After school today my department chair came to ask me if I'd be interested in teaching AP Calculus next year. You might think that after what I wrote here that I wouldn't be interested, and you'd be correct. However, I'm a team player, and told him that if the department needed me to teach that class, of course I would.
The real problem, though, is that I will retire in 4 1/2 years, at which time we'd need someone else to teach that class. It would make much more sense, and be a better solution for our school, if someone else, someone who plans to be at the school for a lot longer than I do, were to take that class.
It turns out that both of our AP Calculus teachers are considering retiring in the near future, and they're looking to reduce their workloads a bit (AP courses take a significant amount of preparation and grading time). Over the course of our discussion we came to the conclusion that it might be better for them to give up those classes now while they're still available to train and mentor newer teachers on how to successfully teach them.
As for me, I should probably finish out my career teaching the 3 courses I currently do--financial math, statistics, and pre-calculus.
I've long talked about retirement, but this was the first time it became a practical matter as opposed to something I get to fantasize about.
Are Dunkum and Baker still there? Please tell me Robertson is gone
ReplyDeleteSame thing happened to me. I planned to retire in two years. I told my department chair to get someone who will be around longer. I saw it as lot more work for the same pay. He reminded me that I didn’t have to retire! He immediately apologized for that remark. I continued to teach alg2 and pre calculus for next two years. PS. He got someone and she’s doing fine.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you are saying. Recently I was in a meeting with my staff planning for the future. One topic came up that we needed to ensure we put in the budget request and I realized that the event would occur the month after I retire in 755 days. Hard to believe that my work-life, which started with my first paper route at age 10, is finally coming to a close.
ReplyDeleteFrom age 10 to my current 59, I've been continuously employed except for ages 14 & 15. For 21 of those years I held 1.5 jobs as either an Army Reservist or adjunct professor.
It is time to hang it up and enjoy the fruits of my labors. My wife and I have plans to be very busy in retirement. I hope you have plans too that come to fruition.
First anonymous: Mr. Baker is the math teacher who has been at our school the longest now. The others you mentioned are long-since retired.
ReplyDeleteSteve: I have *lots* of plans, I should be *very* active. And not retiring until I have 30 years of teaching under my belt should give me a reasonably good retirement outside of California. Camping and traveling, traveling and camping...I may even move to different cities in Europe for a month at a time just to be able to truly experience the culture.