(For politics, please scroll down)
As the end of the 2016-2017 school term looms, I am making the mad dash to complete the necessary paperwork: exams to score, grades to average, and report cards to issue. Not the best of times!
At the end of every school term, I feel as if I've not accomplished much. And so it goes for teachers for whom teaching is a calling and a passion — not merely a career. Yet, we start over again the next school term.
You know you are appreciated.
ReplyDeleteTeaching is like Life, itself –– nothing more, or less than an OPPORTUNITY to do our best to make the best possible use of whatever talents and intelligence God gave us.
ReplyDeleteAs long as we make an honest effort to make the most of whatever time we may be allotted, we should not fret or indulge in recriminations.
Here is the text to oCOME, LABOR ON, one of the hymns that has helped .stiffen my spine, and inspire me to carry on in the face of danting circumstances:
1. Come, labor on.
Who dares stand idle on the harvest plain
while all around us waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say,
"Go work today."
2. Come, labor on.
Claim the high calling angels cannot share;
to young and old the gospel gladness bear.
Redeem the time; its hours too swiftly fly.
The night draws nigh.
3. Come, labor on.
Cast off all gloomy doubt and faithless fear!
No arm so weak but may do service here.
Though feeble agents, may we all fulfill
God's righteous will.
4. Come, labor on.
No time for rest, till glows the western sky,
till the long shadows o'er our pathway lie,
and a glad sound comes with the setting sun,
"Well done, well done!"
~ Jane Borthwick (1813-1897)
As long as we can look in the mirror and honestly respect ourselves, what others may think, say or do DOES NOT MATTER.
To be clear...
ReplyDeleteNobody is giving me grief -- at least, not yet. Report cards are issued next week.
But I must say at the end of each school term, I always notice that I did not manage to cover some concepts that I was determined to cover at the start of the year. Out of time!
As I tried t say above, it does NOT MATTER what OTHERS think or say of us, as long as we can honestly respect ourselves for making every effort to do what-we-believe-to-be right and good work.
DeleteI am positive that YOU could do that to a greater degree than most, AOW.
My classes ended last week. Bring on summer!
ReplyDeleteI hope this is a rewarding one for you.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I'll be damn glad to see the kids off the roads during rush hour.
Kid,
DeleteVery few of my homeschool students drive to school because the moms need the family car. And only one of the students has his own car.
Finally! I finished the report cards last night.
ReplyDeleteWith all my illnesses and all my missing classes this school term -- I've never before missed so much time at work! -- it required a Herculean effort to get all this done on time.
Still awaiting me: letters of reference/recommendation for some of my students.
Yet your students keep appearing in your life's stories as the years roll by. You certainly ARE making a difference, my friend.
ReplyDelete