HAVE A NICE DAY
……. a brief about the teacher’s day
One of my very good and generous colleagues used to drop me off from school and so he did today. As I was alighting from his car, I wanted to say ‘have a nice day’ and suddenly I remembered we are teachers and I stopped. Do teachers really have a nice day?
The statement in the title is usually used to wish someone a restful day after a hard day’s work. Finally, you can have some rest and fun — so have a nice day. However, the question in this context is, do teachers usually have a nice day……..
Don’t get me wrong, teachers are blessed people and are usually having days full of beautiful experiences but, the context of this write-up is related to the fact that we hardly have free time (nice days). So, I don’t mean to say our days are usually horrible, but they are usually eventful — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
For instance, if you are a go-getter, you will usually have a to-do list almost daily. This will help to coordinate your activities for the day. Personally,
I usually have two (and that is because I am a teacher). One for my activities in the morning — when I have free periods that are not free. I will have to do such things as correcting students’ scripts, preparing for the next lesson, among others. As for the second to-do list, I usually have them just before I leave school. They will coordinate my activities for the remaining part of the day. Things like developing worksheets, preparing for the next day’s lessons, developing lesson plans, reviewing yearly plans, or developing lesson slides on PowerPoint among others. So, the day is usually not nice but eventful.
This is what we use our night and day to do. And this is even the schedule for good days.
For days that you have to worry about what went wrong in the class, why a student is not getting your lesson, and why students are misbehaving, it is usually more nauseating.
That is, to say the least about students that will want you to answer their questions on the go. ‘Mr., can you check my homework’ this is a student’s message on WhatsApp to which you have to say yes because you will not want to discourage a hardworking student.
You don’t have to sympathize with us, it is our job, and most of us are perfectly fine with it. But, the next time you wish a teacher ‘have a nice day’, know that he is not likely going home to have fun but to continue the good work.