… there are other things that need tending to as we approach the end of the semester – … things that need to be done.
How did it get this late in the semester? I suspect teachers all over the Western world have similar reactions to the first week of December. Where did this semester go? How did I get so behind in my curricular plan? How can I finish everything I need to finish, grade everything I need to grade, get done all that I need to get done?
These questions are certainly timely. These questions are certainly real.
They are all likely to be resolved in the next few weeks. They have to be. Finals have to be written. Papers have to be graded. Work has to be done. Though it is difficult, sometimes, to look at the calendar and see how all the work will get done, it does get done. Educational professionals always find a way.
Dare I say these things – the finals and grades – are the easy things to address? They are easy because we know what they are,
The truth is there are other things that need tending to as we approach the end of the semester – other things that, too, need to be done. Some of these are not obvious. They are not stacked on our desk or circled on our calendars or clogging our inboxes. They are of a different nature.
Consider this: are there students in our classrooms with whom we have been at odds? Are there students who have managed to rub us the wrong way, about whom we are justified (in our minds, at least) to feel great frustration toward?
Are there calls we ought to make; emails we ought to write? Are there parents we know are stewing that we are content to let simmer in their own juices? Are we willing to simply write these things off and hope that they go away?
Are there faculty members we have avoided, those with whom we have conflicts – large or small – with whom we would rather not speak?
Much like we have “work” to do with grades and exams and closing out the minutiae of the semester, these things, too, are “work.” Why do we often resist the notion that this kind of work is as important as all the other kinds of work?
Hopefully you do not have many of these items in your life, professional or otherwise. Hopefully you tend to these issues as they come up and, because we work with people – with students, their parents and our colleagues – they will come up. Hopefully you do not leave these things undone.
As we look to the semester’s end, though, maybe we can set our sights on doing those things that are undone. Perhaps we can wrap up some loose ends that are not tangible. Maybe these final weeks we can allow ourselves a moment to reflect on what needs to be addressed and give us the space to actually address it.
Perhaps we can do the undone.
That would be a great gift to share with others and with ourselves.