Calling myself a slave would be a little dramatic and slightly politically incorrect, but I seriously feel like one sometimes. However, it’s probably a little bit of my own fault. I have a massive amount of responsibilities on me at work. Everyone always gushes over how great I am at my job, and it makes me feel good. Therefore, I end up doing pretty much anyone asks me to and then some.

Teaching second and third grade in Lexington was a living hell. When I started my computer lab job last school year, it was a totally new thing for me. I didn’t really know nothing about being a school technology coordinator or administering online assessments. Luckily, I’m good with computers and have always been good at figuring things out for myself. Apparently, I am like a million times better than the previous computer lab person which of course, makes me feel good. At the same time though, it sometimes puts pressure and stress on me.

Some teachers in my school feel that the special areas teachers (music, art, P.E., computer lab, and library) have too much planning time. The teachers get an hour of planning each day. I, on the other hand, have at least two most days and sometimes three. The teachers are only planning for one class though. I have to plan for six different grade levels. Not only that, I have to go around and play superwoman and solve everyone’s technology troubles and install this or that, and take photos of things, etc. I guess some of the teachers feel we have too much free time to sit around and do nothing though. We (the special area teachers) affectionately refer to ourselves as “slackers” because some people don’t think we have anything to do. Whatever.

A teacher sends a kid to the library with a dollar and asks the librarian to buy her a drink from the coke machine. People call me on the phone while I have a class and expect me to leave and come help them figure out why their VCR isn’t working. It’s ridiculous. My principal doesn’t know a thing about technology so I am left to make ALL of the technology decisions for our school. It’s a huge responsibility to decide who gets a new computer first or which classes get an extra computer. Apparently, no teacher or parent has ever complained about me personally though which is nice to know.

It’s been a super busy couple of weeks for me (that is, when we have actually been in school and not out for now), and I just needed to rant for a minute. I am overworked and underpaid like most people, and sometimes it just really frustrates me. Do any of you How many of you have a job that makes you feel like this?

I am mad. I am frustrated. The more I think about how mad and frustrated I am, the more mad and frustrated I get!

I am what is considered a “specials” teacher. For those of you who may not have young children or be older and not know what I mean by this let me explain. Elementary school kids go to “special” classes. In some schools they are called a different name but basically what I am talking about is P.E. (gym), music, art, library, and computer lab. I am the odd man (or woman I should say) out because I’m not even hired as an actual “teacher” so I don’t get teacher pay. This means I do as much (if not more) work than every other teacher in the school but get paid way less.

The regular classroom teachers have been complaining that we specials teachers have too much planning time. The teachers are saying they have too many meetings during their planning time and therefore are not having time to get their things ready for their classes. I have been where they are at. When I taught in Lexington, I had meetings a LOT during my planning and it was extremely annoying. But…at the same time, the teachers are planning for 1 class. Us specials teachers are planning for 21 classes. Not only that, but a lot of us do “extra” things too. I fix computers, update/create webpages, install programs and games, have classes come in to do projects, research, and typing, etc. The list really goes on. Teachers call me up when I have classes in the lab to ask me for help or to fix something for them. They send students to the lab when I have classes to work on things they need me to help them with. Apparently, one teacher often sends students to the library when there are classes in there with a dollar so the librarian can go buy this teacher a drink in the workroom. How rude!

So I guess the teachers started looking at our schedule and realized we do have a lot of “free” time. My “free” time is spent working on computers and such or testing kids or whatever else I need to do. See, we are down a teacher this year so the spot we would have had that teachers’ class is now empty for us. The teachers need to realize that we did not create the schedule. The schedule was created for us.

well I guess someone got the bright idea that we should start our specials at 8:00 (not 8:10) and keep each class 10 minutes longer. This will mean that we will not have a five minute break between classes anymore. Do the teachers not realize that they will have to be waiting in the hallway for the next class to get logged off and leave? This isn’t going to give me any time to set anything up for the next class. And did the teachers not stop and think that now their meetings can just go for 10 minutes longer? This extra 10 minute thing may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but it is going to throw off the entire school’s schedule. I’m talking lunch schedules, special education teacher schedules, reading invervention groups, etc. It is absolutely ridiculous.

I am really feeling like I am being taken advantage of. I work as hard, if not harder, than a lot of people at work and I get paid a lot less for what I am doing. If the teachers are going to push for this extra 10 minute thing, then they are just going to realize that I am not going to be able to run to their room and fix their problems at the drop of a hat. I’m not going to be doing anything to their webpages - they will just have to do it themselves which they should be doing anyway. I’m not staying after school to help them since I’m not being paid to do so.

There is still a LOT left of the school year, so a lot can still change, but I don’t know what I’ll be doing next year if stuff like this continues to happen. Ten minutes now and then what? It was discussed that maybe we’d have an extra class of each grade level each week. If that happened, there’d be two days a week us specials teachers wouldn’t have a planning time at all. I don’t want to sound like I am bragging or anything, but if I quit my job, there would be chaos. I do a whole lot of things the teachers take for granted. Without me there, a lot of things wouldn’t get done because no one would know what to do. I am beginning to think though, that maybe it will take me leaving for them to realize that.