Thursday, November 10, 2005

Three Things Again

Albuterol inhaler makes me sicker. Not, I think, my doctor's objective.

My principal expects me to give up my conference and lunch once a week for an In School Suspension Room. Illegal, unethical and just mean.

I've written almost nothing for NaNoWriMo. I'm outlining, but I doubt that I'll finish this year. I'm not giving up, just trying to get the disappointment out of the way now.

4 comments:

EdWonk said...

Teachers need their lunch, if for no other reason than to take a break from the kids and have a little conversation with folks older than 18.

As an aside, how many lunches does your prinicpal give up??

Kate said...

edwonk - I have no idea how many lunches she gives up. Honestly, you couldn't pay me to do the job that she does, the hours, the hassles, the irate parents.

It's a Catch-22. If I do what's expected then I'm resentful, and if I don't do it then everyone else gets resentful of me not pulling my weight. And all of this under the guise of "caring for our students." Apparently, if we care we'll do the equivalent of two or three jobs for the price of just one, right?

The law says teachers here get no less than 45 consecutive minutes for conference/planning and a thirty minute duty-free lunch. But this ISS thing is okay to do, because we're "volunteering."

Dean said...

That's part of the reason (most of the reason, actually) that I don't participate in NaNo. I don't need the pressure. Could I produce 50,000 words in a month? Yes, if everything goes my way that month. But I'm not willing to take the chance. I'm productive without it.

Anyway, don't sweat it too much. Time spent plotting/outlining is amply paid back when you sit down to write the thing. It's not drudge time or non-productive time, it's early-stage writing time.

Kate said...

dean, thanks for the encouragement.

I'm still attempting, and last year I did about 3/4 in fifteen days, so you never know. But I finished once before and now that I know I can I don't feel as much pressure.