Dear Frazzled Teacher,
You've lost it, haven't you?...all of it
Your cool
Your day planner
The green pen you love
Your mind
Your patience
Your lunch
Your room keys
Your cell phone
The copies you just ran
Your sleep
Your metabolism
Your internet connection
Your will to keep trying
Need I keep going?
This year teachers are frazzled. They can hardly concentrate from all the extra duties: wiping down desks, logging seating charts, reminding kids to pull up masks, monitoring displaced students, and the list continues. The hurried stress of each day is making everyone edgy and a little looney.
When I was in sixth grade, my math teacher, Mrs. Adams, always had trouble locating the pencil she used to scratch her head. If we had been nice students, we would have told her the missing pencil was in her hair, but we weren't nice.
By the end of the day, she had four or five writing utensils sticking out of her grey beehive.
We never told her.
If teachers were sticking lost items in their bouffants today, these items might consist of an extra mask, a can of Lysol, a roll of paper towels, or a seating chart.
That would have to be one thick head of hair to hold all those treasures.
I wish so badly I could help teachers locate some of these missing items, especially the will to keep trying. It's so dang hard to keep going when there's so much to overcome, but I hope you'll keep searching.
Maybe when the day is done, and you have a chance to unwind you'll find "it" like Mrs. Adams did when she washed her hair and found a half dozen pencils each night.
If not, could I at least send you a pack of green pens?
-CDB
P.S. Check your classroom door for your keys and your own ear for your cellphone.