Day 169 - Day of Anger & Disappointment

Please excuse my poor paragraph structure, but I'm just going on train-of-thought, and I figured it would be easier this way.


Well, in addition to looking for 4 Spanish teachers and a part-time Italian teacher, my department is now looking for 2 French teachers. Oh, and a director.

Let me give you our numbers to help you understand my anger and disappointment (and sadness, really).

• There are 5 Spanish positions at our school. I am the only one returning (3 are moving, one was let go due to certification issues).
  
• There are 2 French positions at the school. Yea, that's the two French teachers who put in their notice yesterday and today. One's moving to another position, her dream position, where she can teach a great curriculum, including a French film course and French literature. Another one's moving back to her home state, where she has a house that's been unoccupied for a year, and where her ailing father lives.
  
• Our department also has 1 Italian teacher (who went part time this year, splitting the position into two Italian teachers, but one is not returning because she wants a full-time position) and
  
• 1 Latin teacher (also part time).
  
• There will be a part time Mandarin teacher next year as well (granted they find someone to fill the position). So as you can see, I will be the only full time teacher in the department who is returning.
  
• Oh, and did I mention that we haven't had a director in a year?
  

They took for granted that the group of people we had were so self-sufficient, and they've delayed this process for over a year. Now there's a new superintendent coming in, and no one in a director's position is getting hired until the superintendent is instated.

They've already convinced me to teach AP next year (which I know will do more for me and my long-term career than for them), but there's no way they are going to convince me to mentor 6, 7, 8 new people. No way. I'm not super woman. If I'm teaching a full load (of all brand new preps, save level 1), they're just crazy to think I'm going to be the one carrying the department.

I'm just so stressed out about this whole situation. I actually started crying for a second when the 2nd French teacher told me, mainly because I had no idea she was planning on leaving, and she had been conducting interviews with me, so I figured she was staying. Little did I know.

It's taking all I have to not walk in there on Monday morning with my own letter of resignation. But as I said, getting the AP experience next year will definitely prepare me for a better job somewhere else, because I'm pretty sure that this coming year will be my last... unless I change my mind again.

I know it's selfish of me (I completely understand everyone's personal reasons for leaving, such as marriage, moving to another state, moving where you can teach what you love), but I'm just so sad because I'm losing a really great group of coworkers. I hate making new friends.