The Dreaded "Teacher Dreams" & Changing Window Screens: A Teacher's Life

It's the beginning of August and...they're baaa-aack. Though the official return to the blank canvas that is my empty classroom is not for almost two weeks, the dreams that wake me in a start, bringing a racing heart and a coat of sweat have arrived in full force. Dreams where your running in heels through campus unable to find a classroom you've taught in for years or have been given a new assignment to a school in an undisclosed location and you can’t find anyone who knows the address though school is to start in five minutes. Dreams where every red light is keeping you from being on time to the first day of school. Dreams where none of your clothes fit, your classroom door won't unlock, your already set up classroom has magically undone itself and where no one on campus will speak to you. 

These dreams are what real teachers are made of and whether new or a 20 year vet, we've learned that they come with the territory. When we are brave enough to share, recounting the ridiculous, yet relatable nature of the dreams, they bring us laughs and camaraderie. Knowing smiles and similar versions of your recurring teacher nightmare have floated over many a lunch table.

Pre-Planning Phase

There are actual books that collect teacher dreams in order to make us laugh through our collective unconsciousness. There is also a theory, that goes as far as to say these dreams are good for us. That even in our dreams, we are processing and making contingency plans for stressors we know we will face in the classroom: being prepared, dealing with challenging students/staff members/parents, and counteracting the unexpected. 

Perhaps there is merit to these anxiety producing, sleep-robbing night visions. In some twisted funny, but not funny way, they serve to prepare us mortals to do work of the divine on our classrooms. We need superpowers including not only eyesight in the back of our heads and bat like hearing, but the ability to know the precise combination of independence, nursing, counseling, hand holding, humor, and disciplinarian every child needs at any given moment. Subconscious pre-planning via “practice” with a variety of dream scenarios becomes a feasible way to prepare for what seems to be unpreparable.

Fitted!

So that brings me to changing screens. Three screens in my house were begging to be re-screened. Not getting paid in the summer had the possibility of contracting someone not an option. I'm not a “Handy-woman-Hannah” type, am a self proclaimed weakling when it comes to math and am not a super sure hand with tools. But, according to the aforementioned teacher dream theory, I am a problem solver and had been mentally preparing myself for this for days. I did my YouTube research, took double measurements and debated Home Depot vs. Lowes. I stripped a screen while following my YouTube Instructor and confidently headed to the big box home improvement store. I was determined that I would face the unknown with confidence and that I would have success, even if several attempts are what were in order. Just like in my classroom. In the same manner I approach students, I was not going to give up until those damn screens were installed.

And you know what, I did it. First attempt. No returns for more or different parts. Was it a struggle, yes. Did I curse, more than once which was actually nice since that type of vocabulary is not allowed while problem solving at school. Did I have to climb a ladder and use the back of a broom handle to secure a second story screen, yes, but hey, it worked. The screen is in securely.

Are my recently returned teacher nightmares the reason I successfully fixed the screens? Of course not. But the spirit in which I face my students each year and work through the inevitable challenges and pitfalls that come with being a teacher is what contributed most to that success. Teacher friends, the teacher dreams may be back, but that means so are we. And I’m ready for 2015-16. Are you?

Installed with a little broom handle improvisation - Teachers Improvise all the time, right?