Wednesday, May 20, 2009

To be or not to be.

They want me to be the ELL department chair next year. This is kind of an honor since I haven't been teaching that long (last year they asked me to be English Dept. Head but I turned them down). It means a *slightly* bigger paycheck and a lot of extra responsibility.
I don't want to do it, but I think that they're going to make me because the current department chair is starting her Master's Program and doesn't want the time commitment. What should I do?
If I accept, I'll have early a.m. meetings, after school meetings, night-time commitments at least once a month and at least 2 major parties to plan and execute with virtually no assistance. Keep in mind that this would be in addition to the Reading Endorsement that I am about to begin which requires a weekly nighttime commitment as well as homework and readings that will need to be completed. This is also not considering my current church calling which requires that I attend weekly Cub Scout meetings on Wednesday, a once-a-month Thursday night Scout Roundtable, and biweekly Tuesday night meetings in addition to my Saturday and Sunday commitments. Plus there's been some talk of having Andrei move in with us to attend school here next year.
I told them that I'd rather shoot myself than accept the ELL Dept. Chair position, but I just don't think that they're getting the idea. How could my current church, school, and family commitments be considered LESS work than a Master's degree program? Maybe I should print out my monthly calendar and bring it to the meeting tomorrow that we're having to delegate this and tell them that if they can figure out how I can raise a kid, be an active member of my church, and pursue my own personal professional development goals WHILE doing this, that then I can consider the position.

1 comment:

Lyn said...

"I believe in you - I always have" (The Tick...and mom too.) Remembering back to the old days - I vaguely recall that you could never stand a dull minute:) Maybe you could delegate, miss some meetings and/or streamline some meetings/commitments? But, you know best what your limits are. Mine are that I can only stand about 1 dull, non-productive meeting a month so just your potential meeting schedule would put me over the top. Hard decision indeed. OXOXOXMA