The seventh week of school is winding up, and my students are thriving in their fifth-grade groove. They are well versed in daily routines, aware of expectations and fluid in basic classroom activities. So why can’t I kick up my feet and bask in the glow of a job well done? Answer: I am a teacher and a type “A” personality; a lethal combination at times. I’ve got things to do.

My brain is chock full of the many choices, answers, deadlines and programs I juggle each day. So full in fact, that sometimes I have a hard time keeping a handle on much more than work. I forget items at the grocery store, leave important e-mails for too long, neglect my own well being, and rush around like a woman possessed; finally dropping onto my pillow each night exhausted.

So I got to thinking this week about my job as an educator, and the pressures I allow it to put on me. Start with the choices I make on any given school day. Some choices are small, “May I bring my dog to school today for show and tell?” No, not unless you clear it with the office in advance. Some are larger, “Can I call my dad? I forgot my homework.” No, because you’ve been “forgetting” your homework for the past week and it’s time you took responsibility for your own actions. Some are just plain ridiculous, “Mrs. Powell, can we stand on the teeter totter and pretend to surf?” Do I really have to answer that? It isn’t the questions themselves, or even the decisions that need to be made on a minute-by-minute basis, but the endurance it takes to absorb, reflect and aptly respond to their bombardment that attacks my perfectionism, and cracks the sheen on my type “A” personality. A recent study from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn., found that a teacher has to make at any given moment more decisions minute-by-minute than a brain surgeon. The most conservative estimate from this study has teachers making approximately 130 decisions per hour during a six-hour school day, and this reflects only those decisions made within the classroom. No wonder I can’t remember to buy toothpaste!

So, because I am not only an overachiever, but also a fighter who cannot resist a challenge, I put off basking in the glow of my careful decision making. I have to keep going, keep answering, keep scheduling and choosing; because I love my job, pressure and all.

The kids are what really fuel my fire. It’s always been about the kids. In the flurry of activity that is this elementary school teacher’s life there are deadlines for paperwork, disciplinary meetings, uncomfortable phone calls, late nights planning for units, mounds of copies to be made, unkempt children to be attended to, numerous sacrificed weekends, stern reminders to be given and stuck zippers to be unstuck.

But, there are also encouraging words to be said, hugs to receive, private jokes to be giggled over, ah-has to be heard, field trips to be taken, songs to be sung, memories to be made, and sometimes even tears to be shed. Quite a trade off.

So what if my profession and my personality conspire to make me a nut case sometimes. Who cares if I lose a little sleep over my choice for next week’s social studies lesson?

The seventh week of school is winding up, and if that Concordia study is right, I have made nearly 5,000 decisions that will positively influence the lives of my fifth-grade students.

That knowledge just might be enough to transform my capital type “A” into a lower case. So when my husband asks me, “What are we having for dinner tonight?” I can honestly take a moment, smile to myself and reply, “I don’t know, I just made 1,000 decisions today, babe, you decide.”

Vanessa Powell teaches fifth grade at Snowshoe Elementary School. Her Chalk Talk column appears every four weeks.