Tag: medical leave

In which oh, why not

On By Luther M. SilerIn life3 Comments
Just found this on FB. The beard is starting to get positively Rothfussian. If only my writing would follow suit.

So technically my fundraiser was supposed to end yesterday, and in fact I just double-checked and it is definitely set to end on the 12th. But for some reason right now it’s still up and donations are still possible, so if for some reason you wanted to donate and forgot or something you have some unknown amount of additional time to throw in a few bucks. We’re over $350, which is amazing. Those of you who donated more than $25 should expect me to be contacting you next week to find out what book I’m sending you. Thank you all so much!

I’ve been quiet this week, mostly because the Ongoing Medical Calamity which ate the last month-and-a-half of the school year has raised its ugly head again, and I’ve been tired and stressed out and generally not wanting to deal with anything. I’m crossing my fingers that things are going to start improving again soon, but … yeah.

(I know, that’s vagueblogging, and I apologize for it. I’m personally fine, for the record; the OMC is not my MC.)

Also– and I know this makes me the worst person in the world, so feel free to call me terrible names in comments since I deserve them– I am heartily tired of summer vacation. One of the very worst things about America’s cultural outlook on work is that I can be in one of the very, very few jobs that actually provide large blocks of vacation time and I spend most of it climbing the Goddamned walls because I don’t know how the hell to just relax and I don’t feel like I’m using my time properly. I’m at about exactly halfway through my break and I’m looking around going WHAT DO I HAVE TO SHOW FOR THIS and freaking the fuck out because I have a month of break left– which is more than most people ever get– and I’m gonna waste it.

How the fuck do you waste vacation? I’m an idiot, dammit.

On screwing over one’s co-workers

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching4 Comments

imagesIt’s one of the oldest gripes about being a teacher: frequently it’s more work to stay home from school than to just go in sick, because writing lesson plans for a substitute teacher are such an incredible pain in the ass.  In my case, I have almost never during my career been able to write a week’s worth of lesson plans at a time with any fidelity, because what happens on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday has such an effect on what’s going to happen on Thursday and Friday and it’s almost never worth the effort to actually write the plans because they’re going to be useless anyway.

My situation right now: I haven’t been at work in over two weeks and I have literally no idea what my kids did last week, even though I did provide stuff for them the week before that.  I’ve been lucky enough to have the same sub the entire time, although when I called the office to let them know about the leave I was told that she wasn’t working out very well and I was asked not to request her again.  So… I’m basically going to write plans for this new person that are a list of procedures (that’s a copy-paste) and a request that she go talk to one of the other 5th grade math teachers at the earliest possible time to get actual lesson plans.  Because I have no idea what the hell to tell her to do.

The kicker, of course, is that since I’m on medical leave the office can’t make me either send in lesson plans or do any grading.  The problem is if I don’t do it, the rest of my team has to, and they sorta have their own shit to worry about, y’know?  I can handle the grading easily enough, I suppose, if I can get someone to bring the shit to me, but I’m really at the point where it’s literally impossible for me to write lesson plans, and as soon as they get somebody to actually take over the room (the leave allows them to actually hire someone at better than sub pay) I’ll give the grading back too.

I’m screwing the two 5th grade math and science teachers over, I know, by basically having to say “go ask them for stuff to do…” but we don’t have teacher’s editions and I have NO IDEA what the kids have been doing.  So.  Yeah.  Sorry about that?

PS: I forgot the punchline, which is that I wouldn’t be at work tomorrow anyway.  My mom, as you remember, had her hip replaced last week, and neither my aunt nor my dad is able to stay with her tomorrow, so I’d be doing that even if I was supposed to be back at work.  Whoops!