarm doesn’t go off and I sleep in and my principal calls my house?
What if I get stuck waiting for a train, and I’m late and miss the staff meeting?
What if I came in the summer and decorated the wrong room and now my room is empty?
What if the students don’t like me?
What if I spill my coffee on my lesson plans and I forget what I have to teach?
What if I’m boring?
What if I jam the photocopy machine and all the other teachers are waiting to use it?
What if my fly’s down when I’m teaching and all the students laugh at me?
What if I bite my tongue and can’t talk properly?
What if I spit on a student when I am talking?
What if I go to the washroom and toilet paper sticks to my shoe?
What if students throw paper airplanes around the room when I am not looking?
What if someone puts a whoopee cushion on my chair and I sit on it?
What if a student doesn’t come back to my class after recess?
What if a student falls through the cracks on the first days?
What if I can’t write straight on the blackboard?
What if a parent calls me on the first night to complain?
What if I give to much homework and nobody does it?
I’m just a first year teacher and maybe I’m smarter than I think I am. At least I know better than to tell a twenty-two-year-old with a loose tie who has never been alone in the classroom with 29 students before that he has “nothing to worry about”.
This column could be entitled: confessions of a teacher teaching for the first time who, according to Brock Counsellors, “has nothing to worry about”.
My name is Mr. Carter and I don’t know anything.
I have new dress pants, a new dress shirt, a loose tie and I didn’t sleep last night. I am worried.
What if my alarm doesn’t go off and I sleep in and my principal calls my house?
What if I get stuck waiting for a train, and I’m late and miss the staff meeting?
What if I came in the summer and decorated the wrong room and now my room is empty?
What if the students don’t like me?
What if I spill my coffee on my lesson plans and I forget what I have to teach?
What if I’m boring?
What if I jam the photocopy machine and all the other teachers are waiting to use it?
What if my fly’s down when I’m teaching and all the students laugh at me?
What if I bite my tongue and can’t talk properly?
What if I spit on a student when I am talking?
What if I go to the washroom and toilet paper sticks to my shoe?
What if students throw paper airplanes around the room when I am not looking?
What if someone puts a whoopee cushion on my chair and I sit on it?
What if a student doesn’t come back to my class after recess?
What if a student falls through the cracks on the first days?
What if I can’t write straight on the blackboard?
What if a parent calls me on the first night to complain?
What if I give to much homework and nobody does it?
I’m just a first year teacher and maybe I’m smarter than I think I am. At least I know better than to tell a twenty-two-year-old with a loose tie who has never been alone in the classroom with 29 students before that he has “nothing to worry about”.
1 comment:
you don't have anything to worry about...your are the freezer to my fridge
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