Done scheduling
No, I don’t mean I’ve created the September schedule for my school. I mean I’m done with the job, or will be, some time in the medium term.
Strange story: an educator, the mom of a former student, asked me to write an essay for an anthology on teaching she was compiling. I agreed, and started to write about the different directions I felt pulled in — teaching kids who need a strong math teacher, teaching gifted kids, teaching struggling kids, teaching Bronx kids, teaching younger, older, helping other teachers teach, doing union work in my school, outside my school, doing scheduling, helping with my school, teaching college, getting involved in state math stuff, studying math…
And it hit me. Some choices needed to be made. I started with one.
I announced at chapter meetings in March, and then told the principal… me? scheduler? it’s been long enough. I’d like to end it now, but under no circumstance I am working per session past June of 2010… I immediately felt both regret – I am convinced I do a superior job that seriously benefits teachers, students, and school – and an absolutely amazing sense of relief. That proverbial weight? I really felt it lift off my back…
Over the last few years I wrote several posts about scheduling. You’ll sense the mixed emotions: Programmer, too! (mixed feelings about being Chapter Leader and Programmer) / Language and Schedule Conflict (scheduling a small vs large school) / Novaya Metla (grateful for an administrator who stayed out of my way and let me work) / Teaching vs Comp Time (verdict, teaching is more exhausting, but doing comp time with no time off is idiocy) / HSST, a little background (showing off some specialist knowledge. I’ll be losing that, I suppose).
(Oh, yeah, the essay? I got a start, but it forced all this thinking forward, and the writing lost all momentum. I thanked her for getting me thinking, and apologized for dropping the ball.)
thanks for indexing this work. i haven’t been through the list yet.
but it’s about time i put some pixels on the screen thanking you
for all the recent posts about administrative battles…
i’d’ve already been your loyal reader just for the math stuff
but you’re essentially *alone* in my regular reading
as a source of day-to-day rank-and-file reports
(from a teacher of the true faith with a clear vision
of our role in the economic *and* academic systems
within which we all must make our way…).
this stuff fascinates me even as i retreat
to my safe little library to run away from it
whenever i can and for as long as i can.
maybe if i think of it as “saving my strength”
as i train for some big inevitable battle…
where’s that mathbook again…
Лень родилась раньше меня.
Hi JD,
I’m a teacher and programmer at a small school as well. I definitely agree with you about programming being a huge weight on my back that I have to worry about every summer (I’m so sick of per session). I, too, am thinking of giving up my hat in terms of programming in the next year or two. How have you gone about finding and training a replacement or was that the responsibility of the admin? The only reason I haven’t quit yet is because I cannot think of anyone on the staff that has the potential skills and willingness to give up endless hours to get this kind of job done. Are you still the union rep?
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