Friday, July 18, 2014

Take a Sabbatical

jd2718:

Many UFTers think that sabbaticals no longer exist. Wrong. Think that most applications get rejected. Wrong. Think they can’t afford one. Wrong.

You can still take them in the PPSD, too. Jennifer didn't qualify because she had a service break of a couple weeks when she decided to take a brief leave after she ran out of maternity leave with Vivian rather than go back to school in June, so she's just on a regular unpaid leave from PPSD this year. For other reasons it still made more sense to go to Scotland this year rather than waiting to take a sabbatical.

For reform-generated burnout, one key issue is that a year off isn't going to do much good until the system is past Peak Crazy. I think we're past that point.

Also, Jennifer is transferring to Central, which should be an improvement for her.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

One year off, eight left... at this point I think my timing was damn near perfect.

Jonathan

pd said...

Sad to say, second sabbatical I lucked into for 2007-2008 (Recesssion’s secondary gain for a DINK.) gave me the time to really read and reflect on what was going on in education, locally and nationally. That led to my working as my buidling’s union rep from ’09 to ’12. That, in turn, led to me being forced out by admin. Happily forced out. I hear the SF local is preserving 50% of the sabbatical opportunities in the new contract negotiations. Not sure if that’s such a good thing. Breathing fresh air makes pollution less tolerable.

Tom Hoffman said...

That's why it is important to time it *after* Peak Crazy, Pat.

Dan Meyer said...

"For reform-generated burnout, one key issue is that a year off isn't going to do much good until the system is past Peak Crazy. I think we're past that point."

So is this, like ... optimism from Tom Hoffman or something?

Tom Hoffman said...

If you don't live in, say, Philadelphia, Newark, Detroit and a couple other cities that have gone over the tipping point, yes.