"It gets easier, but it never gets easy."

Me (exhausted) attempting to take a picture of myself doing a head stand.
(In the words of students everywhere, EPIC fail.)

A quote from my current principal. This is good news, because in some ways my job feels impossible. In the same conversation he also confided that he’s never worked for a district that demands more of their teachers than Southeast….so everything should be easier from here, yeah?

In a related note, I got this email from my superintendent earlier in the week:

“Nick mentioned that you did not have any correspondence students. I would sure like to see some articles getting into any media that would take them on good stuff happening in the district. Perhaps you could use that time to draft stories for web and papers."

Background: I was given fifteen minutes a day to work on this correspondence class, the student has since started attending Thorne Bay school so he is no longer in correspondence classes. When I first got this email, I literally laughed out loud. It seems like whenever I can’t possibly conceive of something else to be responsible for, somebody asks me to be responsible for something else. It’s truly unbelievable. In the same week, my principal asked me to fill out a lengthy application for a gardening grant. Both times I was just sitting there shaking my head. “Am I not working hard enough? Do they honestly think that I have spare time?” After putting some thought into, I responded to both emails with, “Yes, absolutely, I would be happy to (fill in any request).

This, to me, is the astonishing part of this profession and the people who chose to be part of it. We are constantly being asked to achieve/complete/produce things that are impossible, yet everybody tries really hard.

Contract Update: I still don't have one :(