Not So Friendly Encounter

School Stuff from Yesterday



The other English teacher affected by my schedule change spoke to me this morning, asking me to reconsider. I was not the one who decided how to make the change, nor that the change had to be made. That was my principal's decision. But, she decided to speak to me hoping I would be willing to reconsider.



Unfortunately, I was not. She told me her schedule had been adversely affected last year because of my complaints and now again this year. She also said it had disrupted all her plans for the year. Trouble is, I was in exactly the same situation, and to be frank, at this point in my career, I have to do what I can to protect myself from the extra stress and frustration of playing "invent a course" over and over in order to teach something I am totally unprepared to teach.



She said I was unsympathetic. That is totally untrue. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have been put in her position and found myself having to accept a difficult schedule change in order to accomodate either the circumstances or another teacher. I have "reinvented the wheel" with lesson plans so often I do not even have file cabinet space to hold all the materials I have had to develop. I will not go into detail, but suffice it to say I have been in her "shoes" too many times to count. I told her I had to stand firm. She was quite angry with me and commented that next year she certainly hoped I'd get my schedule set before school opened. I told her it didn't really matter because I was planning on retiring, and she said, "Good."



I think it took a lot of courage for her to speak up as it is not part of her personality. I have great respect for her in that regard, but I too need to speak up and stand up for myself. It should not be an issue between us, but an issue with the administration's continual problems with scheduling. I don't know what precipitated the whole mess, but why was it not resolved a month ago? They have all of July and August to iron out all the scheduling issues. Perhaps then we could have found a more acceptable compromise. I am sorry the solution to my problem has caused problems for someone else, but I am the only person I have to watch out for my own welfare. It's a sad state of affairs.

I did not work the horses yesterday because I was too hot and tired. This morning, I lunged Tucker before school and included some up and down the hill. I have a church choir kick off party in the early evening, so I don't know if I will have the time or energy to do horse stuff later. At least I know Tucker got his workout.

Hotter today in the classroom than yesterday. Not fun.