Friday... or Monday too?

Friday. To many this is the day of the week they look forward to. The end of the week is finally here.

Oh, joy!!!!!!!! (Not an ironical “oh, joy” uttered in a deep voice, this is an ecstatic one! Feel free to raise your hands and shout it out.)

Facebook is swarmed with joyous illustrations with cheerful greetings for the weekend ahead.

On Monday, on the other hand, my Facebook has one posting after another, posted by different people or communities, showing and telling what a strain it is that Monday is already here.

My students moan and suffer from a bad mood… and tiredness. As if the mere day itself is a punishment inflicted on them by everybody else, so everybody else should suffer too; like they do. So they express their discontent… loudly.

I really hope that those who post, or express, either are not really serious; I hope they do it because it is a popular opinion to have and express.

I’m thinking that if you only live a good life two days a week, you are in BIG trouble.

I can’t think of anything worse than to wake up in the morning dreading the day ahead. It must feel like physical pain inflicted on you, every single day, all day. I might as well admit I know this very well. My last year on high school was terrible. To me it was so dreadful going to school I often discovered tears running down my cheeks when on the school bus. It is possible to feel so awful you don’t even realize you cry. But I finished. I completed school and then left the country. I just had to heal, and found no other option than to go away. I was supposed to leave for three months… I returned home a year later.

What an irony I ended up spending my working life in a classroom. I still find it hard to understand how I ended up like that.

I know for a fact that many spend their weekends alone, at home, with nothing much else to look forward to than cleaning, grocery shopping and watching TV. And still, they post excited postings praising weekend as the highlight of the week.

I used to know a man (he was our neighbour when I was child) who rode his bicycle to work every morning at 6:30am. He came home late, never mentioned overtime, let alone overtime pay.

In the weekends he fiddled about in his garden while humming out of tune. He was so pleased with his life. Always smiling, always a kind greeting.

He worked at the same factory for 57 years. He cut cupboard-knobs on the lathe, and was proud of his work.

I am not made to lead a monotonous life. I need variety and challenging inputs. If life gets too predictable I turn restless and edgy.

Maybe I am more of a fighter than a tender blossom, but I have problems understanding how people can settle for an everyday life with no challenges; a life offering challenges is one offering situations where you need to go beyond the limits of your comfort zone.

To take a stand on controversial issues, to care for others, to be opinionated, to be creative and find a balance in life where you truly experience satisfaction in both the smaller things in life like a nice sandwich and clean clothes, a good TV-show or whether to wear a red or blue t-shirt (I know there are people out there who revolve their entire life around what to wear, bless them, but that is not very important to me, so I list it as a trifle detail here) or the big ones like where to live, to settle down with a life partner or in any other way take on commitment. You know: to take part in your environment on your own terms and abilities.

Some people ask me why I stress my kids and my students should do well in school.

To me that is very simple:

I look upon school attendance as an investment in your own future. I find it very important to prepare for a working life of your own choice. Sadly it is hard to get any kind of work with no schooling these days.

It may be engineering, cleaning dishes, teaching or long-haul transportation… the bottom line is you should be free to make a choice of occupation which makes every day of the week a good one. Every day you wake up should be one you look forward to, and then a weekend off to recover from the bustle (a nice bustle is wearing too) you go through all week.

I wish for everybody to wake up Monday morning thinking: “YES! I’m ready. Bring on the week. This is a new start. Finally Monday is here!” And then you post a cheerful greeting on Friday saying how great it is that it’s Friday today… and on Monday you post a happy greeting telling how grand it is that it’s Monday.

OK, I might be a bit overly eager here, but wouldn’t it be great if we all could have 7 wonderful days a week?

No, I am not talking about a life without ups and downs: I’m talking about the consistent feeling of leading a life to satisfaction.

Back to school

Last Monday my youngest son, age 6, started school. He has been ready for that for so long, and the anticipation was sky high! I loved to see how much he was looking forward to be a schoolboy, and when we finally bought his satchel, it was a moment of serious consideration and delight. It was so obvious it was important to him. 
My only worry is that I and his teachers will fail at keeping this excitement alive, other than that I am happy to see my baby-boy enter a new chapter in life.

A new school year is coming up. We, the teachers, started this week having planning days; preparing to welcome and how to teach the students.

When you’re a teacher you are never completely grown up; you still dread for school to start after the summer. Fall is not about struggling through autumn gale when out for a walk, or sitting inside enjoying the rain tapping on the windows. Fall is new books, new students, a new start.

It’s not only the students who enter the classroom meeting new peers and teachers; we, the teachers, enter the classroom facing new classes. Since this is a vocational training school, there are only 15 students in each class, but these fifteen students are individuals, each with their own background we have to take into consideration, we have to learn a lot of new names and learn how to meet their personalities and planning the lessons right in order to keep up progress of learning, for each and every one of them.

I love it! But even though I have been a teacher for quite some time I face the beginning of each year with excitement and nervousness. Just like the students do.

One of most important preparation routine for a new school year is to go shopping for rubber-soled shoes… with high heels. They are not easy to find, but to me that is important. Thinking about how much I dislike shopping, I am surprised how patient I am when choosing shoes for work. It is an important choise, though. I have to like how they look, they must be comfortable and they should not make any clicking sounds when I walk through the corridors. (I have had students complaining about me walking around the classroom, because all they could think about was the sound my shoes made....)
I like wearing heels. I am 5”3’, which is not very tall, but with heels I can imagine I am taller. It makes wonders for my self-esteem, cause I always find myself being the shortest person in the classroom. Maybe it’s just the impact of a better posture asserting itself (stooping is more or less impossible when wearing high heels; straight back and chin held high comes naturally), to look confident makes a lot of difference, it’s like the feeling itself sneaks into your consciousness and makes itself known in your appearance. For my part that is important for executing good classroom management. (I just made myself come across as a very strict teacher... I'm not. I don't say like many, with a wry smile, do: "Never smile to the students before Christmas". I actually have problems being angry, and when I do get mad it never lasts for long. I still keep my students focused, though... touch wood.)

The excitement of being back is not just related to the students and the subjects I teach. I really enjoy the teachers’ lounge, the fellowship between the teachers on a place safe from the “enemy”. Students are demanding, just the way they should be, but in the teachers’ lounge we relax, exchange stories, experiences and methods. Sometimes a student has made a great comment… maybe it’s not a good idea to reveal the secrets of that part of work…

We discuss common rules and regulations for the classroom, the students and us, the teachers. We demand nothing less from each other than we do of the students, which makes us able to face the students standing firm and with no doubt our colleagues back us up. The sense of loyalty is reassuring and comforting.

All together the entire package embrace the hope I have for my own son: That each student will experience how much fun it is to discover progress in knowledge and personal abilities, both in subjects and as an individual.