Contract Signed!!!!

Well, I guess it is official. I just signed my first contract and will posting everything in my classroom on Sunday and class begins on Monday. It's only 1 section instead of 2, but at least I have something. I even have my class roster. YIKES!!! These poor 19 souls are relying on me to help them learn how to be an effective manager in health and human services. It's actually kind of funny if you knew my history with various supervisors. Like the one who yelled at me for 2 hours in his office for doing what a judge said and not what he said. (Umm, duh, I didn't feel like going to jail that day.) Or the one who threatened to write me up for not saying "hi" to her every morning. (Yes, she was serious.) There is the one who told me that I was too big into following rules. (This after I told her I refused to commit fraud by falsifying documents.) And my favorite is the one who told me I was out of line for stating an action was not okay and then when I explained why and how the client's rights had been legally violated by his and the other higher ups decisions and we could be sued and lose BIG TIME, said "Oh, *(#%@! We screwed up." Nooooo, really? (What' s really interesting about this one is he is now the director of that agency and just a month ago begged me to come work for him to start a new program. He even gave me his email and personnel cell number and told me that if I ever needed anything to let him know. We're friends now, but there were times.)

I honestly can think of only one supervisor that I greatly admire and respect and would work for her again if I could. Her name is Nancy Taylor. She was the greatest. She had the highest ethics of anyone I know and actually cared about us learning how to do our jobs the best we could. All of us who worked for her admired her so much that to make a mistake we would feel more awful by letting her down. She was also the kind of person who, when disciplining you, you never felt scolded or belittled. She would use it as a learning experience on how to grow from it and keep it from happening again. I will always be indebted to her. Honestly, if it wasn't for her I would have gotten out of social work all together. When I got to be program director here in Idaho, there were many times I would call her and apologize for any mistakes I made or for ever giving her a hard time. I didn't fully appreciate just how great she was or how hard being a supervisor was until I was one myself. Nancy, if you read this: "Again, I am sorry and thank you!!"