Having recently attended a Phillies game, and with Eagles training camp beginning this week, I began to think about the similarities between teaching and sports.  OK, wait.  To be honest, I’m trying to wrap my mind around the fact that summer is halfway over and the first day of school is looming.  I know I’m not the only teacher feeling this way, so I thought I’d take a different approach to what we do.  Here’s what I came up with:

• First Days Back- Those first few days, teachers return to classroom setup, meetings, and professional development.  We catch up with colleagues and get the lowdown on the coming year.  I consider this to be Training Camp.

• Professional Development Days- On the handful of days that the students get to stay home and relax, teachers are briefed on whatever the county/district thinks we need to better perform our duties.  These are Mini-Camps.

• 180 Days- As regulated by the state, these are our scheduled games; our Regular Season.   We must get these in, or be penalized in some form.

• Snow Days- Ahhh….snow days.  Getting that call at 5:30 a.m. to let you know that you’re spending the day in your jammies on the sofa with your cat, your coffee, and your book.  That’s the best!  Until you have to make them up.  I think we could call these our Rain Delays.

• IEP Meetings- You may never go to one, but for those of us that teach SpEd, they’re routine.  With so many people involved, the passionate discussions, compromising, paperwork, legalities…these are Contract Talks.

• Nights and Weekends- We all do it.  I’m doing it right now.  Working on teacher stuff on our own time.  We’re devoted, perfectionists, procrastinators, crazy.  This is Over Time; although I also consider it a Personal Foul.

• Finals- Teachers struggle, push, coach, cajole, bribe, encourage, and beg our students to do well.  These are the Playoffs.  Those last, important hurdles to leap over before the all-important big game.

• Last Day of School- What else could we call the last day of school, other than the Super Bowl?

Don’t get me wrong, teachers love what they do.  Don’t let our complaining fool you–That’s just us blowing off steam.  Most teachers wouldn’t trade this profession for anything.  The majority of our days are run-of-the-mill.  Some days suck, but more than most are awesome.  Feel free to add to my list if you have other teaching/sport correlations.  I’m interested to hear what you come up with. 🙂