This week in teaching...and more!

Here's the usual quick summary. But first, Jerry Large's latest column about math education.

Monday: Elementary PE. It was fun.

Tuesday: Junior high school library. Hmm, two classes coming in to do some research, and otherwise all I had to do was spend time with the books. Oh, yeah, that was a sweet day!

Thursday: High school math. This was a block day, the first period was planning, and the other two classes just did work in the computer lab. Oh, yeah, that, too, was a sweet day!

Friday: Day 1 of filling in for a high school math teacher who had to have some surgery on her foot. Other than not quite having enough time to explain solving a system of equations by substitution to two of the classes, it went well. I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

"Hey," you're asking, I hope, "what about Wednesday?" That's the truly interesting part. Remember that job I interviewed for twice back in June? They called back and wanted to talk to me again! It seems they have one position where they have had trouble keeping someone (first a sub, then a non-math person). So I went in on Wednesday to talk. They wanted to know if I was interested in the job — and would I be able to stay and teach a class, so they could see how I did? Okay, that was a surprise, but I had nothing else going on. I actually got to observe one class, and they were a bit of a handful. The next class was the one I actually got to teach, and they were fine and engaged and interested in who this weird new guy was, I think. I did all right, under the circumstances. Friday afternoon, the vice principal in charge of all this got back to me and said they were still considering me and another candidate — then it turned into another mini-interview about management and discipline. Uh-oh. Well, I'm still in the running, I think, and they should be able to tell me in a few days. Yes, I'll tell you as soon as I know.