dreams and rants: both off topic

     A few nights ago I dreamt that I was using a Holga camera. In the dream I was dashing from place to place, firing off photos.
     I woke up and realized that this must be the first step on the path to being a camera nerd. I have been considering buying a Holga, as I've never shot film before, and the unpredictability of a toy camera is appealing. Well, it's appealing right now. I'll no doubt feel differently after I've burned through a few rolls and gotten nothing with interesting color streaks, or light flares, just a bunch of cruddy photos.
     I suppose unpredictability, imperfections, and surprise typify my professional life right now. (Although I'm not sure why I want to introduce that into my non-school life, too?)
     *** tangent *** I'm all for free speech (being a journalist in my past professional life), but sometimes I'm irked by what I read in the papers regarding the furloughs. In particular, the people who write about how teachers should do the noble thing and work for free on furlough days. Can you imagine the outcry if we asked everyone in the state to do the same noble thing and work 17 days for free? Some people justify this by pointing out how much vacation teachers get via winter, spring, summer breaks. That is true, but I (and just about every teacher I know) spend significant break time prepping for work. Even after spending a full day teaching, I come home and spend several hours prepping lessons and grading work. Same goes for weekends. I think if you averaged out the hours, most teachers wouldn't have much more time off than any other state worker.
     I'm also irritated by the misunderstandings about professional development perpetuated by some government officials. One article I saw quoted an official saying something like, teachers will just have to stay after school and use their own time to work on lesson plans. (sorry, gotta look up the article and get the exact quote). News flash: professional development does not equal sitting around on my own writing lesson plans. What about collaboration with other teachers? Planning and working with experts in teaching language arts and math? Teachers are not technicians; we don't produce widgets, but tomorrow's compassionate, critical-thinking, literate citizens. Give the profession some respect.