Bathroom Breaks

Teachers don’t get them.  Hang on, I take that back.  Teachers do get two well-deserved bathroom breaks; one is during lunch, and the second is when the school day is over.   Much like a person can train their body to get ready for a marathon, a teacher has to train her bladder to get ready for the school year.  I learned a little something about coffee as well…that being to NOT drink two cups of coffee in the morning when lunch is an agonizing four hours away.  Coffee contains caffeine, which, as it turns out, is a diuretic (I had to look that one up!).  A diuretic increases the flow of urine to rid the body of excess water.  In layman’s terms, it makes you pee…a lot.  It’s a bit ironic, as coffee seems to be a lifeline for a majority of teachers who wake up before the sun to get to school to prepare for the day.  I can offer just a few tips for this conundrum:

·               Hope and pray for a bathroom INSIDE the classroom (these mostly occur in kindergarten or first grade classrooms).

·               Get well-acquainted to those in neighboring classrooms, as they can be your lookout buddies.  That is, once your students are miraculously working on something quietly, your lookout buddy can listen out to make sure your students don’t start a wrestling match as you run to the bathroom in the next hall over.

·               Make a sign with the words “Bathroom Break PLEASE” to hang out of your door.  Then wait, and hope that some kind soul comes by to watch your class while you empty your bladder.

·               Don’t drink anything in the morning; wait until summer to get your daily caffeine fix.