Do you ever wonder what your teachers are doing during the breaks? Some have the pleasure of an occasional run-in with a teacher outside of school, but does anyone really know what teachers do outside of school. Well, here is everything that Mr. Girard, Ms. Issa, and Ms. Sherman love about Christmas and how they plan on spending Christmas break.
Jeffrey Girard, our Government and Inside Nazi Germany teacher, is spending his break with friends and family. He “wants to enjoy his break by relaxing with his young daughter, but he has much on his agenda,” he said. His family began decorating the day after Thanksgiving because he has a strict rule that the “Christmas season cannot begin until after Thanksgiving.” His favorite part of the decorations are the stockings. He has been devastated ever since he grew out of them, so having a daughter to watch enjoy them is very special to him. Mr. Girard will be starting his Christmas festivities by chaperoning Snowball, so if you are a senior, be sure to say hello to him.
Every year one of his teammates from his SMU swim team throws a Christmas party with tradition Danish food because he is from Denmark; this will be their 18th year of having it! On Christmas Eve, they head over to Fort Worth to spend the evening with his wife’s family. They all get matching pajamas and watch White Christmas which he says he “tries to fall asleep during.” They spend Christmas morning at their own house and then they have Christmas dinner at his parents’ house. Sounds like Mr. Girard has a lot on his hands this break!
Hadil Issa, our Arabic and Freshman Math teacher, is excited to spend her break seeing Christmas lights, watching Christmas with the Kranks, and listening to “Silent Night”. She plans to have 30 friends from Bethlehem over to her house on Christmas Eve. They cook Middle Eastern food, do a white elephant, play bingo, and have someone dress up as Santa to give the children presents. After all this excitement, she usually spends her Christmas cleaning up from the night before, followed by relaxing and watching Christmas movies, but this year they decided that they were to leave for Las Vegas on Christmas day.
Kathy Sherman, our freshman theology teacher, plans to spend her break with some people who cannot spend it with their own families. Because in the past ten years she has only been able to spend the last two Christmases’ with her family due to her teaching overseas, she feels grateful, and so feels called to bring that joy to others this Christmas.
Besides watching It’s a Wonderful Life, and listening to “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel”, Ms. Sherman plans to participate in her family’s annual secret Santa and eat their secret family cookie recipe of buttercreams, sweet treats that come from her Dad’s side of the family and date back to centuries ago in Germany. (She plans to eat a lot of them). On Dec. 23, she is going to visit her pen pal who is in prison. She visits him once a month, and feels it is even more necessary this time, so that he does not feel alone during this season. On Christmas and Christmas Eve, she plans to spend time with her friend who has a baby and whose husband is in the military.
So, no, teachers do not spend their entire breaks grading and thinking about school, they spend them enjoying the Christmas season with their friends and families. Just like you!
