Not a good month

So this has not been a good month ... for a number of (irrelevant to most folks) reasons, and the compexities of that, together with personal stuff, has made this a poor month. In addition to the regular stuff, tomorrow I go to the Workload Monitoring Group ... on principle. I will go there after a meeting with my Program Advisory Committee ... a group of industry advisors who are, fortunately, a lot more understanding of the educational needs of students and the role of teachers than many of the administrators in my college.

Re the WMG I am going because I don't know how I can honestly sign a contractual agreement when nobody can tell me what it is that I am expected to do. No job description, no list of duties, no list of responsibilities, no idea of what is expected ... but just "sign on the dotted line" ... ok sure!

I admit ... I have never been thrilled with my contract nor the fact that it is a province-wide agreement. I have never felt particularly comfortable with it. BUT ... since I understand that province-wide contracts have to cover a wide variety of situations, that's what I live with, and that is what is required by my conditions of employment. So I know I have to live within the confines of that contract. That is my responsibility.

But when I have to sign off personally on my individual situation based on the workload provisions in that contract, I want to know what it is that I am expected to do. When I sign any legal document, I want and I expect to know what my responsibilities are relative to that contract. I did not ask for this, but I am by law obligated to it. Is it too much to expect that, if I am asked to sign a contract for my services, I should know what work it is that I have contracted for? But I have been told that it does not matter, I should just sign it anyway? Would you agree to doing a job without knowing what duties and resposibiloities that job entailed? But that is what I am being asked to do.

I am not a happy camper.

I have no idea what will transpire, but I am sanguine in any case. In the negative environment in which we are currently surviving, I will consider it all as part of life's rich pageant and I am very grateful that I still have the option of retiring shortly. I do not want to ... but I still have it as an option.

I wonder what will happen if/when all of us (and there are a lot of us) who have that option decide to take advantage of it? I suspect the college would be very happy (more cheap part-timers or new hires) but I really do wonder if management has a real understanding of the fact that they have no succession planning. Why do I care? Well, maybe I care for the students. Maybe I care for the success of the program in which I teach. Or maybe I care for the employers, who need skilled workers. (Or maybe I am just selfish and want to spend time developing my own skills and interests.)

It may well be that many students don't care either. Maybe they would be happy just to get a diploma and a decent GPA, regardless of whether they learn anything that is relevant and current.

I suspect that many students and administrators have no idea what nor why we as faculty care about outside of class activity on curriculum development etc.

How many times do you hear students (and others) suggest that if a teacher isn't delivering content in a classrooom that the teacher is not "working". How many times have you heard (as I overheard in a local watering hole last week) that teachers get 6 months' "paid holidays" simply because they teach only 6 months (which is our case is not at all accurate anyway, since most of us teach 9 months, and given our contract -- and 44 hours per week,by the way, works out to a lot more than 9 months on the standard 37 hour work week)?

But I rant ... I need to shut down for the night and see what tomorrow will bring. I have to get up at 6 to get to that PAC meeting ... yeah I do have an easy life when not teaching! :-)