First Day of School Eve

It was a very long day, with seven hours of waiting tables followed by a 75-minute workout at Bally's, a trip to a very busy Target, and a couple hours doing laundry at the laundromat. I made it back at 10pm, and I'm exhausted, which is good, because I'll actually be able to sleep on First Day of School Eve without the butterflies in my stomach keeping me awake.

Tomorrow will be a long day - I teach all day, of course, and it will take a little bit to get back into both physical and mental shape for that, and then I have my class at Towson from 5:00-7:30. Curriculum Development in Secondary Schools. I'm actually pretty excited about it. But not half as excited as I am about seeing all "my kids" again and being in front of a class telling them about all the great things they'll learn this year.

My current dilemma: My department head has been scheduled to teach three different preps, which is a contract violation. She's pressing them to hire an ad-hoc teacher to teach the one class, but has run into roadblocks. One possible option is another teacher in the department taking on one of the classes for her. They're offering $3,000 to do it for the year. It's a class I'm basically already teaching - English 2, though this one is Honors - and I taught about three-quarters of the kids last year. And they're good kids. But it would increase my student load from 155 to 181.

I'm tempted a little, only because it would let me quit my second job, and because it would add hardly any new prep time - and I know most of the kids (and like them). However, I probably shouldn't, because it would give me a hell of a lot of kids and increase my grading load a whole lot, and I've already got a tough year ahead of me. Plus, doing it would make me feel a little like a scab - they should be forced to hire more teachers, however they can, and if a guy needing some money like me just agrees to take on another class in violation of my contract for a few extra bucks, then that doesn't really help the cause much.

I have a hard time looking at the big picture, though, when there are 26 good kids waiting for a good teacher who will work hard for them, especially when they're offering enough money for me to pay off my car and still have more than a thousand bucks left over for a house downpayment.

Don't worry; I'm not going to do it. It's really not that much a dilemma.