Variety is the spice of work (6/100)

I am again grateful for the diversity of roles I now undertake at work. When I was a full-time classroom teacher the variety came from juggling the needs of twenty, thirty or more students whose attitudes, motivations, tolerances and self-reliance were forever changing. On a larger sense, though, the job was relentless and monotonous: arrive at 8am, plan for the students, keep the curriculum in mind, manage the students and their parents, assess the students, attend a mostly pointless meeting, deal with neurotic colleagues, leave exhausted at 6pm. Repeat every school day. Nowadays, I spend most of my time helping individual students write, edit or reference their assignments. This creates record keeping to be done so that takes up another chunk of my time. A couple of times a week I teach a workshop, which requires planning, preparation of materials and some record keeping. Then every few months we have a night like tonight: recitals/showcase/film awards. I get to go to an interesting venue and see the students, some of whom have seen me for struggles with written work, performing in their element. Tonight it was the Music students, another time I'll watch student short films or wander a gallery of student art work. Every time I'm astounded by the talent, creativity and courage shown by the students showcasing their work.