Is This What I Do or Is It Who I Am?

I really have to hand it to you people. Man, some of you guys kept the great conversations going from the time school let out 'till the opening bell of this school year. I know some of you actually still start in September, but great conversaions nonetheless.

I just couldn't do it. I meant to, but I couldn't. Sure, I had a bunch of ideas of what I wanted to work on during the summer but they all got trumped by four little boys who kept wanting to wrestle. How can you pass up on getting dog piled by these guys?



So needless to say, I didn't get much school stuff done. I kind of felt bad about it; especially when I thought of all the teachers out there who put in 60+ hours per week and hammer out curriculum over the summer. I see the Tweets and blog posts--you people are amazing. The question has come to mind: Is This What I Do or Is It Who I Am? Is teaching my job, or is it my essence? I struggle with that all the time. I struggle because I realize that everytime I say yes to an extra hour of planning, that is one less hour I have to spend with my wife and boys. I want to be one of those teachers who can put in an extra four hours per day planning great lessons, but I simply can't. Does that mean someone is gonna pull my teacher card? Hope not. This is a great job. And the one thing I know for sure is that the better dad I am, the better teacher I become.