un poquito whining

This is a public service announcement for all you friends/relatives/loved ones of teachers out there. Never (and I mean NEVER EVER) say "Oh, you're a teacher huh. That must be nice...work from 8 to 3, all the weekends and holidays off, summer break..." You may invite a swift punch to the face if you neglect my warning and you say something like that. And why the violence? Well, let me explain using my usual schedule:

1 hr: At least 3 times a week I get up at 5 am to work for an hour before getting ready for the
day because I didn't get enough done the night before.

10 hrs: At school from 7:30am to 6ish pm...sometimes leave at 5, sometimes at 7, just depending. Oh yeah, don't forget that super long half hour lunch break (11:45 - 12:15).

2-3 hrs: Finally home...take a break for dinner and maybe a little reading or tv...then back to
work (grading, planning, etc.) by around 8 for a couple more hours (hopefully to bed by 11 or so).

So that's an average of 14 hrs. of work a day... then add in the never-ending pile of work to be graded, the bottomless pit of paperwork to be filled out about various students, the assignments to be accomplished for whatever committees I'm a member of, the continuous running dialogue between me and the trouble kids (what I coulda/shoulda/will in the future say/do) in my head, the 8 billion pound weight of "am i doing a good job? are they learning anything? how can i teach this concept? what should i do to make them behave?" on my shoulders, oh, and the relentless desire to do a good job (therefore not happy with the old fashioned read-the-book-and-answer-questions way of teaching...no i can't be satisfied with that but instead insist on making up games, activities, role-play, labs, etc...which sometimes involves me actually making them up, but more often requires some research on my part for other teachers' lesson plans and then an all-night cutting/labeling/drawing/etc. spree to get the game ready for the day i want to use it on.) that causes me to lie in bed fretting and thinking about ways to do this better (aka time in bed not sleeping).
Hence the anger and violent reaction to the "oh, you're a teacher, that must mean you get paid for hardly working" comments. Don't do it, just don't make that comment (unless you like black eyes).

whew, ok, i'm done. there's the november whine-fest : ).