This year I have been “voluntold” to take on A LOT. I’m training a new teacher who does not have any teaching experience (didn’t major in education or our content area, hired without qualifications due to teacher shortage). I was signed up without my consent for an endorsement course that requires me to stay after school until 9pm once a week in addition to all its course work. I’m teaching an entirely new set of preps with no team support. It’s a lot, and I’ve been struggling. For the past 2 weeks I have woken up every day crying from stress. Pulling myself together and drying my own tears every morning has added some time to morning commute, which is already 40 minutes, so I’ve been about 5 minutes late for the last 2 weeks. I still get here WELL before the bell rings, and the students are not in the building yet. Today, I found out that a fellow teacher tattled on me for being late so often. My admin was fairly kind about it, but it was made clear that my professionalism was called into question. I swooped in when they needed someone to train the new teacher, I have grinned and beared it through this endorsement class that I didn’t sign up for, and spent countless extra hours planning engaging lessons for my brand new preps. I am one of the few teachers that always attends parent meetings without fail, steps up when they need a gen ed teacher for SPED meetings, volunteers my time and energy whenever needed. I am just a few minutes late for a few days because I am trying to keep myself from sobbing each morning, and now my professionalism is called into question despite everything I do at this school. And to make it all worse, it was one of my own colleagues who tattled on me. I have never felt so unappreciated. All the extra work I do means nothing. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am still hurt and furious.