If you've not already guessed, we as teachers are called to be the 7-Layer dip. We are the actors who, after a 3 hour show, are expected to run on stage with enthusiasm for the last curtain call, so that our audience can enjoy their final moments with us. But it's hard, right? We are tired. We are ready for summer. We have given our everything all year long and after all, our contract dictates that we are entitled to days off. Well, as is my way, I am here to present you with a challenge. In the end, it really all comes down to patience vs. endurance. Will you fizzle out until the last day, just patiently waiting for it to arrive or do you have the endurance necessary to take your students' breath away every single day that you have left?
PATIENCE
Patience is the ability to wait for something without trying to rush it along since we know there is no way to make it happen any quicker. It does not take much effort to be patient in terms of passively waiting. We may wish time could move more quickly, but since we know it can't, we simply anticipate and hope and wait. We might utter the saying, "I can't wait!", but really we have no choice. We wait 9 months to meet our baby face to face. We wait for the day to arrive to attend a concert or event. We wait in line. We wait for the package to arrive or that important phone call to come. There is no true effort necessary for patience. Patience, in its purest form is simply the quality of being passive. Not the most enthralling teaching practice, for sure.
ENDURANCE
On the other hand, there is endurance. Endurance is finding the strength necessary to be actively patient. Endurance, in it's simplest form, is work. Endurance is a gauge of our stamina through challenges and a feeling of accomplishment at the gaining of a goal that goes beyond the measure of time. Endurance toward a goal is more than reaching the finale, it is doing so with flare! It is an achievement! It is a feat attained! Endurance requires an exclamation point! Endurance is, in the end, an incredible final lesson to leave with your students this school year. Demonstrating endurance is how I hope the teachers of my children spend their last days before summer break. I know it is how I plan to spend mine.
Picture this scenario:
It's Period 7 (last period of the day) on a June Friday in a Middle School class of 8th graders who have already achieved what they need to achieve in order to graduate and move on to high school. All they can think is how badly they want to go home.
Patience dictates that 2:45, our end of the day, will arrive in the length of the 51 minute period no matter what I do. I can just sit and let the kids go about their business to pass the time...but what glory is there in that? True, I will need to be patient as I await the final bell of the day. I will likely need patience in its other meaning with the students, who now operating in boredom mode will likely misbehave and irritate one another. But even if I just sit back and let the minutes pass...the end will come.
OR
If I muster up my endurance, I can strive to execute the best lesson of the year to get their attention and bring them on board for one last time before the break takes them from me. How great it would feel to know that I gave them one last hurrah, one more thing to consider before going home! More work for me? You betcha! But that's endurance and it's exactly what the BOE pays me to do... work until 2:45... not patiently passively wait for 2:45. Even when no one is watching or even when no one would blame a tired teacher for taking it easy, the teacher who exercises endurance keeps teaching.
Patience is waiting for the summer to come for rest and relaxation. I get it! But consider that we are running that last mile of the marathon. We can slouch along, patiently eking our way to the finish line, or we can give it our all, making sure that when we cross the line, we know that we tried our hardest to finish in our best time possible. Endurance is coming to school every day of those last few weeks because you know that the best thing for your students is to have the time with you. When you display discipline and endure every day to the end, you can know that you did the best you could for the students you claimed to love all year. I believe that for those who endure every hot June school-day while still teaching like we mean it, our summer will be sweeter because we were there for the students, finishing with all our might, right to the finale of the BEST YEAR EVER!
