I've been planning a long entry to update you all about school so far and Humanities in particular. I've even taken pictures to show you of the Cave Art and the Illustrated Epic of Gilgamesh my students have made.
But then I went to a district faculty meeting after school today about the $700,000 that needs to be cut from the budget next year, the $350,000,000 that the state is cutting from education overall, the fact that the school year after next is projected to be even worse, budget-wise, and the superintendent seems focused on the idea of cutting back on licensed staff. The first to go? First-years in the district.
In other words, there's a chance I could lose this job.
Moreover, to hunt for a job in a market with hundreds of other teachers being cut and districts downsizing, chances are that districts will hire the cheap fresh-out-of-university kids rather than a teacher with a Master's and 7 years experience.
Which made me wonder what I could possibly do if I couldn't teach.
So, the Humanities entry will have to wait a few days. I need to get back into a better frame of mind, and I need to clean my apartment up since I've got a guest coming tomorrow.
On one hand, I'm teaching five different subjects, my classes are all full, I'm coaching speech and drama (which, since they hired me out of district, I assume no one else wanted to take on), and I'm doing a good job.
On the other hand, I'm the most recent hire, 4/5 of those classes are electives (i.e. not on state tests), and drama and speech could be reduced to after-school only.
Do I start updating my resume yet again? Cancel my summer travel plans since I may have to live off my savings for a while and how stupid would it be to spend so much to go to Africa when I might not have a job to come back to? Figure out what other kind of job I could possibly get outside of teaching? Or stifle the worries, shift the laundry, pull out the vacuum, and plan lessons on Eyptian death rites and external characterization?
Damn it.
Shift the laundry! Plan lessons on Egyptian death rites! You have to live in the moment, because the future is a cake that may never come. Give yourself an eye flick a la Veronica Palmer if you need to. http://www.hulu.com/watch/118795/better-off-ted-present#s-p2-sr-i1
ReplyDeleteoh man, future cake. I'm always waiting for that stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou could start a series of travel guides for mormons.
Shift the laundry, forget the rest of the cleaning, let the students do the death rites research, and treat yourself to some reading time. If the job goes away, you can always rent out your condo and teach English overseas :-) If it doesn't go away, you can play overseas this summer :-) Just don't ask me to figure out my own stuff!
ReplyDeleteAfter close to a year of wondering if my job is going away, and what that means in the end (moving to Arkansas? Please God NO), I know the pain you are feeling. I hate when others feel like they can tell me that I should not worry, I'll be fine, because I want to say "How do you know? You don't work where I work, or know my work situation at all, yet you feel qualified to tell me that I will not be laid off?" But hey, I am going to do that anyway. You are too good of a teacher for your school to lose. They would be fools to let you go. Go do Egyptian death rituals!
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