Leaving the Profession but Sub Plans…
Hi everyone. I’m finally leaving teaching. Not quite as expected and now that it’s here, it is bittersweet with my students. Long story short, I am pregnant and due in the next few weeks. After a bunch of district changes due to budget cuts, my role of 5-8 chorus between two schools is being absorbed into K-8 general music and choir and I was moved to a totally new school. I declined of course but it definitely messed with me more than I thought. I’m going to miss my students a lot, but that’s about it. I don’t have a job lined up but I’m going to stay home with baby for a few months and then figure it out. I’m so excited!
Here’s the thing: I literally have 3 days of work left and I’ve been stressing so much about maternity plans that I’ve been slowly chipping away at for a couple of weeks. I have to make 4 weeks worth of plans for both schools. Both schools do not have the same sub and one of them doesn’t even have a long term sub who has filled in so it’ll be random people covering. We already completed concerts so I’m leaving computer things and projects but planning between two schools is such a huge challenge. The sub will not teach music really because they are just a warm body at this point.
I feel deep in my soul that I shouldn’t even need to do much of this but there is this stupid expectation of “well it’s the right thing to do” from my coworkers but who the hell is paying me overtime for all this planning?? Am I wrong for thinking that? I definitely saved it for last minute but I’m not going to plan months in advance when I’m already busy enough when I work. I just want to set the kids up with less chaos if possible when I’m gone as the last good thing I can do for them but this is so much planning.
What are your thoughts about leaving plans, even when not returning??