Teacher Talk

As I've touched on before, it's been a very busy and frustrating start of the school year.  Between several new-this-year programs we've had to implement without the needed materials and a school constantly under construction (which means things aren't working or are breaking or people are in the way and THE NOISE) my team and I are pretty much at our limit with things going wrong this year.  There is a sense of urgency in the classroom, and there always has been for teachers, but due to new standards and testing the urgency isn't just coming from within ourselves but many outside forces.  The frustrating part is that many of those we work with on a regular basis outside of the classroom don't have that same sense of urgency. Instead of our support systems catering to us and our needs in the classroom (ya know, the reason why we have school) the teachers and the kids are left to make it work when someone else drops the ball.  And dropping the ball seems to be the theme of this year's school year.  It's been challenging to say the least.
Yesterday, my grade level team and I walked across the street to grab a bite of lunch before starting our regular Friday afternoon meeting.  The frustrations of this new year came to a head and lunch simply turned into a bitch session.  We complained and lamented about everything.  It is hard to be around a lot of negativity so we try not to have bitch sessions very often, but venting was necessary.  And that we did.
After lunch, we cleaned up and headed back outside.  That was when we were stopped by a man who walked outside at the same time.  He said that he had been sitting across from us at lunch and couldn't help but overhear our conversation.  All four of us admitted later that we were worried he was going to tell us to we were a little too tightly wound and needed to take it down a notch and stop complaining.  But he didn't.  He said he appreciated hearing our compassion and concern for the kids and wanted to thank us.  We all breathed a collective sigh of relief that he wasn't there to reprimand us and expressed our appreciation.
And we were appreciative.  There seem to be ebbs and flows with teacher bashing, and with the 2016 presidential election approaching (ugh!) the rhetoric about how greedy and awful teachers are has been flowing.  After feeling unsupported by those who are supposed to support us early in the new year, this man's words were so meaningful.
This has been making the rounds among the teacher set.