180 days as a teacher

In the lunch room today, as everyone was gulping down their lunch (because leisurely lunches are unthinkable unless all your work is done, and in a teacher's case that only happens when the schoolyear is over...), I was the center of attention, with questions pouring in from all sides about my "old life".
By "old life", I mean of course my past jobs in the industry/corporate world.

It seems to be extremely intriguing to all that I was "out there" for so long before committing to teaching.

It's hard for me to tell them that I am not "committed" per se, that this is basically a one-year contract and whatever happens happens after that. It's hard for them, these over-dedicated REAL teachers, to even think that someone could do this for just one year. Just 180 days.

And frankly, now that I am barely keeping my head above the surface, either busy re-learning all about the gastric glands, the liver and the marvelous workings of the rectum (and the anus is just a muscle by the way!), planning the next lab experiment, designing ways to use lemons to make a battery, or correcting the endless tests and quizzes the kids write, I realize how C.R.A.Z.Y. it is to be a teaching for J.U.S.T. one year.

Course planning and preparation is unavoidable the first time you teach a class - if I were to teach the same class again, all I would need to do is show up and correct tests. Like those teachers who have been at it for so many years...

Also required to be a great teacher is that endless and continuously renewed source of dedication to the kids.

I feel dedicated right now, on day 16 of this adventure. The real test for me will be the level of dedication remaining on day 180.

It's funny that the vary basis of teaching would occur to me the actual day I lecture the girls all about the way their intestines works...

... but the fact remains that teaching has to come from the gut.