March 22, 2005
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The Daily News
1 Think it'll rain this year?
2 Well, as they say, when it rains...
3 Duty calls: I was able to get together with Conrotto yesterday and get myself down to the District Office and turn in this uncomfortable little piece of paper called a Request for Hearing form. At first, I thought it was really a nice thing the District did for its teachers. I lost a goodly part of my hearing in 1991, just after a swim. I spent the next nine years moving my jaw forward in an effort to pop the ear and get my hearing back. After all that, I thought yesterday, I just had simply to fill out this little piece of paper, and...
4 Request for Hearing.
5 Yeah.
6 Turns out that I was all wrong about the District. They weren't interested in helping people who had lost their hearing at all. The Request for Hearing form was a request by me to come in and make a case for myself as to why I shouln't be laid off.
7 Then I had to file some other stuff with our teachers' union, ESTA, so that I had a solid case for myself. After 24 years of teaching in this District, and doing all the shows, and getting home late, giving up most Saturdays, and all the rest, I still had to spend time on a Monday afternoon writing up a case for keeping myself on board.
8 By the way, when I say "I", I'm referring to the other 787 people who received those pink slips as well. It is completely unreal.
9 And nothing to get hung about.
10 I guess.
11 I got lost running around town looking for the CTA office so that I could drop off my literature. How many English teachers does it take to fine a CTA office?
12 Almost ran out of gas searching.
13 By the time I got back to school, it was already late in the afternoon. My Seniors needed me, I imagine.
14 Or not.
15 FANTASTICS practices were in full bloom. It was quite a ruckus in the Theatre, because a little bit of every class was putting together dances, skits, strategies and all the rest.
16 At around 10:17, I looked around and asked myself, "What on Earth am I still DOING here?"
17 I also realized that whatever it was I WAS doing there was never going to make it onto a Request for Hearing form. A whole bunch of teachers go through the same basic thing every single night. If they aren't down there physically, I guarantee they are thinking of ways to make things better for kids 24/7, whether they admit it or not.
18 Because they're teachers.
19 And that's just what they do.
20 Almost all of them are up until 10, 11, 12, or later planning dances, skits, and strategies to help make students better people.
21 Because we're teachers.
22 And that's just what we do.
23 That's just what we do.
24 Peace.
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