Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Open Letter to Those Who Think They Are More Important Since They Don't Get Snow Days

The past two days have been snow days with today being a two hour delay start. A lot of my friends on Facebook are teachers but some are not. A few of these non educators posted a passive aggressive status along the line of "Geeze I wish I had a job that got off for snow. Oh well. Off to work I go."

This is an open letter to them.

Dear person who thinks they are more important because you don't get snow days:

I get it. You see me rejoicing over getting off from school due to snow. Granted, I do not think it was enough snow to warrant a day off but I got it anyway. You have to go to work and suffer as I sit at home. Most likely you think I'm sitting on my butt doing nothing but watching TV and vegging out. If that was true, you would totally have the right to think you are more important than me.

Here is the thing though, over the last two days I wrote exams, graded papers, and planned units. Yes, I did it in front of my TV but that is not different from when my Dad was writing communication contracts from home with ESPN on in the background. Yes, I may have been in sweatpants but I promise you, I was working just as hard, if not harder, then you were.

Remember when you were a kid and you loooooved snow days because you didn't have to go to school and got to play video games instead? You may think teachers love snow days for the same reason but again, you would be wrong.

Teachers love snow days for two reasons. The first is that we get a break from students. The constant patience needed to deal with students when they don't "get it", "what if" questions, crazy students, and parents emailing you doesn't happen. You get a break from the most stressful aspect of your job. This break from this stress leads to the second reason teachers love snow days; time. We finally have time to do all the things our jobs require of us besides the actual teaching part. We can grade and plan with no disruptions.

We work the entire day. When you take the day off, do you work? Chances are no. Teachers work on every single day we have off. Sick days, personal days, vacation days. and snow days. Every vacation we go on during the course of the school year, we bring work to do.

So yes, I and other teachers get overly excited because of snow days. Not because we get a day off from work but because we get a day to do work. So next time you think you're more important because you don't get time off due to snow, remember that teachers are not actually enjoying the day to relax. We are enjoying it to work.

Sincerely
An Overworked Teacher

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