"Seriously! You're working during your break?"

This was the question my husband asked me this morning as I opened up my laptop and started working on January lesson plans.  This year we had 13 days off for Winter Break and this is the first time since we moved to South Carolina that he had the entire break off with me. We were giddy like schoolchildren when we discovered by him taking leave for 5 days over the break we would have the entire time to hang out as a family and enjoy the holidays with our 12 year old son. The first few weeks of break we rushed around shopping and getting ready for Christmas. Then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day flew by and yesterday we decided not to even get out of our pajamas.

This morning, however, after I enjoyed a cup of coffee with him and the Today show, I felt that itch to get some work done. I brought home my laptop and my teacher bag was full of papers to grade. I couldn't waste another minute. So I got up from the couch, grabbed my laptop and returned to the couch an started searching for ideas on how to teach author's craft.

Apparently, I was not the only one thinking this way, because as I opened my school email, I found a note from of the other teachers on my grade level, stating how much it sucked that here we were 7 days into our break and she was working on school stuff. A few replies from others on our team echoed the same sentiment. I chimed in with a comment I am sure is representative of how many of us feel...in very few other  professions, do you have to work on our vacation to prepare for your  return to work.

I feel the same way about taking a sick day (which I usually only do if my son is sick and my husband is working).  It is so much work to prepare to be out, that it is almost not worth it.

Now this might sound like whining, and maybe it is, but I just wondered what the spouses/partners of other teachers out there think when they see them having to work on their break to prepare for the return to school.

TIME TO CHIME......