Tuesday, May. 03, 2005
Voice, posted at 7:02 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today apparently is National Teacher Appreciation Day.I got a balloon when I walked in and then an apple in my mailbox.
I'm not sure if my heart can handle all this appreciation.
It's nice and all, but I cannot believe this is what someone thinks that teachers want.
What do I want, though?
Yeah, more money would be nice, but in all honestly I'm not doing that badly for a 27-year old guy four years out of college. I also feel like I have a lot of job satisfaction and do often get excited when I drive in every morning.
So, what do I want? I think mostly it's a voice. I don't feel like I have enough say in much of anything that goes on in my school. Decisions are handed down to me and I can do nothing about it. I'm left taking control of what little I can, winning tiny victories in my classroom when the big ones - like decisions to double workloads for English teachers - are given to me without input.
Our union is terrible and our revolving department heads will eventually leave us with one who can't protect us as well as the previous couple have. It's worrisome that so much of my job is dependent on what I see to be the whims of people who don't know me, my practice, or my students. So that's what I need to feel more appreciated - more voice in decisions.
However, I do feel pretty good about things at school, right now. The field trip on Friday is set to go; I have figured out the bus situation, hiring a new company that charges much, much less. Today I did a mountain of work for the big trip and I'm really hoping everything goes okay. Today a colleague I respect a lot gave me a big public thank you for all the work I'd done on it, saying this is the work of a real teacher. That's good, because I feel like my classroom work has been a little shoddy lately, at least with my juniors. Life feels very hectic right now and I feel a little like I'm not getting by like I should be.
Things are going great with the baseball team, though. We're finishing off a successful season and things feel fun and loose. I think we know we're pretty good and have a good time at practices. Tomorrow we play at Herring Run Park if anyone feels like showing up. It very well might be the most important game of the year, because it's the team that beat us in the last inning at home. We were up 6-4 going into the last inning and lost 8-6. That was the low point of the season for me and I crave redemption. I hope the guys do, too.
Go Tigers.