It's been a while since my last post. The main reason for that is this: I am tired. I. Am. So. Tired. During my time in undergrad and grad school, there were many times when I was pretty tired. I pulled a few all-nighters, had several nights with two or three hours of sleep, and usually slept about five or six hours a night. I liked to keep busy, and certainly had a full schedule in college and grad school. As busy and tired as I was before though, it was nothing compared to how I've been feeling the past few weeks.
I feel exhausted ALL THE TIME. Even when I've just slept for fourteen hours straight, I'm just so tired. My last few Friday and Saturday nights have included me falling asleep by 8:00 or earlier and waking up at least twelve hours later...followed by naps the next afternoon. I think there are two reasons for why I'm so tired all the time:
1. I work a lot of hours during the week. I was talking to someone the other day about how much I've been working, and he/she said (as a joke, thankfully), "But teachers only work part time, right?" Yes, technically my work day (per my contract) ends at 2:30. And yes, I will get the summer off. But the idea of that meaning I work only part time makes me want to laugh and cry. I've been keeping track of how many hours I'm devoting to "work" every week, and the time I spend actually teaching amounts to about half of the time I actually "work." By "work," I'm including time spent teaching, attending meetings, lesson planning, and grading. Last week, I "worked" over 70 hours. Two days ago, I literally had one waking hour in which I wasn't driving or working. I feel like I'm just complaining now...that's not the point I'm trying to make. I'm not trying to have a pity party, I'm just still surprised at how much time I'm putting into my job right now. Anyway, the point is, I've never worked this much ever...AND...
2. When I'm at school, I'm ON. By that, I mean there is no down time. My prep hour is the last hour of the day, so I'm super busy from the minute I get to school until my sixth class leaves my classroom. Also, kids are crazy. I feel like I should have known this better before now (and I'm sure many of you reading this know this well), but my students can be psycho. There's always something going on and someone who needs something, so I always need to be on and alert at school. That has turned out to be super exhausting, and I'm pretty sure that's the main factor in why I'm so tired. By the time Friday afternoon rolls around, I am spent.
As I write about this, I can hear little voices in my head (many who sound just like Maria Coolican, methods professor extraordinaire) saying that I could be doing things to make my time at school less exhausting. I remember my ed school professors saying that the teacher shouldn't be the hardest working person in the classroom. This sounds great in theory, but I'm finding out that it's more difficult to put into practice, because right now I really feel like I'm working harder than my students...but I'm working on it. I'm sure I'll get some of my energy back as I get better and faster (haha, I almost typed fatter...that's happening too! Some parts of my job have made me turn to ice cream and chocolate) at lesson planning, grading, and classroom management, but for now, I'm just tired.
Everyone keeps telling me that if I can make it to Christmas, I'll be fine for the rest of the year. A student told me that he heard a radio station playing Christmas music already, so it's not that far away, right??
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