Ode to Teachers

Ode to Teachers Everywhere


The kids came to school
And what did they see?
Their teacher was missing-
Oh where could she be?

How would they learn?
Who would show them the way
To multiply and divide,
To read books and play?

“This is not good,”
said the students at last.
“We must find our teacher
And we must find her fast!”

So they looked in the library
They looked in the halls
They looked in the lunchroom
They looked between walls

But they could not find her
And at last, tired and sad
They headed back to their classroom
Feeling bewildered and bad.

And that’s when they saw her
Was she asleep at her desk?
Surrounded by paper
Planbook clutched to her chest?

She’d been there too long
After school yesterday
Trying to catch up on work
But there was no way!

There were hours spent planning
Essential questions to write
State objectives to correlate
All through the night.

There were papers to grade
And projects to score
There were tests to prepare
(There was testing galore!)

Field trips to plan,
Professional journals to peruse
Grant money to apply for
Workshops to choose

There were parent conferences to hold
Where she’d try to convince
Deluded parents that “Sweet Johnny”
Was a bully, and dense!

There were papers to file
PEPs to prepare
There were schedules to make
(No wonder there was gray in her hair).

“Authentic learning” to design
Planning time-what a joke!
No time to breathe or relax
And the copier was broke!

But the teacher only had
So many hours in the day
And the work piled up
It never went away.

Try as she might and
Try as she could
She never got it done
She just wasn’t that good!

Forget about her family
Her social life and her friends
Forget about anything
But the latest school trends.

Just work, work, work, work
Never a chance to get ahead.
“Oh, poor teacher!” though the students
Then they discovered she was DEAD!

It was all just too much
Maybe her brain had imploded!
Or with no time for the bathroom
Maybe her bladder had exploded!

Either way, it was the same
Too much work and no fun
Now poor teacher was gone
(who could get that work done?)

So all you teachers out there
Who from stress have grown STRANGE
Take time for yourself
Put yourself first for a change.

Kick back and relax
Take a deep breath, try a smile
The school can go on
Without you for a while.

reply to post by smyleegrl


S&F!

....definitely S&F!

That is great. Thanks for sharing! I will forward this on to my wife who is also a teacher. This is exactly her life and people just don't realise how difficult it really is. I think she will appreciate it. S&F