Saturday, January 14, 2012

Inspiration for TeacherBites

How long do teachers have, actually, to ingest their lunches? In my school, it's 30 minutes, door-to-door, which means more like 20 minutes, tops. First there's the student who needs to ask me a question about the essay rubric. Then there's the kid who dashes back to the room to pick up his forgotten hat or planner - just as I'm locking the door. Next, the colleague who has a union question, or needs to consult on a student, or just wants to know how my weekend was, stops me for a moment. Perhaps the principal will see me in the hallway and we'll quickly review how my professional goal for the year is going (it's going well, actually), and finally I'll head to the cafeteria to pick up my salad, where I'll run into the custodians, one of whom lays on his daily joke: "You're here today!" When I finally get into the teacher lunchroom, I'll eat and chat and think and laugh and take in all I can from my colleagues without whom my days at school wouldn't be as rich or as meaningful as they are. Then I'll repeat similar steps on the way back to my room to get there before my next class does.

We don't have much time together. The intent of this blog, then, is to offer up small plates of inspiration for teachers: weekly musings about the work we do and ways to infuse our daily  (and nightly... and weekend...)  work with enthusiasm and gratitude. And if you need a daily snack to nosh on, catch me on Twitter (@TeacherBites).


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