Fall, That Very Special Time of Year

It's Fall, and as usual, I have a new job. I dislike moving and I really dislike being the new person. I keep getting hired to "fill in the gaps" of schools which always means writing new curriculum, fighting to get classroom space and supplies, etc: just as I finally breathe a sigh of relief with everything under control, I either get a) promoted, b) given a new subject to teach at a different level or c) so outraged I quit and go to another school.

Just in case you are NOT a teaching professional, it takes a full year of teaching a particular curriculum to a particular age group before you are really competent at it, have lessons lined up, and can actually NOT spend the evenings making up flash cards, interactive whiteboard slides, or other things (sometimes even the curriculum itself) your department is too cheap to buy. I have been in one school for three years, but each year was given a different subject and grade level to teach: thus, being new every year. I switched schools last year and found that I had TWO different subjects to teach which were entirely different, and neither had so much as a textbook. So I had two curriculum to pull together. This year, I topped myself by being by hired by one school, but in teaching in both campuses, different subjects, to eight different grade levels.  To top it off, Lulu's tuition and room and board rose dramatically this year, and all this "new", including an apartment which is four times the price of my old one, has cut down on the amount I have for free lance work. I had a houseful of drunken teenage guests the first two weeks of the new job, and I have another guest arriving next week who will, God willing, be able to fend for himself. I also picked up a very cool editing job, which I finished last night, and now have 97 English poems to compose for a new national curriculum, to be done next week. I haven't started yet, but I figure it's not that hard to rhyme "moon" with "June." I could well be singing another tune by next weekend.

And you wonder at my silence...