An update, and the last fortnight-or-so in teaching

I'm so sorry, to all of my faithful readers, for being so lax in updating you. But there hasn't been that much to update, I'm afraid. It's been a strange couple of weeks, and it looks like parts of it, at least, might be stranger before it starts making some sense (if it ever does). So, going back aways now, my first week of subbing in my new district went great, with a nice job each day. "Hey," I thought to myself, "I'm back in the game!" Well, the week after that (the last week of October) was a big contrast, as I got almost nothing. To be sure, one day was a day off for students, and one day I had to be out of town for a family event, which lessens the opportunities. But two of them? Nothing. No opportunities, no calls, no sick teachers. Finally, I snagged a job for one hour on Thursday. It was still available late in the morning, and I thought at least one hour would be a good reason to get out of the house for a bit. It was fourth grade, which I like, even though I haven't done elementary school in ages. But then, at the last minute, I got shifted to a first grade class instead. Their teacher had to leave suddenly while they were in music, so another teacher filled me in quick, and I picked them up. First graders are cute and fun and enthusiastic, but I know it's not my strength as a teacher. So here's the set-up. They'd been at a play that morning (lots of sitting still and being a good audience), they suddenly had this new teacher for the rest of the day, and their class Halloween party was the next day. Yes, they were excited and squirmy. Not that I blame them at all, but it did make some of the what we needed to accomplish a little challenging. The other teacher next door was a big help, however, and helped me get through it all. But that meant, for the entire week, I taught only two hours.

It didn't improve much last week, partly due to there being no students for two days due to conferences. (And I believe this is the first time I've ever seen a district schedule conferences at all schools at all levels at the same time.) I ended up only teaching Monday (middle school health) and Tuesday (high school math, yay!), as nothing turned up Wednesday, either.

This week, fortunately, seems to be a big improvement already. Yesterday I taught middle school language arts, tomorrow I'm teaching sixth grade something-or-other (for some reason, the sub system here tells you the grade, but not the subject, for middle school teachers), and eighth grade math on Friday. Thursday is a holiday, so no school, of course. I took today off to go to a job fair a few miles down the road. I mean, if I can't sub every day, I'd better find something else that can keep the wolf from the door, right? Not terribly promising — I think my wife is more likely to get something out of it than me — but I did leave behind a few résumés, one for one recruiter's husband who works in one of the local districts. While I was in town, however, I also decided to drop off a couple of letters of interest at another local district, which has a few openings still. So wouldn't you know, on my way out of town, they call to set up an interview next week! They hadn't even had the letter for two hours, which means they're either very interested or very desperate.

So, if I get this job, what will it entail? It's an elementary math intervention specialist position, which actually plays to a lot of my strengths and experiences. We shall see what happens. It sounds like it's full time for the rest of this year, which would be nice, and could get my foot in the door for any positions next year, too. If that doesn't work out, however, I have a few more leads right now, and who knows what else will come up?