Scheduling

So, another school year is in full swing now, but in my time as a teacher I've never had such a horrid schedule.

As a band director, one would think that I'd have mostly band/music classes, right? I mean, every other year I've had band, fine arts, music appreciation, etc. that I've been teaching.

Well, this year, when they first released the schedule in July, I was supposed to teach 4 hrs of Algebra...ALGEBRA!!! I was no good at that stuff in school, so that is one of the last things I should be teaching, not to mention what in the world possessed them to attempt to foist that upon me. Of course, they had the PE coaches teaching home ec, too, so I wonder if that was just some sort of cruel joke.Needless to say, I raised hell about that horrid schedule.

First day of school comes and they do change it, but now I have 2 hours of band/music classes. One of which is across town at the high school. The rest of the time, I'm trapped out back in a trailer "teaching" study hall! I'm seriously thinking of leaving after this year, but we'll see what happens between now and the end of the school year. We'll just call this strike one.

As bad as my schedule is, my fellow music teachers have it worse! For instance, the high school band director teaches 7 hrs, only one of them is band, and has no off hour! How do they get away with that? Well, supposedly, one is a class with teachers and it counts as a planning period. --rolls eyes--

As far as the only having 1 band class, his primary degree is in History, and they're too cheap to hire another teacher. Actually, let me take that back. 8 teachers left the high school this year (1 was fired for some illicit facebook pictures sent to a student...allegedly). It was said that they would hire the replacements, which they did, but they also threw in 6 other new faculty member. Did I mention all of them are coaches?!?

As far as the his schedule goes, he has the entire marching band crammed into last period (including flags, drumline, and dancers). Yeah, that'll be fun when the season is over. Oh, and no jazz band class...even though they've gotten superior ratings at jazz festivals the last 3 yrs. He's said that as soon as he finds something else, he's leaving, no hesitation!

I know this place isn't exactly high on the arts or anything that isn't football, but do they really have to screw with schedules like this? Ugh!!!!

Anyway, thanks for listening/reading!