LEARN NC

the sky at sunrise

The First Year

By Kristi Johnson Smith

3.1 Welcome back!

Originally posted January 6, 2006

Many of my friends are in professions other than teaching, and one January evening I listened as one of those friends described how much he loved the first day back at work after the winter holidays. He detailed that day, depicting a slow morning devoted to catching up on colleagues’ travels, long coffee breaks discussing New Year’s resolutions, and a general sense of “easing back in” to the workplace.

I didn’t know whether to pinch him or try to steal his job.

My first days back are never like that. The school is generally freezing, since the heater needs a few days to reverse a week of closed doors and 40-degree temperatures. And students alternate between talking incessantly to friends they missed during the holidays and sleeping through the morning section of my class. Over a one-week winter holiday, it seems, some have grown accustomed to waking up around noon.

As I struggle to get everyone back into “school mode,” I sometimes envy those in jobs that allow them to ease into anything. I think about how nice it must be to start work at nine am, to go to the bathroom without the permission of a dismissal bell, and to take more than fifteen minutes for lunch.

But then I remember why I love this job.

I love this job because I get to spend my days with students. Every day, those students touch my heart in some significant way. And in return, they allow me to touch their lives. Those exchanges make our work with these kids incredibly important.

If you’re reading this at the time of year when I wrote it, you’re just starting back to school now. So, welcome back! I’m glad you’re here, and whether or not they articulate it, your students are happy to see you too. Thank you for being a stable force in their lives and a positive part of their development. We are educators. We don’t get to ease back into the workplace, and it will be months before we enjoy a long weekday lunch. But as we re-enter our classroom, we are re-entering our students’ lives, and reclaiming our status as their teachers.

Welcome back, and have a great year.