My Day at Inservice

In the education field, certain teachers are required to spend so much time each year in inservice. Now an inservice can simply be defined as any type of training or continuing education session. The yearly district teachers' meeting conducted by our professional organization can count for some of this credit. And this particular moment was that big day.

We get into the auditorium and find okay seats on the bleacher benches. When the president of our organization begins to speak, her voice is unclear and hard to hear from where we were sitting. But at some point, I did hear her say, "And this morning, you all put on your inservice shoes and came on over here." I couldn't help myself. I had to take a peek at my feet to see if this was true. But all I found were the shoes I wore daily to school.

The opening events were good and following that, they recognized area teachers whom retired during the year. To them I say, "God bless you all and we thank you for your wonderful service to society. Now enjoy that well-deserved retirement!" The retirees were each awarded a hand bell, a common symbol of teaching that goes right along with the apple.

Speaking of apples, I should mention we were handed one as we entered the auditorium for the meeting. It must have been one of the benefits of attending. Yet an apple can be one of the healthiest things we eat, so I thank them. I encourage everyone to try and eat one apple a day.

Getting back to the session, they had some local elementary students sing for us. First I want to thank those kids for taking the time on their day off to do this for us. Very nice. Some might say they were required to do this for their choir grade, but even if that was the case, I still thank them. They did a super job. Hopefully they were able to enjoy the rest of their day.

In thanking them, I do have to make a comment on one of their songs. They did a classic favorite, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from the perspective of a Cardinals fan. Being a frustrated Royals fan, it was demoralizing, yet I quickly recovered as their next song was a beautiful salute to our veterans overseas whom are sacrificing it all. Great job, kids!

Eventually it was the guest speaker's turn. Unfortunately, he was the same speaker my fellow teachers and I had heard at an inservice the year before. And his presentation was the same. I did try picking out new stuff, and I tried looking at it as similar to the old teaching strategy of repeating the material to enhance the learning, but the sound system was not cooperating in our corner. So it was a long 45 minutes. I do remember the key point of this speaker, and that was for us to find humor each day in the things we face. Laughter in education is something that doesn't always get promoted or encouraged, but laughing does ease certain situations and supposedly even helps the immune system. So do indeed find ways to have a good laugh (or a lot of 'em) each day.

The ole' bench was really losing its welcoming qualities by the time the speech was complete. Yet there was more business to be covered before we could clear out. One of the items was the presentation of some grants that area teachers had written for. To my surprise, my colleague sitting next to me (and whom has the classroom across the hall from mine) was one of the two winners. I truly congratulate him. That is a great achievement.

A new president was tapped in to lead the organization through the coming year. He had some final remarks of which I couldn't hear, and then we were dismissed. Good-bye, bleacher seat! Apparently everyone else had the same feeling.

As the crowd of educators made their way to the nearest exit, they also pursued the individuals handing out the certificates of attendance. If the others were like our staff, they were required to get one to verify they attended and didn't skip. The certificate also states the number of hours of inservice credit you received as well. They were definitely a hot item. I'm glad I wasn't having to distribute them. Almost seems similar to feeding hungry lions with all of them heading for you at once (so I assume). I do commend those people and I thank them.

Driving home, I pondered the time spent. Normally I feel refreshed, motivated, and refueled after a lot of the inservices, but today I just seemed glad it was done. However, I don't feel it was the fault of anybody. I did choose to continue sitting in the corner the sound didn't reach. The speaker was one I'd heard before, but that doesn't mean all the others had. A lot of them seemed to enjoy him, as I had done the first time I heard him. Inservice days are like any other, some are better and some are not.

There was good to be found in it. I got an apple and I was reminded of our troops overseas, something we shouldn't lose thought of. Plus, I saw good, hard-working people being honored and awarded for their efforts. Yes, it still was a good, healthy day!