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This is a place for creative writing teachers to share idea to be come better teachers.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

How Nice Not to Be Teaching

Y'all know that teachers don't get long vacations. They get longish periods of unemployment. I have a 9 1/2 month salary. So far I've been lucky and have been able to pick up a summer school class, at a lower salary rate, for one month, but provisions get skimpy those months without pay, and you do have to plan ahead.

Still, it's great not to be teaching, to be able to devote long hours every day to your own writing.  I'm not reading anyone but myself now, as I get into serious rewriting of longer texts I had no time to play and work on during the fall and spring semesters. I treat the summers in Texas as I used to treat the winters in the north. Both are times to go deep within oneself, to cacoon at home and work.  It's great, and I'm glad I don't have money to travel or to eat out much.

After a couple of months, however, I do begin to miss the faces of students. I am a little resentful the first few days of classes, as I make the transition.  But in a few days I am happy. You return to class with a big glow at your back, a sense of hard work done, and some major writing accomplishment. You are a writer, afterall, and you have a right to be standing in front of this class.