Did I Shave My Legs for This?

This is it - the sum of an entire weekend of my life. 40 grade nine essays on geography and city settlement in the United States (thrilling, I know). 37 grade nine portfolio projects. 7 grade seven paragraphs that were due two weeks ago.

One very tired and bored teacher.

I can't feel excited, exactly, because I don't know what I've accomplished other than to keep my head above water for another day. Tomorrow, I take in 40 HUGE grade 7 projects that are going to be labour intensive to evaluate because the 7s still need a lot of support to build their basic social studies skills. Sometimes I wonder if they would notice if I just put stickers on everything and wrote "keep up the good work". I'm pretty sure a lot of my teachers used to drink while marking. Now I know why :)

I haven't even planned my lessons for tomorrow. I don't have any groceries in the house. I haven't seen my friends or hung out with my sisters or taken my niece for a fall walk, or called my grandparents or gotten a hair cut or gone on a date or written emails to people I miss ... but the marking is done. So is my weekend.

I don't ever regret becoming a teacher. I feel so honoured to be doing what I'm doing every day. But I hope that one day, a few months (or years?) down the line, I find the balance between being the best teacher I can be and being the best version of myself. Right now, it's one or the other.

I'm going back to finish marking these papers, then to plan for my lessons tomorrow, then to find something in my closet that isn't wrinkled and thrown under the bed, and to find food in my fridge that will pass as a healthy lunch. I will say goodnight to my housemates who get to go to bed before midnight and I will stay up late reading -fun reading, not essay reading- because I need to do something for myself this weekend, even if it doesn't happen until midnight on Sunday night.

Here's hoping that everyone's weekend was as productive as mine! (and maybe a bit more fun, too)