It's Official: School is coming!

To a school teacher, there are many indicators that school is coming: You turn the calendar to August, back to school flyers litter the mailbox, the cicadas begin humming outside, and school registration occurs. All of these events cause a quickening of my pulse, knowing that soon I will be back to work. However, the one event that officially indicates that summer is closing soon to me is. . .

The teacher nightmare.

Yes, I start having teacher nightmares.

A few nights ago, I awoke in the middle of the night to my first one; they tend to increase ten fold as school approaches. This dream had me teaching in a high school (it was actually Maplewood where I went to school) , and the portion of the dream that I remember is me having study hall supervision. I needed to gather my belongings and hurry through a crowded hallway to get to my study hall. I was painstakingly organizing my things over and over. For some reason, I just couldn't move at the speed I needed to. I was in super sonic slooowww speed.

When I finally arrived at studyhall, the students were dutifully sitting in their seats, but another teacher had stayed around to cover for my delinquency. This teacher berated me in front of the kids who proceeded to mock me during the study hall. I couldn't get them to stop and I was burning from shame of his tirade.

And so it begins. . . Dreams similar to this haunt me all of August. Kids will be screaming and not listening. I will be late for class over and over and over. I will have ungraded papers. I will unfairly yell at a kid. Relief: they are just dreams and I can wake up from them.

Yet this indicator is one that I know is leading me to my inevitable return to work soon. Thank goodness! Because the reality of my job is far from a nightmare.