One MAJOR vent that I have right now is: Why is that I am the go to instructor/choreographer to sub for teachers who, may ave legitimate or illegitimate reasons for not teaching (CONSTANTLY), but now that I have (military training) and other thing that is causing me to miss for the FIRST time EVER, I have to get CRITICIZED like none other for it!?

To top it off, NO ONE there has my back for hardly any of my classes!

So I say again: I sub ALL the time, in addition to my 17 OTHER classes I will hae in the fall, but now I need to be away and no is to be found. I don't know about the rest of you but that's some COW DUNG.

DbG

DancerbyGod wrote:

So I say again: I sub ALL the time, in addition to my 17 OTHER classes I will hae in the fall, but now I need to be away and no is to be found. I don't know about the rest of you but that's some COW DUNG.

I realize that we are venting and not problem solving, but it's my nature to do so! Would it be acceptable to find an outside sub for your classes? Maybe speak to your SO about finding someone who would pick up those classes that you miss. Someone looking for work might appreciate the opportunity to really shine at your school (in the hopes that an opening may occur in the future.) Or even a young teacher looking for her "big break". Because they are trying to make a good impression, they are likely to be reliable.

OKay. so my big vent...

background: I teach three and four year old tap and ballet. Most of my three year olds can barely listen long enough to learn the basics, but of course like any baby teacher, we still teach basics, get the children familiar with fine motor movements... etc.


On Saturday, one of the mothers stopped in to drop off her daughter, ensure that she was listening... etc. Well this mother signed her daughter up 2 weeks late (out of an 8 week class!!) So for the last few weeks the daughter has the worst attention span (of course) yadda yadda yadda. Then as the mother is getting ready to leave says, "this class is a little different than what I expected" confused, I responded, "I am not sure what you mean?" the mother "well I thought the girls were here to learn ballet(pronouncing the T & irritating me further)" Me "ballet? they are learning ballet. they are only three, they are learning the fundamentals of ballet the first half and then learning tap the second half."

This really bothered me. Does she expect her daughter to be doing pirouettes and jetes before she can even point her foot correctly or god forbid stand in first position? Ugh. I cannot stand ignorant parents.

What a nasty person you have become, I tell you (my longest time student and assistant for 3 years who I have paid for half of your classes because you couldn't afford them, picked you up, watched you when parents went away) that it was really tacky to quit via a text message and that after all that we have been through it really hurt my feelings. I really don't care that you will not be taking classes anymore the passion has been gone for a while, but I deserve to at least to be told over the phone or in person. when I tell you that I was hurt and I am tearing up in front of you, you actually laugh in my face and say "oh well". Who have you become? after 5 years there is nothing in you i recognize.

First week of classes and I have three returning dancers from three different public schools arrive with injuries from cross-country running training!

"Did your phys ed teacher give you instructions on warming up?", blank stare, "Did you attempt to warm up at least using some dance stretches for some kind of pre-activity preparation?" blank stare.

Dunno who frustrates me more, phys ed teachers who just say "Go run" without warming them up or making sure they warm up, or dancers who should know better!

Ack!

The other "main" teacher has more hours than I do. This isn't a jealousy thing, rather something that bothers me because of the fact that she's haphazard with her teaching- her choreography isn't great, and she's not very good at explaining things or handing out corrections. I've assisted her before when her summer classes got too big, and one of my sisters was in her class. She told me after the class that this teacher had never been so helpful before I stepped into the room, which told me that she doesn't pay enough attention to the students when she teaches alone (and only has about 5 kids at a time). Yet somehow, she ended up with more hours than me, and more choreography pieces. I've been told by the SO that my choreography is better, and that I'm a more efficient teacher. I've got 9-10 students at a time with no assistant, because I can manage my classes. She has more than 5 students and needs an assistant. This past weekend, she was supposed to come teach makeup lessons for the students of hers that missed. The SO reminded her every day that she needed to be there Saturday, and when she left the studio on Thursday (her last night of the week teaching) she even had said "see you saturday." Saturday came, and she never showed. The SO called her, and she was like "OMG I totally forgot." The SO was so mad at her. And I got mad too, because were that me, I would NEVER forget about my dance kids or having to teach them makeup lessons. It seemed to really annoy the SO, and he even said something like "That's a good way to get fired..." and I really wanted to say something like "If I were the one teaching those classes, I would never have forgotten, and you know it." (I could say these things because the SO is my boyfriend. However, I never say things to him like this, because I don't feel it's professional as a teacher...so I only think them, and hope he'll figure it out on his own, lol)

I hope that if we get a large influx of students within the next couple of months, he gives them to me, as he had hinted at doing before (there's another studio that seems to be going down the tubes- we've already acquired about 10 of their students due to this) because these short teaching hours are just killing me. I love teaching and not being able to teach as much as I'd like to is really disappointing (especially when I spent the whole summer under the impression that I'd be teaching MORE than I was last year, per the SO's promise, rather than LESS than last year.)

I understand that he did it because I'm working on my master's in education, but still. I can manage my time better than he thinks. (clearly, because I'm sitting here on DDN when I could be doing other work, but I don't need to because it's already done) This other teacher is not only just starting college (at 23 years old)but she's got a kid to worry about as well. So I don't really see the justification. GRR.