Monday, October 05, 2009

Dialogue - Numbers

teacher #1: It was shocking.

teacher #2: I got it over the weekend.

teacher #3: I have direct deposit.

me (teacher #4): How bad is it? I think I'll get it today.

I opened my first paycheck tonight, as a teacher working under my new title as "long term substitute teacher". I should have waited until after dinner with my family.

Instead, I had numbers with my bowl of rice.

I knew going in, that the numbers wouldn't match what I'm worth this year. I talked myself through dinner. It's important to do work that you believe in and are passionate about. The compensation or reward is not about the money. I don't train students to run marathons, work six days a week and create edublogs for the money. I love what I do.

Then other voices chimed in. At least your working. At least your being paid. You should feel lucky.

Then finally, reality checks me -  I'm not just working. I'm hardly being paid. Career substitutes are out of work because of me. And - I shouldn't have numbers for dinner.

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