As you got closer to retiring, did you begin to have doubts? (social security, celebrate)
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If the health insurance racket was resolved in any useful way, I'd have retired several years ago. As it is, I can't give up the employer subsidized insurance. Really not happy still working, but no good choice.
This is my last year teaching, and I know I am OVER IT, but I still find myself "teary-eyed" at times knowing whatever I do this year, it will be the last time. I cried when I picked up my room keys, I welled up at Open House when I explained to a set of parents that this was my last one (but then, too, I am not sure if it was due to a parent asking if I taught at another high school in '85, only to discover she had been one of my students! ). And as we ending reading The Crucible in my last period class on Friday, tears began to fall as I realized I would never be teaching it again.
SO is this normal? I know I am ready mentally, but at times like these, I begin to wonder if I really should be leaving!
This is just an observation gleaned from the experience of having been married for 34 years, working with several great women and having 2 daughters that are now young women!
I sense that you are ready to retire but you do not want to just walk out the door. Surely all your years meant more than that!!
When I retired after 31 years, I just left (a week early but I managed that!). Its like I never worked there and I had loved my job!
Women don't do that. They have emotions that must be dealt with. Just make sure you have the attitude you will be more than fine! If being retired is not perfect, you can probably go back in some capacity. I know many retired teachers and they are the happiest retirees you will ever find.
You are right about me ready to walk out the door as well as this being emotional for me. Some women do show their emotions more, and I am definitely one of them as my former students will testify. I loved my job and my kids and I will miss the emotional attachment I have had with so many, but it is time to move on and let a younger teacher (and one who LOVES technology) step in and share his/her love for the written word with them. Thank you for reaffirming all of this!
I could teach for 3 1/2 more years after this one, and then would have to retire as I am in a special program that would allow me to teach only 5 after my "official" retirement date which was Dec. 2011.
And NOOOOOO I am will not be pulling a Brett Favre!
This is my last year teaching, and I know I am OVER IT, but I still find myself "teary-eyed" at times knowing whatever I do this year, it will be the last time. I cried when I picked up my room keys, I welled up at Open House when I explained to a set of parents that this was my last one (but then, too, I am not sure if it was due to a parent asking if I taught at another high school in '85, only to discover she had been one of my students! ). And as we ending reading The Crucible in my last period class on Friday, tears began to fall as I realized I would never be teaching it again.
SO is this normal? I know I am ready mentally, but at times like these, I begin to wonder if I really should be leaving!
You need to get it all in perspective and reevaluate. You are being nostalgic about the job etc. That is a good thing. However not only will this be the last of the good it will also be the last of what you don't like. The last Xmas vacation you get that feeling oh well its over. The last Spring and Summer break with that feeling. The last obnoxious parent conference. The last IEP. The last obnoxious student. The last day getting up so you can go to work. The last night going to sleep so you can get up to go to work. The last faculty meeting etc etc etc. Oh yeah the last paper essay to grade and the last box of work to take home to grade. Once you have focused on a full perspective decide which you will miss most and if you will miss most the positive nostalgia, don't turn your papers in. If you will not miss the other side of the job which will be part of the job tomorrow turn them in. I use the word nostalgia because you think you are leaving and are trying to savior the best moments and that is good and natural. However don't forget the realities good and bad that will be there next year! Go on vacation the first week of school next year and decide which is the better place to be.
This is just an observation gleaned from the experience of having been married for 34 years, working with several great women and having 2 daughters that are now young women!
I sense that you are ready to retire but you do not want to just walk out the door. Surely all your years meant more than that!!
When I retired after 31 years, I just left (a week early but I managed that!). Its like I never worked there and I had loved my job!
Women don't do that. They have emotions that must be dealt with. Just make sure you have the attitude you will be more than fine! If being retired is not perfect, you can probably go back in some capacity. I know many retired teachers and they are the happiest retirees you will ever find.
Yup and more yup. It can also contribute to a difference in the work place and how folks react to retiring. It quite possibly is part of the emotional tug the OP is feeling because it is probably a majority female environment and retirement is probably more of a emotional process
I could teach for 3 1/2 more years after this one, and then would have to retire as I am in a special program that would allow me to teach only 5 after my "official" retirement date which was Dec. 2011.
And NOOOOOO I am will not be pulling a Brett Favre!
Retire but keep the connection to the young folks by tutoring for free teaching English as a second language, or volunteering with a literacy group. You have so much to offer and you would be rewarded by the obvious love and connection you have for students. I always thought what a tremendous waste it was for good teachers to just quit/retire one day.
You need to get it all in perspective and reevaluate. You are being nostalgic about the job etc. That is a good thing. However not only will this be the last of the good it will also be the last of what you don't like.
You are DEFINITELY correct about this....and after the day I had today, what I DON'T like will NOT be missed~!
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Originally Posted by Texas User
What about private teaching?
I could, but I am SOOOOO over it...
Quote:
Originally Posted by LivingDeadGirl
Retire but keep the connection to the young folks by tutoring for free teaching English as a second language, or volunteering with a literacy group. You have so much to offer and you would be rewarded by the obvious love and connection you have for students. I always thought what a tremendous waste it was for good teachers to just quit/retire one day.
That is what I plan to do while in Serbia, but tutoring more so than teaching as it stands right now. BUT that may change when I go there as for some reason, many schools there LOVE foreign teachers.
Do you know how lucky you are to be "able" to retire?
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). And as we ending reading The Crucible in my last period class on Friday, tears began to fall as I realized I would never be teaching it again. 
