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Home > Professional Development Channel > Archives > Education World Columnists > Eric Baylin > Eric Baylin

EDUCATION WORLD COLUMNISTS

Eric Baylin's
Songs to Brighten a Teacher's Day


Hallelujah for Vacations

(Sung to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Spring vacation is just around the corner for many of us -- and none too soon. It’s definitely time for a break; time to fuel up for the last few months of school.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming two-week break.
We all need some relaxation and some fun for goodness sake.
If we had to wait much longer, then our heads would surely ache.
It’s time to take a break.


About the Lyricist

Eric Baylin has been a teacher for 38 years, working with a variety of age levels in both public and private schools in New York and North Carolina. He currently works at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York, a K-12 independent school established in 1854. In addition to teaching art and photography to middle- and high-school students, Eric coordinates a program of collaborative faculty study groups in Packer's professional development program.

Hallelujah for vacations,
Time for fun and relaxation,
No more stressful complications,
It’s time to take a break.

We’ve been teaching; we’ve been testing; we’ve been grading quite a lot.
We’ve been poring over books and analyzing every plot.
We are tired; we are weary; we’ve been giving all we’ve got.
It’s time to take a break.

Hallelujah for vacations,
Time for fun and relaxation,
No more stressful complications,
It’s time to take a break.

Mathematics, English hist’ry, foreign language, and PE,
Music, dance, and chorus, theatre, visual art, photography,
Health, computer, physics, calculus, and AP chemistry, It’s time to take a break.

Hallelujah for vacations,
Time for fun and relaxation,
No more stressful complications,
It’s time to take a break.

School is such an opportunity, a wonderful endeavor.
Education makes you smarter, education makes you clever.
But we do get awfully tired and we think that we could never
Go to school without a lot of breaks.

Hallelujah for vacations,
Time for fun and relaxation,
No more stressful complications,
It’s time to take a break.

In the middle of vacation, we can just about forget
All the work that we’ve been doing and the work that’s coming yet.
With a day or two remaining of vacation, you can bet
We’ll begin to think about the next vacation we will get.

Hallelujah for vacations,
Time for fun and relaxation,
No more stressful complications,
It’s time to take a break.

Song lyrics copyright 2008 Eric Baylin

Tuning our Schools with Laughter


This is my 39th year in teaching. Ouch! It's hard to see that in print. Several years ago, I had one of those great "aha" moments that has given new life to my role as an educator.

I've always been interested in working to change schools in ways that enhance and support learning, but I'd gotten to a point in my career when I saw that all my serious, effortful striving played only a minimal role in change. The "aha" came when I realized that I could, at least, change my state of mind by laughing at the very things that bugged me most. OK, maybe not everything. But at least the little everyday stuff that nags at me and drags me down.

That thought became fodder for songs about school and teaching, which I started writing as a way of helping myself (and my colleagues) survive the year with an intact sense of humor.

I still work hard to change the things that stand in the way of student (and adult) success in schools. But now I wonder -- seriously -- if laughter itself isn't one of the soundest pedagogies, a "best practice" that can help us re-tune our schools and shift the culture to one that genuinely embraces wellbeing and lightness of heart as sound supports for learning.

I wouldn't mind working at a school whose mission statement included, after those ever-familiar phrases, "lifelong learning" and "supportive, yet challenging environment," the words

And this is a school where we love to laugh!

Click here to return to the Education World Columnists archive page.

Article by Eric Baylin
Education World®
Copyright © 2008 Education World

02/26/08



 

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