The light at the end of the tunnel!

I appear to be nearly done with the final class I need to get completely recertified. I taught two lessons today to some friends (and many thanks to Seiko and Kristen for coming by), so now all I have to do is some short write-ups on those classes, and a final paper for the class overall, print everything up, and send them in. After all this time and having it hanging over my head for so long, I'm glad to finally get that out of the way.

How can I get any work done when there's so much work to be done?

So I've come to a realization over the past few months: I can't work at home. I've never been good at it, and last year I'd often bring papers home to grade, then never got to them, or at least not until Sunday night. But with papers, I could usually just stay late and get caught up at school, so that wasn't so bad. It's really become a problem, however, with these two classes I've had to take to renew my certification. I made the mistake of taking them as correspondence courses. Yup, two five-credit classes, I had a year to take them in my spare time, and I can't do them at home. Go fig.

I signed up for these courses last winter, once my situation stabilized, because I thought they'd give me the flexibility I needed with no spring vacation and a lot of Saturdays taken up. Good in theory, but when I got home each night, I didn't feel much like working on my classes when there was so much other stuff to be done around the house. Yup, I'm one of those rare guys who does his share of cooking, cleaning, laundry, and the like, and if something sits around too long, I'll get to it before too long. It also didn't help my classes that I have lots of books to read, movies to watch, and a TV to watch. In other words, it just became too easy to find something else to do, and it was usually more urgent or more fun (or both). I did eventually chip away quite a bit at my first class, but it was all one big reason why I got myself into this mess in the first place. Once I realized I wasn't going to make it, I decided to cut my losses and get out of Marysville, since I wouldn't be able to teach there past June 30 anyway (guess when my last certificate expired?).

Fortunately, Laura came up with something that helps the situation immensely. She had been wanting a laptop computer for a very long time, but when the time came to get one, my dad gave her his old one! So, Laura said I should get one instead. I was hesitant at first, but she talked me into it, and last spring I got myself a very nice Macintosh PowerBook G4. It certainly runs rings around my old iMac, and is portable as well. Laura set up a wi-fi network at our house as well, so we can get on the internet anywhere at home. For my classroom management class, I used it to play the CD-ROM while doing the work on my iMac, which made things go faster as I didn't have to swap between the CD-ROM and the word processor every few minutes, and I could check something on the CD-ROM without losing my train of thought. So once I was done with that class and it came time to start my second class (integrating language arts into teaching math, for those who are curious), I decided to do all of the work on the PowerBook, as that class didn't have a CD-ROM. Very wise choice on my part. Sure, I did some of it at home, but I ran into my usual problem of too many distractions at home. So I tried something radical -- not doing my work at home. I started carting my computer down to my folks' place in north Seattle and doing the work there instead, and it's proven to be a blessing, as I'm actually getting it done. In fact, I'm down at their place right now, typing this up as a reward to myself after completing the latest component of my class. One day, I even did some of my work at my mechanic's place while he was putting new brake pads on my car. Having laptops has also been a boon when we travel, as Laura and I were able to stay in touch during our trip to California last summer. At the Wizard of Oz convention I was at, I was even able to update my website the moment my friend and co-author, Karyl Carlson, won an award, and help out with a presentation on Oz items on eBay, all because I had my computer there and the chairman had wired up the room for wi-fi.

Coming to my parents' place to work on my class is not 100% foolproof, as I still have some distractions here at my folks' place. They have a wi-fi connection here, too, and so I take the more-occasional-than-I-should break to check e-mail or websites, or play one of the few games I have on this machine, but overall it's worked very well, and I anticipate being able to finish this class next week some time (touch wood). And I think, in the future, I'm going to avoid taking correspondence courses unless it's one at a time with no looming deadline.

It's odd that I can't do my work at home, because I usually didn't have that problem in high school or college, although I certainly had my moments of doing an entire weekend's worth of work Sunday evening. I suspect it has something to do with being a homeowner and having more responsibilities now. I've found I'm doing the same thing with reading. If I sit down to read something for fun, I find my mind wandering to tasks that need to get done around the house, and at a handy break I'll empty the dishwasher or update my website or something, and I don't get as much read. But I don't have this problem when I'm reading somewhere else.

Gee, I meant this entry to be about not being able to work at home, and instead it's become something of a love letter to my computer. Oh, well, I think I got all I wanted to out anyway (and a little more as well). It is a nice little computer, and it really has helped me a lot with both courses.

Cross those fingers!

What should be the final piece of paperwork to get my substitute certificate arrived on Saturday, and I made copies of all of them yesterday to send to Olympia. Later this morning, I'll drop the letter off at the post office, and then it's in the hands of the Office of Proffesional Practices again. I hope it's enough, I hope they don't take their time about it, and I hope they actually tell me if there's something else they need (although I'm not sure what else I could provide). Since it's Thanksgiving this week, however, I'm sure not a lot will happen until next week. That's fine with me, that will give me a few more days to finally finish this last class and submit all of the paperwork. I just hope they can grade it quick, so I can get my transcript quick, so I can apply for my continuing certificate and possibly start the whole merry-go-round all over again...

So, did you miss me?

Well, it's been a while since I was actually able to post anything here, so I thought I'd get everyone caught up with what's been going on with my teaching career. It's not been pretty, but it has been instructional.

First off, because my certificate expired at the end of June, and school went on into July, I ended up not finishing the whole school year. Yup, I missed the last three weeks or so, since I legally couldn't teach. To be honest, however, that was fine with me. I was not doing well anyway, the stress was getting to me, and I just felt it would be better for everyone involved if I just left. (I did end up having to go back for a couple of days to take care of some administrative stuff, but that was all right, I didn't mind.) And my other employer, the local Sylvan Learning Center, said, "Sure, no problem, we can use you this summer," so I was able to get some work in there to make up for the money I suddently wouldn't be getting from Marysville.

My goal was to finish up my classes over the summer and apply for my new continuing certificate. I didn't think I'd be able to get a full time job again so close to the start of the school year, but districts do hire in late September and into October, and I could always go back to subbing. (After the debacle of Marysville, subbing suddenly didn't look so bad at all!) But one thing I learned this summer was that I don't do well taking a class at home. There are too many distractions, like the TV and the internet, and even if I did get going on something, part of me would be thinking about things that needed to get done around the house, and I'd end up dealing with dirty dishes or something. This, coupled with working at Sylvan and my annual trip to the Winkie Convention in California and all of the Olympics I watched, meant I didn't get terribly far on my classes. In hindsight, I think taking two correspondence classes with the intent of finishing them both within a pretty short timeframe was a mistake -- especially during a school year when I had almost no breaks and was also working Saturdays.

So once I realized that I wasn't going to make it, I applied for a substitute certificate. I figured I'd be able to get some hours subbing in while I finished the classes and worked at Sylvan in the evenings. I applied at the start of September, thinking to take a little badly needed time off before getting to work. Well, it hasn't worked out quite that smoothly. Last spring, I had an ugly episode involving a student who wouldn't take off his hood in class. So I went over and pulled it off for him. Bad move, I know, and I regretted it the moment I did it. But in doing so, I accidentally pulled a littler harder than I intended, and choked him a little. No, I was not having a good day. So the district, quite rightly, suspended me with pay while they investigated. Then they forgot about it for a week, and didn't actually do any investigating until I called to find out what was going on! At least I got some time off... Once they looked into things, they basically gave me a slap on the wrist, and asked that I attend an anger management class and talk to a counselor. I was glad to do so, and actually got a lot out of both.

Now, fast forward to my application for my substitute certificate. It asked me if I'd ever been part of any investigation, disciplinary action, etc. Being the honest soul that I am, I said yes. Some may be thinking I should have lied, but I know that if I had, it would have come back to haunt me later. Besides, I had no way of knowing what was to come. Anyway, a few weeks after I applied, I got a note from the state asking for more details about the incident, and so I filled out the form they sent, thinking it would be the end of it. So I waited for my new certificate to arrive. And I waited. And waited. And waited...

Finally, I did what anyone else would do: I checked into what was going on. It took me some time to actually get a person down in Olympia and not a voice mail box (and I don't think anybody ever ready any of the e-mails I also sent, since I never got a reply to any of them), but after a few weeks I was told that the Office of Professional Practices was holding it up. So I attempted to call OPP, left a few more voice mails that were never answered, and tried to e-mail their address listed on the OSPI website, which it turns out is invalid, as it was bounced back to me. After a couple of weeks, I finally managed to get a real person, and was told that all they needed was some proof that I went through the anger management and counseling. Is that all? I thought, while also wondering to myself why didn't you get this stuff from the Marysville School District, and when were you ever planning on actually telling me this?

Back on the phones and e-mails again... I contacted some of the folks at the MSD central office who were involved in my disciplinary action, and finally got a response a week and a half later, and was told sure, they'd be glad to send me that information. But all I got back was a letter stating that I'd taken the anger management class. Good thing I had taken it, because it was all coming in very handy now! So I got back to them and asked about the counseling, and they gave me the number of the company that referred me. So I contacted them, and they sent me a release form so I could get my records -- only to find that they don't have my records (and, for that matter, the person I had just talked to two days earlier and had sent me the form didn't remember a thing about me -- but that, at least, I can understand, as I'm sure those poor folks must talk to dozens of people a day). At least they were able to give me the contact info for my counselor, and right now I'm just waiting for a call from him (he called last night while I was at Sylvan) to tell the whole story yet again so I can get what I hope will be the last piece of paperwork so I can finally get my substitute certificate.

The irony of all this is, once I realized it was going to take a while still, I jumped in and worked my hardest on my second class -- and I went down to my parents' place to actually get the work done, avoiding most of the distractions at home. So by the time I actually get my substitute certificate, I may just be turning around and goiong back to apply for my continuing certificate.

But the good news is thanks to the job last year, Laura and I were able to refinance our house and give ourselves a little cushion for just such an emergency, so despite my only working part time right now we're doing all right financially, although it's going to be yet another lean Christmas. And I've not only gotten most of my classes done, I've done some badly needed updates to my Wizard of Oz website and cleaned up bits of the house that badly needed it. And after fourteen straight years of teaching, I probably need the break anyway.

So what does the future hold? Hard to say, of course. I thought I'd gotten my dream job last year, but it turned out to be a nightmare. But I realize that last year was also a fluke of bad fortune, and my next job will probably be a lot better. So once I get my substitute certificate, I will jump back into the subbing pool. The Northshore district has already said they'd like to have me back. I'm also trying to finish this last class, and will apply for my continuing certificate the moment I get my transcript. Then I'm going to take a little time off from classes, just because I had to deal with so many this year -- but starting in 2006, I'll be taking them again on a more regular basis, even if I think I can't afford to, so I don't get stuck in this jam again. And once I finish my current class, it will be time to polish up my résumé and start applying for jobs. I hope I can get something full time again, but this time it will be on my terms. One of the questions I plan to ask in interviews from now on is, "Is there currently a contract between the district and the union?" If there isn't, and I'm offered a job, I may do some serious research before accepting.

Anyway, wish me luck. I can't guarantee that I'll be much of a blogger, but I hope I can at least pop in from time to time with information. So I hope you'll keep taking a look at how things shape up here.