Catching Up With Friends

Inside the Tea House in the Chinese Scholar Garden at Snug Harbor.

Life in retirement is good.

Time To Smell The Flowers



It is that time of the year again, the time when abused senior teachers must weigh the maltreatment against the feelings of accomplishment and success derived from being In the classroom. I know that feeling well. It took me too many years to make the move, a move I will be eternally grateful to the miserable AP who was my supervisor.

There are no words to describe the wonder of rolling over at 5:30 and going back to sleep after the cat woke you up by dropping toys on your head. Going to the theater in the middle of the week is another plus. There is no more rushing home after school to quickly prepare the following days lesson before going out. It is wonderful to be able to take advantage of cheap air flights and rental cars by traveling during non peak times. Supermarkets have lighter lines. Best sellers can be read before they become classics and it is easy so much easier to get doctor appointments when the day is yours. 

The city is full of museums and parks.  There are wonderful courses to take.  There are even other jobs, jobs where abuse is not something one must endure.  The best part for all you Tier I teachers (others benefit too, but we do the best) is that there is more money in retirement check than in a pay check.

Leaving is hard.  I cried handing in my papers but I have no regrets. Teaching, especially when you have been doing it for more than half your life is a big part of who you are, but it is not all you are.

If you are torn, make a list of pros and cons for staying.  Sleep on it.  Give it careful thought and then follow your heart.  If you decide to stay, enjoy your last years.  Do the job you know you do well and let the administrators be damned.  They can't hurt you anymore so don't let them bother you.  And, if you decide to leave, go knowing there is a whole new world waiting for you.  It is okay to feel sad.  I did.  I promise you will get over it sooner than you think possible.

The Student

In my old age, I am once again a student, taking courses at the UFT with lots of others retired teachers.  I'm trying my hand at Photoshop and, while the teacher is excellent, I fear his TDR would not be good based on my scores.  I am defintely a slow learner.

Today we learned how to work in black and white.  I was so proud of  myself.  I got rid fo the colors on this little cutie and then got her eyes green and her nose pink.  

 I also learned to work with text and fix the colors. 

I had a great black and white image of the above but forgot to save it.  Oh well, I'll try again next week.

Everyone who told me there was life outside of work was absolutely correct.  I'm starting to really enjoy not working.

Lunch With Friends



Teachers in a big high school only get to know people they have common lunch or prep periods with.  There are so many great people working within inches of each other we never get to know.

Now that many of us have retired, we are rectifying the situation.  What started out as a small group having lunch has expanded to a group of 17 meeting once a month.  We are finding so many new friends, friends with common interests, people we never knew existed.

Sorry guys, we only opened the lunch to women.  Any Packemin retirees are welcome to join.  E-mail me if you are interested.

Touching The Ball

There are benefits of being old.  My poor friend Rick in Canada is up to his eye balls in test papers.  I'm wandering the city, seeing shows and seeing sites.  I wandered into the Times Square Museum on 46th and Broadway last week and got an up close look at the New Year's Eve Ball an costumes from several shows.  I even got to take pictures in a landmark theater.  (Photos are not permitted in any Broadway theaters.)
Check them out Here, on Facebook.)

Retirement Questions



I got this e-mail from a retired teacher and reader.  she has lots of good points and questions I can't help her with so I am posting in hope of getting her some answers. 

Hi Ms. PO’ed,


I wanted to vent and didn’t know to whom to vent (sorry, I am an old English teacher). All the blogs are concerned with Bloomberg’s attempts to destroy education in New York as we know it and I can’t seem to find any that deal with the day-to-day complaints of our retired brethren. In fact, one of my formerly favorite bloggers seems threatened (his column this past week) by the retired teachers chapter members, afraid that if we vote in mass we will somehow make things worse both in the union itself and in the system.


I know you are (somewhat newly) retired and several of your followers are too. Do you know of any blogs that are specific to our needs?


My vents: 1) I paid into the 25/55 retirement plan for many years, confident that I would make it past the 25 years, even expecting to work beyond. But the sudden targeting of older teachers, the Principals Academy no-nothing principal I worked for, the lack of protection from the union, made all my plans go up in smoke. I went out after only 23 years. That means that the retirement figures bounce back to the 32 years model and the money I paid in goes for nothing. Why can’t we get that back? Since so many of us older teachers are going out early, being forced out by the Bloomberg policies, where is all that money going? Since I am now on a small fixed pension, smaller than I had ever dreamed because I went out early, I could so use that money. I emailed the retired teachers chapter leader, Tom Murphy, and got an email back saying he would look into it. I can’t possibly be the only retiree who has asked about it, can I?


2) I know that all the teachers are now being told they must use express scripts. I hate express scripts. I hate the idea that it is a monopoly and I have no choice. I hate that this badly affects neighborhood pharmacies trying to survive in this awful economy. I hate that even though I can get discount coupons from the drug companies that reduce my costs, express scripts will not honor them (the neighborhood pharmacies always did). I hate it taking up to 30 days to get my meds. I hate that I have to rely on the post office, which is on the verge of bankruptcy and is cutting services, to get me my much needed medicines.


3) Where did the deductible suddenly come from for lab tests? I thought the medical coverage (GHI) stayed exactly the same after retirement. I just received a denial letter on routine blood tests my husband and I got two weeks ago, saying I was responsible for the entire amount because my deductible had not yet been met. WTF? I have never, in all my years as a City employee, had a lab bill denied. And what does this mean when I go in later this year for some surgery? Will there suddenly be bills that wouldn’t have been there if I were still working? If so, why, if it is the same plan??????? And why does no one explain this? Nowhere is it written – all I find is that the medical coverage is the same after retirement.


4) Can anyone explain SHIP to me in laymen’s terms? Do I save all my doctors’ and lab bills and then submit them? Why? I am confused about the purpose of SHIP and what to do about it.


5) And finally but perhaps more important than the rest, why should it, in this era of computers, take 5 full months for them to get me my actual pension? I retired in the off-season, not at the end of a school year when so many others were putting in their papers. And, more to the point, why did they “tide me over” with less than half of my projected pension – I figured that my twenty-something daughter who works for little more than minimum wage was earning more than I was getting, certainly not enough for a person to live on! I know, I know, they give you interest on the monies, as the person at the pension office kept saying, but I had to take out loans to get through these five months! That is a sin! Why can’t they err on the side of the newly retired teacher?


Thanks so much for letting me vent. You know I am such a big big fan of your blog. If you want to use any of this in your blog, of course, feel free.


burntoutteacher

Maybe Doing Nothing Isn't So Bad

I can get used to this--watching the Colbert show I slept though last night while wearing my pajamas at 9:30 in the morning. 

Happy To Admit I Was Wrong



Last year I thought I would miss everything about teaching, including parent teacher conferences, especially parent teacher conferences.  I was wrong.

I spent parent-teacher evening covering a class at the college for a friend.  I made lots of $$$ and helped out a good person.

Parent-teacher afternoon was spent at the Discovery Times Square, being a CSI agent, riding the tram (something my husband has wanted to do for years) and ending with dinner at a great place on Roosevelt Island (Groupon special--dinner for 2 $19!).  Even the subway ride home was great.  I met a former calculus student who thanked me for making his class fun and giving so much to them.

Don't mean to rub it in, but I am learning there is plenty of life after retirement.