Current mood:	contemplative
Current music:	Enya's 'Only Time'

- A new appointment in 2008? -
Now that I am done with the formalities and have already stated the reason for the birth of this blog, I can finally rant and rave over anything and everything under the sun and which affect my sheltered cocoon.  

For starters, the Head spoke to me on Tuesday and asked me whether I am certain about my desire to be on the Leadership Track.  Apparently, with my Reporting Officer's (RO) impending departure to greener pastures in Shenzhen at the end of the year, the post of SH Humanities (HY / SS) will be left vacant.  Hence, if I so desire, the post will be mine for the taking.  Well, I've been teaching in the school for five years and it is high time that I take up a new challenge as I feel that I have already achieved all my immediate goals...  

Academic achievement: attained value-added results based on the performance of the graduating class of 2006.
CCA achievement: been winning the Frank Cooper Sands Award since the establishment of my scout troop in 2003, culminating in the Gold Award for 2006.
Personal achievement: two promotions in a span of four years...

Thus, if I do not take up this new appointment, I will probably just rot and lose all forms of motivation to work.  As it is, I am already bored to tears with the regular hum-drum in school.  So, I told her that yes, I want the position and with that, my fate is sealed.  Even before the official announcement, I have been tasked with several projects to do, to prove to the Head, that I am capable of leading the Humanities Department.  I aim to do my best since I have my own set of goals to attain and also because I do not want to disappoint my RO or my mentor.  Both have played major roles in ensuring that I remain high-profile and have stood by me when I was at my lowest ebb some time ago.  So obviously, I would like to be an excellent Subject Head as my RO is to us all.

Anyway, it appears that the Head has developed a fear of giving a greenhorn the chance to assume a post.  Why?  Because she made a huge boo-boo by appointing a particular colleague whom I shall simply name as Homer, to the post of Subject Head.  Two years into the job and Homer has proven to be totally inept and worse, sorely lacking in EQ.  So the Head does not want history to repeat itself and has as such, preferred to import foreign talent who are already established in their careers and who have already assumed their particular post for a while, rather than groom the growing local talent.  This has resulted in plenty of unhappiness amongst the staff and some have left or are leaving as they are unhappy with the management.  Granted, the Head is new, but she honestly needs to smarten up or pretty soon, she'll be left with an incompetent lot of teachers.  Also, this desire to win amongst others, the People Developer Award (when what the school needs is to improve the discipline of its students and then to attain value-added results on a regular basis) is driving the teachers nuts as we honestly do not know what the area of focus is.  So we are all overworked and unduely stressed out as we work towards winning as many awards as we can possibly garner in one full sweep. 

That's about as much as I can rant at the moment.  Need to get back to reality for I have the Swiss Alps beckoning me, from my study table.  The piles of work that I will need to grade continues to rise to such great heights that I am tempted to simply burn them.  But, sensibility prevails... so mark I must...