Today I am thankful for the gift of time.

11.18.19

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I had every intention of arriving at school by 6:15 this morning. I had a lot to do – grading, planning, photo-copying, cutting, organizing, and prepping. I had a bulletin board I wanted to get up and several emails that I needed to send. When my to-do list gets especially long, I find it’s best to hit the ground running early in the morning. There are very few distractions at school that early. The photocopier is almost always free. And typically, my zone of peak productivity occurs first thing in the morning. I am my father’s child, what can I say?

Despite a fairly early bedtime last night, when my first alarm went off this morning just before 5 a.m., I was not havin’ it. I snoozed and snoozed and snoozed. Eventually, I just turned all my alarms off and laid my head back down on my comfy pillow -- an incredibly risky move. When I finally drug my butt out of bed my clock said 6:15. So much for my super early start at school.

Even after my feet were on the ground this morning, I still moved in super slow motion. There were several self-pep-talks involved, but I did finally muster up the energy to take a shower, get ready, pack my lunch and go to work. I pulled in about 7:15. Granted, school doesn’t start until 8:40 so I was still technically early but now I knew I’d need to pick and choose which to-do list items would get done this morning.

My principal cancelled our 7:30 a.m. staff meeting today. I knew about this on Friday, so perhaps this knowledge subconsciously impacted my ability to get moving this morning. I knew I had this extra chunk of time before I had to head out to duty at 8:25. Because of this I was able to get the most important items checked off my list so that I could start the day stress-free. Phew!

The real gift came later this morning, though. My class had won an extra recess in a recent school-wide competition. The victory was certainly exciting for the kids who were thrilled for some extra play time, but it was equally exciting for me too, as the recess was to be supervised by my principal (thus giving me a break as well). I completely forgot that the school secretary and I had scheduled this for mid-morning today. What a nice surprise when I opened my calendar this morning.

I still didn’t get everything checked off my to-do list today, but I sure made one heck of a dent – thanks, in part, to a cancelled meeting and a bonus recess. Teachers everywhere will tell you that there’s never enough time to get everything done. It’s one of the things that burns new teachers out and one of the reasons that a third of them leave the profession before their 3rd year. So, the gift of time is truly a gift to be celebrated. And today I got a double dose of it. For this, I’m doubly thankful.