Interesting week...
So the total number of programs I have scheduled for my Distance Learning is 99. Yep, that's right, that is one less than 100. I still can't believe that I went from having to practically beg people to let me present to their students to having people beg me. Last week I gave 5 presentations, two of which were a total disaster.
So I go in to present, and I cannot hear the students at all. They can see and hear me, I just can't hear them. I have no idea what is going on, and I know my equipment is working correctly, so I continue to present. Apparently during the presentation, I shifted from color to black and white, and there was a terrible noise in the background. I happened to be doing two programs back to back for this school, so somehow I made it through the first one. The second one went a little better, but the sound was still messed up and the screen kept freezing. What happend was something in the connection, not the equipment, so it was beyond my control to fix. I just felt bad for the kids, becuase they were really really young (4-5 yr olds) and they didn't get a quality program since the technology screwed up.
But I had three more programs later in the week, and they all went flawlessly. I decided that if the technology actually works the way it is supposed to, then this whole distance learning thing is actually a lot of fun! The kids love it when I get the owls out, or when the chinchilla poops all over me.
Now on to Evil Nancy. Evil Nancy is a lady who coordinates programs for a school district in New York. Apparently she worked with my predecessor Ryan. Well, Evil Nancy earned her name by trying to take advantage of me. It started several weeks ago when I wasn't completely booked for both April and May. I tried to work with her and schedule programs for her and her students. But it got a little ridiculous. She started wanting all these programs and stopped asking for them, but demanding them. "I need another program on this day at this time..." It was getting ridiculous. First of all she wanted three -four programs a day, but I told her I only do two. So then she switched a ton of things around. Perhaps I should explain first how long it takes me to schedule one program. For one program I have to put it into my Microsoft Outlook calendar, my day planner, an excel spreadsheet, and into our bridging program called renovo. All this takes me a good 15-20 minutes. Just for one program. Also, I have to prepare and send of a confirmation packet for each program and this takes another 15-20 minutes. So if someone switches a date/time, I have to go back through and redo everything.
So before I knew it, Evil Nancy had 17 programs scheduled just for her and her classes. I also spent an entire day just scheduling programs for her. Literally, i had to take my work home and put everything on my calendars and it took me an extra 3 hours at home. It was ridiculous that on this particular day I didn't get a single thing done but schedule programs for her. I would get a program scheduled, and then I would open my email and she would have an email saying "we need two more programs on this day, and two more on that day..." I had made the mistake of telling her which days I still had open, and she thought that meant that all those days were for her.
At this point I am having to turn other schools away because I cannot fit any more programs into April or May. Evil Nancy's school district just happened to go until late June, so she thought she could monopolize my schedule until then. I finally got fed up with her attitude and did something I should have done a long time ago...cut her off. She was making me so frustrated and upset, that I was dreading checking my email and I was getting so confused because I couldn't keep straight which day she had programs, which school and IP address went with each program, and if I had recorded her program in the right places.
Right after I had spent the entire day scheduling for her, I get yet another email wanting more programs. I was so mad, I wrote her back and said I was no longer scheduling programs. My supervisor was totally on my side. I am not Evil Nancy's personal programer. I should not have let it get as far as it did. It felt so good to cut her off.
So anyways, this all happened on thursday, I go in to work on Friday and notice that Evil Nancy has written me again. This is generally what her email said: "Is there ANY spots still available for April, May, or June? We still have 7 teachers at our four schools that did not get a program. We wouldn't want any of the students to miss out on this wonderful experience..."
What the crap?! She wants SEVEN more programs?! Uh-uh, no way. She already has about 1/5 of the total programs I am doing, I am having to turn other people away, I have made special exceptions for her (giving up my lunch time to do programs for her, doing three programs a day instead of two, etc.) which I really regret doing. And then she has the audacity to request SEVEN more programs?! And not only that, she is trying to guilt me by saying "think of the students..." Well, I wrote her back and said that I am not doing any more programs, I told her that there are 100 programs scheduled and that this doesn't include the programs I have to give at the zoo as well. I suggested that if a class has been left out, then she combine them with another class that already has a program. Sure the group will be bigger, but at least the students would get a program.
And next school year, this is NOT going to happen again. I think I was a bit niave at the time and didn't realize that people were going to try to take advantage of me in this way. I was also concerned about saying "NO" to people. Well, when it comes to Evil Nancy, I won't have any problem saying "No" again.