Keepin' It Real

 Sometimes I refer to myself as "the utility infielder" for my elementary school. For those of you unfamiliar with the inner workings of baseball, this is a player who shows competency at a number of different positions, giving coaches options when it comes to moving folks around. Over the course of my career, I have filled in at every grade level. I know where the kitchen is, and how to get the ladder out of the room where the water heater is. I have answered the phones and taken attendance. I have opened the gates and swept the floors. I have watched over recess and shooed stray dogs off the playground. I spent a few years teaching fourth grade, but mostly I have been the computer teacher. And lately, the PE teacher. 

It is probably because of all this moving around that, from time to time, I have not been included on notices for "real teachers." Not having a group of students that I supervise for most of the day leaves me with this asterisk that does not allow me to be eligible for some of the perks and information available to "real teachers." 

Which, over the years, I have learned is fine with me. I tend to prefer the big picture, and even though this tends to get me the kind of attention that requires me to be the guy who takes his keys downstairs to open the third grade room for the substitute when I would perhaps prefer to be sitting at my desk planning for the events in my own day, I can live with that. 

Because teachers burn out. Especially "real teachers." Some have moved on to other schools. Other careers. Some have gotten married and started families and left the grind of elementary education behind. What keeps me coming back is the way there is always something left to do. When it's time to go home for the day, or at the end of the week, or even at the end of the year, in my mind there is a to-do list that stretches on into the distance. We're going to need that ladder again. The lunch lady is out. A first grader threw up in the hallway. Somebody needs to cover first grade until the teacher gets there. 

And somebody's got to teach PE. And computers. There has never been a utility player named MVP, and that's fine with me. I'm not in it for the trophies. I'm in it for the chance to get up on the roof from time to time.