It must be nice to be a Teacher.

"Wait, you're on holidays again?"

Simply typing those words makes me want to deliver a swift kick to the nether regions of the poor soul who dares utter that question.

The responses I am given when people ask me what I do for a living are always the same. "Oh teaching, that must be a fun job" "It must be nice starting work at 9am and finishing at 3pm!" "Wow, you get all those holidays!" "It cant be all that hard" "They're just kids."

I could write a whole post dedicated to each of the above statements but this afternoon I'll settle for the holidays part. In my neck o'the woods, we have eleven week terms with 2 weeks break in between each one. It is one of the perks of the job, for sure; who would turn their nose up at getting time off?  Like any other careers, teaching can be fantastic and rewarding. It can also be very, very stressful.

We have syllabus documents to teach by. We have hectic class timetables that are jumbled around every few weeks to fit in unexpected new events. We are expected to teach more content than is humanly possible in every year. We teach lessons to children who don't speak English. We teach lessons to children who have behavioural problems. We teach lessons to children who have learning difficulties. We teach lessons to children with disabilities. We monitor and most importantly teach students for longer hours than some parents even see their children. We have to create a programme for every single term and be able to justify what we are teaching.

And when do we get the chance to do this programming? Certainly not in work hours; we're too busy teaching. We do the majority of this programming in the holidays, or in our own time after school hours are over. Let me ask you some questions. Can you switch off your work thoughts the second you walk out of your office doors? How much work do you take home in your time off work? Are you expected to do professional learning and accreditation in your own time?

Certainly, I've enjoyed a number of days in the past week where I have relaxed, exercised and watched far too many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But I'm also about to start spending the last week of my holiday planning for next term. Programming for teaching. For teaching your children. Care to keep on judging?

So in answer to the question, yes. I am on holidays. Again.