The 52nd Week

The New York Times recently reported that the 52^nd week of the year is becoming the last week of business for many in America.   For those still open for business the 52^nd week can either be a molasses slow or a nice quite stretch and a time for reflection and planning. 

My stock went up the 52^nd week every year I worked in the middle school.  As the last stop before suspension my room became a clearinghouse for all pre holiday woes and worries.  One year so many students accused me of ruining their Christmas that I was tempted to hang a sign on the door that said, “Home of the Grinch.”   Anticipating the holidays exacted a heavy toll of stress upon my usual customers (those students with behavior and learning problems).  All of this forced me to question the sanity of our rush to celebrate and to shop while raising expectations.  Children quickly fall into disappointment when they compare their own family’s holiday with the expected traditions.  Working in a school it’s impossible to deny that holiday’s exposes dysfunction.  They create a divide between those who seem to have it all and those who don’t.

So how do you survive the 52^nd week and still be an effective and compassionate teacher?

One way is to devote this week to a very important job.  The very important job should be service related.  The service that is appropriate for your classroom can be in the form of simple community service tasks for your school building and grounds or if possible it could be expanded to embrace the larger community.   Some of the very important jobs I utilized with students were:

• Create groups to clean up the cafeteria after each lunch period.  Some prep work is required for this.  Cleaning the detail with your custodial staff, and providing adequate supervision during the clean up is a must.   If cleaning the cafeteria is not possible find alternatives; some possibilities are the media center, commons area or main entry, restrooms, and if weather permits outside trash details.  It’s also possible in some districts to arrange for schools buses to be on site for some inside cleaning. 
  • The immediate results for cleaning make these jobs very gratifying for students, not only can they see the results of their hard work but also experience the appreciation of those who directly benefit.

• Arrange for field trips to local nursing homes, animal shelters, and homeless shelters.   All of these require preplanning and with a little effort can be on the calendar every year the 52^nd week.  Exposing students to the disadvantaged, the weak and the needy is a paradigm shift for most and an experience they won’t forget.   Trips outside of school should have a quality of a life lesson, at the very least something not forgotten and at best inspiring.  

• Finding prep work from other teachers in the building.  One year the life skills teacher needed first aid kits assembled for her 120 students.  The job was time consuming and tedious but fit my definition of work for someone else.  In the past I was able to find similar jobs from the tech ed teacher, the art teacher, and various science teachers for labs.   I viewed these tasks as “sweat equity” and explained to students how real work creates something tangible and useful. 

My 52^nd week lesson plan was to expand student’s definition of the holidays, to find a way to experience meaning and connection.   Reading aloud Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carole” or O’Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” are two wonderful literary works that departs from our ideas of the holidays and also gives a glimpse of the different expressions of love. 

It’s challenging to structure a disciple program that teaches something but with a bit of imagination and effort students will have more than a time-out from the classroom they will gain important life skills.