Teaching Through the Year

Every August smells like dry erase hope

Fresh paper dreams and a lanyard rope

I tell myself this year I’ll finally get it right

Reach every kid sitting silent in fluorescent light

I’ll teach better than I ever have before

Different paths for every learner walking through that door

No bad kids, just bruises from another place

So I greet every hard-eyed child with a little grace

And they fool you at first while they learn your ways

Little perfect angels in those early days

Parent teacher conferences, I proudly grin

“You must be so proud of the kid you’re raising”

But those confused looks from mama and dad

Should’ve warned me then that calm don’t last

Then they come back after break and I swear they changed overnight

Who are you and what’d you do with my sweet kid from September light?

Yeah the honeymoon is over, now the real child’s here

And he ain’t going nowhere till the end of the year

So buckle up buttercup, this is where you earn your pay

Pulling out your hair a little more each day

Doing damage control while loving them anyway

Earning every gray hair along with your pay

By March my coffee’s basically blood

My desk looks buried in an avalanche flood

One kid barking, one kid crying, one asleep again

One somehow set a pencil pouch on fire with a pen

“Can I go to the bathroom?” “Sure.” I sigh

“Can I sharpen this?” “Yeah.” “Can I sit by…”

At this point child I no longer care

Just don’t start a riot while I’m standing here

And somehow underneath the chaos and noise

You still catch glimpses of those girls and boys

The ones they could become if life plays fair

So you keep showing up because somebody’s there

Yeah they come back after break and I swear they changed overnight

Who are you and what’d you do with my sweet kid from September light?

Yeah the honeymoon is over, now the real child’s here

And he ain’t going nowhere till the end of the year

So buckle up buttercup, this is where you earn your pay

Pulling out your hair a little more each day

Doing damage control while loving them anyway

Earning every gray hair along with your pay

By May I got a manic grin I call a smile

Counting down the days the whole last mile

Telling myself I’m finally free this time

Never again… at least till July

Then the last bell rings and the hallway clears

And suddenly the silence sounds weird in my ears

The room’s a wreck but the chairs all stand

Like ghosts of crayons and tiny hands

Yeah they drove me crazy nearly every day

Tested every ounce of patience I could pray

But when I lock that classroom one last time

Somehow I know I’m gonna miss those little minds

Because every year starts with hope again

And somehow teachers still walk back in