My Other Job

The teachers in the West Sonoma County unanimously elected me the president of the West Sonoma County Teachers Association. In a year (my last year) when demands upon my time exceed all years in my memory, I have chosen to take on a time consuming and difficult job. As I am the president, I am the mouthpiece for the party line of the California Teacher's Association. I attend all school board meetings and report to the teacher. I seem to attend meeting after meeting. The Redwood Council of the CTA meets. The SCEC Local met last night. Our executive board meets at least once a mouth. I meet with the superintendent for infomal talks. I meet with the assistant superintendent to work out kinks in the class size numbers. I go to the President's Conference. I go to the CTA Leadership Conference. I go to the CTA Good Teaching Conference. I take questions, feedback, complaints directly from members. I report to the newspapers, the school board, our members and the administration the official stance of the CTA.

Frankly I am not too bad at most of these things. What I do have problems with is organization. I must make sure that all of the members are notified of position changes, upcoming conferences, our take on the superintendent's last pronounce. The act of sending out emails to all the right people, the act of passing on the right piece of paper to the right person, the act of notifying the right person of a particular meeting or conference, keeping my "to do list" current and active - these things are difficult for me.

Last night the SCEC group met. That is a meeting of officers from all of the districts in our county. We discussed the abymal California budget and budget budget process. We also discussed Obama's or Arne Duncan's "Race to the Top". It is apparently a way to maintain all of the negative aspects of "No Child Left Behind". RTT will use one time test scores to evaluate not only student achievement but teachers. CTA believes in evaluting teachers but in a way that can take many variables into consideration. In fact my experience with CTA is that its main focus is on good teaching. Ordinarily sixty to seventy percent of the monthly magazine is devoted to the subject of good teaching.

Well I am in my sixth period English class now. My students are making sounds like they are finished writing in their journals, so I guess that I should finish writing in mine.