Reason Number 869

Remember when friends are receiving holiday bonuses that you receive your bonuses from much greater things.  The bonus includes students saying thank you, telling you that you are the best teacher, little notes and formal letters, and general job satisfaction.

--1000 Best New Teacher Survival Secrets

That's sure poetic and all, but as they say, it sure doesn't pay the rent.  But today I was struck by some of the truth in that (setting aside for a moment record gas and food prices, CA rent that's far too high, and no benefits) as I shuffled from one odd situation to another.

This is the final week of school.  I miraculously have four assignments, but they're all a little weird at this point in the game.  This morning, I was working at one site for a half day, supposedly filling in while teachers met with some incoming parents for next year.  Only one of the parents showed, leaving me doing a lot of sitting around in the faculty lounge.  At one point, the office manager asked if I'd mind doing some work for her.  Presented with a pile of papers to be folded and subsequently stuffed into envelopes, I lasted about ten seconds before feeling grateful that I have not been serving time in a different high-rise every day.  Yes, as frustrating as this job is, as low as I feel on the totem pole, as poorly as I am paid, I would rather be wrestling with the constant needs of kindergartners (who, by the way, imprint in about one minute), than stuffing envelopes.  

Way to go, perspective!

This afternoon, I was at a second site, and the plan called for some science.  Out of a textbook?!?  I asked if the teacher had any balloons for a chapter on electricity, and spent my lunch hour coming up with static experiments.  I was in The Zone, similar to the one I was in during my stint as a high school Improv instructor.  Enter the students.  I'd had them before, and we were just getting to the good stuff when BEEP BEEP BEEP - there's the fire drill!  We got out to the playground, where the alarm proceeded to go on for...a half an hour.  Someone had pulled the alarm, and the lock on the control panel was apparently corroded shut.  Wheee!   While all this was going on, I gathered the kids around me and tried to explain, over the din, how opposite charges attract, and like charges repel, all to set up a quick experiment we hadn't yet been able to do...just in case there was time back in class.  Booo!  They got the alarm shut off just as schooltime was ending.  I invited kids to leave if they wanted to leave, and to stick around for a few minutes if they wanted to do a couple of experiments.

The five students that stuck around gave me one of the most rewarding experiences I've yet had in this position, and at this point, all of us were off the clock.  They were interested and they were curious and they were grateful.  All very unusual during the course of a regular school day.

Also off the clock, I stuck around town for an extra three hours, all so I could head to yet another school and attend a showing of Hansel and Gretel Eat Right, as produced by a wily group of first graders I've grown to know very well.  I arrived just as the lights were about to go down, so the kids spotted me and started shouting my name.

I've gotta say, that was pretty cool.  

As long as I have to be a temporary worker with crappy pay and no benefits, I'd much rather be in a position of leading a discussion pointing out the relative un-PC-itude of Schoolhouse Rock's "Elbow Room" (which I did last week) and get hugs from germy little kids than push paper somewhere.