We’re Back

[Editor’s note: MsB is the pseudonym for a third-year high school English teacher in Brooklyn.]

We made it through the first week. We learned their names, filled out delaney cards, and started fresh. The kids tested us, we stayed strong. We laid down the law. We’ve already called parents, some twice.

We’re tired from waking up early and can’t sleep thinking about our lessons for tomorrow. We caught up with our friends about vacations, weddings and adventures. We shared lesson plans and passed funny notes during faculty meetings.

We talked about fostering collaboration. We collaborated and shared. We made vocabulary lists. We set up our grade books. We were excited for the beginning of a new school year. We compared notes about the kids on our roster. We talked about techniques that worked for us.

We met the new teachers. We warned them, helped them, bought them lunch. We showed them where to make copies. We stayed late to print rich our classrooms. We got to work early to prepare.

We complained about the changes and planned for the future. It all seems so simple. The answer to New York City’s education problem. We all have the answer, why don’t they?

We enjoyed the silence of the first day. All the students nervous and scared. We gave out rules and contracts and homework. We sighed when on the first day someone didn’t have a pen or a piece of paper. We set up routines.

We drank a lot of coffee. We laughed. We remembered what chalk does to our hands. We moisturized. We sweat in our classrooms with no air conditioner. We begged for winter weather. We begged for summer back. We wore shorts and tanks until the last minute. We brought our flip flops with us. We told kids to take off their hats. We searched for erasers and then hid them.

We were teachers once again. We left behind our roles of sister, mother, brother, friend, and were only teachers. We don’t have lives. We are old and not cool. We taught, they sat and listened. I wonder how long that will last.

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