I stepped down from a teaching/learning opportunity recently.
I was very excited about taking part in this effort, but when my work was backlogged to such a great degree due to a snag in the teaching/learning path, I simply didn't have the time to follow-through with the creativity and attention I believe in. When I contribute, I like to contribute with care and depth.
This is not the first time I've stepped down from this particular event. I had to step down one time due to family matters and another time due to a similar issue as this year.
As professionals we can only push ourselves so far. We have to continually make decisions about how we invest our time and effort into our profession as the work is limitless.
Yet, when I commit, I like to follow through.
In hindsight, what could make a difference in this regard?
First, it's important for those we work with to be cognizant of educators' need for lead time with regard to professional responsibilities and tasks. Teachers like me who balance family needs with professional needs profit from lead time so that we can do our best job by our children at home and our children at school. When decisions and response are late in coming, we are compromised with regard to doing our best work.
Next, if our work is regarded well, it would help to have voice with regard to professional events and preparation. For example, if I was given time on task to do the work to prepare for the professional event, I would have been able to do it, but unfortunately, I needed all the left over time I had in school and on my own time to complete end-of-year tasks that are important to my students this year and my students next year leaving little to no time to do the extra work needed.
I will miss out on the information shared, but I've done a lot of reading and research in those areas so I feel that I will not be missing out on too much. Plus I can access some of that information via the Internet.
I do like to be part of the teaching/learning team. I like to contribute and I like to learn with my colleagues. I'm sorry to miss this learning/teaching opportunity, but as noted before, we can't be superhuman or do all things, and sometimes it's in the best interests of our teaching/learning team and ourselves to step down from one opportunity to attend to another. Onward.
