What Teachers Do During School Holidays
Someone once asked what do teachers do during school holidays. Apparently, they think that teachers run off to some remote island and enjoy a nice drink by the beach. As such, we do not deserve long holidays because why should teachers be given special treatment?
Well, it is actually far more complicated than that. You see, we are called to do a myriad of tasks and our job takes us wherever our country needs us.
We Go Undercover
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You see, teachers are government servants, so we can get called on anytime to serve our queen/king and country. My Boss, Mr 001 (his surname is ooi, but 001 sounds cooler) would call on me on a secret device that only he has access to. I would be summoned with an encrypted message on Whatsapp. In that message would be the time, place and equipment I would have to bring along for the mission.
Normally, the mission lasts several days and we would have to go undercover as students. Ok, maybe I exaggerate a little. Basically, we get called to attend professional development courses during school holidays. We may be teachers by profession, but we become participants or students throughout the course. I say undercover because we do call out our presenter's spelling and grammar error. It doesn't take much to blow our cover, really.
As dangerous as it sounds, you can't get killed from boredom. I do enjoy the networking and certain important skill learnt. That being said, courses are no fun to the things waiting for me at home.
We Make It Rain
So, you're probably thinking of this:
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But, in actual fact, it looks more like it has already rained...
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Exams normally finish before school holidays. As we leave school, we bring home piles of homework or exam papers to grade. I am lucky that most of mine is more like a short rain. My colleagues on the other hand bring home a really bad flood. Some do get a tsunami like workload but despite the mountain of workload, we still have to complete it nonetheless.
The trick is to let the work scatter in an orderly manner. Time spent tidying up is time wasted, so there's not time to lose! Much focus is needed in completing the paperwork, so we have no time but to focus. After the rain or flood of work that we receive, we will probably still have a few days of holiday left.
We Rearm and Resupply
During those final days, it is a great time to rest and, well resupply...
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It's time to resupply on the many jokes that we use in class. A time to resupply on stories that would inspire and motivate the students. You may think that this is trivial but jokes and stories are crucial in controlling a class. I resupply on my jokes through books and great outings with friends. Of course, there's no way to gather inspiring stories but to try out something crazy. You could attempt some form of extreme activity like white water rafting or sky diving.
It is in those experiences that you will find life lessons that you can use to impact your students' lives. After going skydiving, my takeaway is that life is too short to be spent on watching TV and playing computer games. There is a whole world out there for you to experience.
Conclusion
Holidays are generally exclusive to students, we teachers on the other hand get slower office hours or we are allowed to work from home. Now, if you would excuse me, I'm getting another mission from Mr 001. Steem on everyone!
Its hard to be teacher responsibility comes more
@alvinauh, love the way you present the write-up. Cool, yet still I pay a great salute to teachers.
And that’s where ur mission is, to Steem!
As my students say, I just "lol'd"
Lol!! Do you have the expression 'I can't BRAIN what you are saying?'
When my students use their slang I just roll my eyes...The future of the English language is in jeopardy.
great post @Alvinauh.
Not many teachers really doing it right? I think throughout my school life only a few teachers tell jokes and motivates.
One more thing, how different is the weekend between a high school and a primary school teacher?
Not that different, similar in fact. We only get sundays off.. most of the time due to extra curricular activities. But if there's camping well, there goes the weekened.
for rural teachers year-end holiday time we bring our students to visit the city because of the many differences in cities and inland, they can see firsthand the towering buildings and the various activities they meet in the city is very different from the area that they place.
That's awesome, must be such a wonderful experience for your students. I know they would definitely appreciate that wonderful experience and good on you for taking your time to do that for them!
thank you for stopping by in my post
@alvinauh there's nothing more annoying than people saying teachers get too many holidays ... firstly by the end of term we are practically on the verge of collapse, and then there is so much stuff to do during the holidays to wind up the previous term or prepare for the next. Sometimes during the longer winter or summer break there might be a few days available for vegetating .... that's when we hide from 'the boss' and climb a mountain!
You hide by climbing a mountain? Oh right.. no signal.. that makes sense.. I shut down all my devices aside for my Xbox and just game my sorrows away...
All the best Teacher 😀
Loved this - so very true