2002-06-13
Double dilemma, posted at 12:56 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com My first year of teaching is now over. Phew.Someday, I might have the ambition to write an entry that attempts to sum it all up, but I just can't right now. Probably because it doesn't feel done. The kids are done, but the grading of finals is far from complete and I still need to pack up my room.
Two situations just now have put me into dilemmas. One was a temporary dilemma, and I couldn't stall on my decision. The other is an ongoing dilemma. I shall share both.
The smallish dilemma dealt with the crush girl. I've had little interaction with her since that day. I sat in on one of her classes, and she read this poem about the sexism listlessness of current hip-hop. I saw her walking down the hall with a shirt with a handwritten message on it that said something like, "Land of the FREE? What? We're not free!"
Yes, it's not just the garden variety 14-year old who has a crush on me. It's the liberal, anti-establishment, political 14-year old.
Anyhow, this girl just caught me in the hallway again on this last day of school (I had told my supervisor of the crush, to cover myself a little). She held out her arms, and I definitely hedged a bit. She sort of shrugged her shoulders and hugged me. It was innocent, it was in the hallway with tons of people around, and it wasn't the first female student who had hugged me that day.
She then asked me to take a picture with her. Again, not the first one of the day. But, again, I felt uncomfortable. But what am I supposed to do - say no? "No, sorry, I can't take a picture with you because you told me you think I'm cute." So I took the picture.
I'm not concerned, and things don't seem weird. However, I am very aware that I do not ever want her as a student in one of my classes. Because it will always be something I'm thinking about in the back of my head. Even though her actions today were not unusual or inappropriate for a 14-year old girl on the last day of school, I feel like I should keep my distance from her.
Dilemma #2
Okay, so I'm all signed up to do summer school. The last day for teachers is the 17th, and training for summer school begins on the 18th. It's 8-1, M-F for six weeks. Pay is $36/hour, so I would be making more than I do during the regular school year even though the hours are significantly les. I'd be teaching flunkees, but they're flunkees from my high school, which is pretty good. I've heard that summer school is fun.
Today in my mailbox, however, I got a notice that said, "Our records indicate that you were a new hire, and you did not attend the curricular preparation program last summer..." and contained an invitation to sign up. The pay for this is $125/day, and it's from 8-3. Lunch is provided and it's in air-conditioned environment. All I have to do is be a student - sit in classrooms and listen to people tell me how to teach.
I attended two days of it last summer, and it was hopelessly boring and not useful at all. The days I went, the textbook publishers came in to teach us how to use their textbooks. They basically just read to us. It was awful. But I've heard that the earlier sessions were better.
Pros/Cons:
*The Professional Development thing would be easy and not require planning or keeping kids quiet.
*The PD thing will be airconditioned.
*Summer School pays much more ($180/5hrs vs. $125/7hrs for more hours spent).
*With summer school, I could get a job waiting tables.
*I'm a little wore out, and it'd probably be easier to do the PD thing.
*The PD thing would be much more flexible and I could travel more.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do.