So...uh...what do you do all day?

“So what do you do all day?”  Is a common phrase you will hear from people when enquiring about your job.  I often chuckle and think, “if you only knew…”  In fact, just in the last 2 weeks I have heard this phrase more than once.  So in case that question has crossed your mind I thought I would shed some light on what takes place in school.

The role or duties of a teacher have changed dramatically over the years.  However one thing has never changed, the caring relationship between teacher and student.  Teachers aren’t just teachers.  They are counselors, friends, parent like figures, nurses, listeners, problem solvers, etc.  I get tired of hearing the joke that teachers have a cushy job.  They only have to work 8-4, have no nights, weekends, holidays, and 3 months in the summer that they don’t have to work.  Well, from the outside that may appear to be the case.  I usually respond to that phrase with, “well, we all choose our professions so if you wanted summers ‘off’ you should have gone into education.” 

Sure there might be a few teachers that put in the minimum, but I have never come across them.  My colleagues come into work before the first bell and will sometimes work until 6pm.  If they do go home at 4, they usually come back after dinner or take at least 1, if not 2 or 3 bags of work home to work on.  Weekends and holidays are consumed with coming back into the building to spend time doing all the tasks that are hard to complete during the school day.  There are always copies to make, projects to design or cut out, papers to grade, and lessons to plan.  Summer vacation was a welcomed break.  Most years, I would take a few weeks or at least June and relax, not even think about school.  But really, as a teacher, your brain NEVER stops planning and thinking.  Yes, it’s true, there aren’t kids in the building from the end of May until August, but a teachers’ brain never shuts off.

When school is in session, teachers are “ON” duty literally from 8 to whenever they go home.  Even then, there are papers to grade, lessons to plan, books and materials to read, parents to email or call.  Sure teachers have lessons to follow, but often times there are things that come up during the day that you don’t plan on.  A kid getting sick or hurt, reviewing a lesson because it didn’t go as planned the day before, a special event or visitor to the school, parent contacts to make, the list goes on.  It can really be exhausting.  I have always said that I love teaching because every day is different and you never know what the day will bring.

Well, the same could be said about school secretaries, custodians, and principals.  As a teacher, I always wondered how things couldn’t get done more efficiently as a principal or why I didn’t see them in my room more often.  When I was studying to become an administrator, that was one of the things that I wanted to be sure I did, be more visible in the school.  So it hasn’t even been a full week of school and I am quickly learning what a principal does, besides manage behind the scenes.  First of all, my email inbox is always full of new messages.  So I try to sift through the high priority messages and respond, file the others into folders if I need to reference them later.  I have a “to-do” list that is constantly being added and subtracted to.  I have been doing walk-throughs in the building, watching students and teachers.  Helping out where I can be of assistance.  The lunch room is always in need of more hands, so I will spend time in there visiting with the students, asking them how their day is going, eating lunch with them, and opening food items or cleaning up spilled milk.  Usually I will hang out at recess for a while, or covering for teachers and paras when needed.  Lots of other jobs come up throughout the day that I never dreamed up, mostly because this is a new position for me.

I could go on and on with the various jobs that people have around school.  Everyone works hard to make a school run.  They really do.  The secretaries and custodians spend a lot of time making sure the school is running, but they probably get the least amount of recognition.  Their job is year round and doesn’t really have a beginning or an end.  Summer isn’t much time to sand and wax floors, repaint, make repairs, and deep clean to name a few.  As far as the secretaries go, the paperwork alone that comes through is overwhelming to me.  They have to be very organized.  Most people tell me they would never want to be a principal, well I would say I would never want to be a school secretary!

You know, I look at it like this; everyone thinks someone else’s job is so easy but until you actually do someone else’s job, don’t be quick to say it’s easy.  There are so many great people that make schools run.  I have been blessed to always work with great people who care about their students and treat their co-workers like family.

So the next time you catch yourself wanting to ask someone who works in a school, “So what do you do all day?” know that they are working hard, really hard.