(Originally found on Assorted Stuff.)

Ms. Frizzle tells all first year teachers that it’s o.k. they are exhausted right now.

This is especially important for the first year teachers that I’m working with, but it’s good for all of us to remember. Ms. Frizzle even links to an article from the Santa Cruz New Teacher Center that I’m handing out in our next New Teacher meeting. It suggests that there really are cycles to the first year that create that roller coaster feeling.

And of course, as both Assorted Stuff and Ms. F point out, it’s not just first year teachers who feel this way. For me, with all my new responsibilities, I’m feeling that "limp into winter break" feeling a bit more than I have in the past years. Fortunately, the things I’m falling back on — my coaching and my teaching — are getting me through. The new things are, of course, interesting and cool, but exhausting, and I need this winter break pretty badly. Between the weekend admissions work and family obligations, I haven’t had a weekend at home in about six weeks. It’s time for some downtime.

But on a much larger level, teaching is a profession that really requires learning how to ride out emotional waves. It’s easy to think of this profession as a constant sprint, but it’s not. The school year is a long time, and a teaching career is even longer. Learning how to manage that energy level is part of learning how to make this into a career — a life. It’s as much a part of teaching as learning how to keep a gradebook or write a unit plan.