The Latest Update

Yup, it's been a while, again, hasn't it? I think it's fair to say that this blog is not a big priority, so I hope my few regular readers can be forgiving. But my, is there a lot to tell you this time around!

So, the new job started, and man, was it interesting. Like I said, small classes, nice kids, but not always with their heads in the game, if you know what I mean. I thought I was doing well teaching math, struggled but made do teaching science, and couldn't teach the Compass class because the school didn't have the contract yet and it wasn't set up. (I turned it into a study hall, with a few self-contained math lessons so that it wasn't too easy. But since it was a second, and in some cases third, math class for some of the students, I ramped it back from some of my initial plans.) I went huckleberry picking up on tribal lands that few whites ever get to see, I was there for an assembly when a native artist added a mural in the lobby, and I was in a circle dance at the tribal health fair.

And then they fired me. It came out from left field so fast and so hard that my head is still ringing, nearly two months later. I'd been having a bad week, and I'll admit that there were a couple of incidents that did not do me a lot of good. However, rather than try to work with me and help me out, they decided that I wasn't the right teacher for them, and took advantage of my six month probationary period to let me go.

And to be honest, now that I've had a little time to reflect, I think they were right. The school needs a lot of help from an experienced teacher who can handle problem students, and I doubt I could have succeeded in the end. I'm glad for the experience, and I wish everyone there well, but I just wish there could have been a better way to handle it.

The good news is that my local district was extremely happy to have me back as a substitute. Almost immediately, I got jobs. I've worked just about every day at one of the middle schools, in fact, where the principal even took me aside one morning to find out what happened and that I was all right. The kids were happy to see me, too. Dang, I like working in this district.

And it could happen some more. Not long after I got back to work there, I found out that the high school had an opening for a math teacher for the rest of the year. I sent my letter of interest to human resources, and promptly heard nothing back. So a couple of weeks later, I decided to do something I'd never done before: I went to the source. I e-mailed a copy of my letter and resume to the principal, vice-principals, and math coach at the high school. A few days later, I heard back from the principal, who wants to talk to me next week (today's the last day of winter break in the district, and school starts again on Monday). I have no idea what all is involved, whether or not I'd actually be a good fit, and if they really want me or they're just desperate for anybody. I do plan to be very honest with him about my history, and what I need to be successful. But I really like what this district is doing with math reform and student support, and I've already had a taste of it subbing for one math teacher for two weeks last year. Plus, I know a lot of the kids already. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm also realistic enough to know that it could blow up in my face again. But I'm still in the one-ste-at-a-time phase, in that we need to have that conversation first. I will, of course, let you know what happens, but I can't guarantee it being in a timely manner.

Quick! Spin 'em again!

I suspected this might happen: I have another interview next week, this time for a junior high math position. The school came to hiring very late for some reason, and started with subs filling in. I was asked the be one of them, but I had the other interview and didn't think it would be fair to take that only to abandon them if I got the other job. But now that they know I'm available again, they've asked me to interview for one of the positions. To further make things interesting, it's my wife's old junior high school! So, if you can spare a few good thoughts for me Tuesday afternoon, maybe I'll get this one.

And I finally got back into the classroom today — up at the local junior high, no less. One of the PE teachers needed a sub today, so I got to go there and do very little, as they haven't actually started PE yet. Today they pretty much just passed out uniforms. Still, it was great to have lots of students I've worked with before enthusiastically greet me by name and ask how things are going and the like. I've been needing that for a few weeks now.

You didn't spin hard enough

I got a call this morning. Nope, I didn't get it.

Damnit!

NOW what? Teaching is all I know, and that's what I've been doing for the past sixteen years. I've worked my ass off all summer filling in applications and answering essays and everyting else, and when I wasn't doing that, I was feeling guilty because I wasn't doing it. Ever since that last contracted job that flamed out, I've been doing everything right, and it's STILL NOT BLOODY GOOD ENOUGH!!! What does it take? Sheesh! I knew it would be tough, but not this tough!

School starts again on Tuesday, and I'll just hop back onto that hamster wheel of subbing and tutoring, putting in fourteen hour days for little reward. But I've already taken steps to start the whole career change process going, so we shall see what happens.

Sorry about all that. Thanks for letting me vent and rant.

Spin those prayer weasels!

Apparently, the two jobs I interviewed for last week have yet to be filled, but they've decided that I'm not the teacher for the job. (Huh???) But the good news is, I have another interview tomorrow, for another high school math job out in a rural district.

Oh please please please please please please please let me not blow it...

This isn't looking good...

It's been nearly a week, and I haven't heard back from either of last Friday's interviews. One of my references, who I'm sure they would have called if they were interested, told me she hasn't gotten any calls.

In the meantime, on Monday this week, one of my tutoring colleagues, who went back to South Carolina earlier this summer looking for a job, got a desperate call from a school wanting him to come out, as classes had already started. He wrapped things up that night and took off the next morning. And today, two more of my tutoring colleagues had interviews, then found out by the end of the evening that they'd gotten their jobs.

I'm really happy for them. No, really, I am. But man, I'm also exceedingly jealous.

There's one more week before school starts. Maybe some other district will get incredibly desperate and actually want me to teach for them.

This week's interviews

Wow, things are looking up, as I had three interviews this week. The first one was the other day, and in a district over seventy miles away, for a high school math position in a rural district. It would have been an interesting job, but Laura and I would have had to make a whirlwind move, so it's probably a good thing they called yesterday and told us I wasn't a finalist. Today I had two interviews for jobs closer to home, although neither one is terribly local. The first is in a blue collar area to the south with a diverse population, including quite a few immigrants. It's an older school in a nice neighborhood, however, that looks like a small college campus! The biggest strikes against this job are the distance and the lack of technology; I'd have my own computer, but for the students about the best I can get is an overhead projector. The other district is more affluent and to the east, and while it's also a long drive, it's not so far, and there are several routes I could try. This is one of those schools where parents wonder why their students are getting "only" an A- (or so I was told during the interview). It sounds like a good fit, and it would be a great place to work. I even think I did all right in that interview, so my fingers are crossed. Let's see if I get offered one of these. And if not, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if I get a few more interviews next week, as the start of school is only two and a half weeks away.

A glimmer of light

Wouldn't you know, no calls or nibbles or anything else all summer, and suddenly today, BOOM, I have two interviews lined up this week. One is pretty far away, which would probably involve a whirlwind move; the other is in a district I hadn't even applied in, but they got my name through my university placement office. It's also far, but at least commutable from here. After the interview was set up, I went ahead and applied there (thank goodness for online applications). So, wish me luck. And these may be the first of many interviews — unless I get an offer from one of these schools...

And so it ends...

The school year is now officially over, and frankly, not a moment too soon. I am incredibly burned out, after subbing all day just about every day and tutoring four nights a week, just to keep my head above financial water (and even then not always quite). There wasn't a lot of actual teaching to do this past week, as I showed a couple of videos, gave some high school science students time to cram for the final, and helped preside over two different field days. But now that that's done, I can (I hope) get into high gear with the applications. Of course, I've now heard back from one district that basically said, "Thanks but no thanks." This is not helping my self-esteem here, people! Oh, well, I still have a couple active applications out right now, lots of other districts to apply in, and time to deal with it all, I hope. But if I don't get something for the fall, I will have to investigate other options, I'm afraid, because I simply can't keep this grind up for another school year.

Soon, I hope to tell you all about the highlights and lowlights of the year, and I also have a couple of books I've read recently and want to review here. And there's also the always entertaining and enjoyable application process to keep you posted on. So I won't be completely silent this summer. But I may not be posting quite so regularly, either.

Into the home stretch

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I just hope it's not an oncoming train. There's only one more week left of school, in both districts that I work in, and everyone is getting a little antsy about it. Since everything that needs to get done is done, it's now a little looser, but a lot of people — students and teachers — don't quite have their head completely in the game. The best example was a two-day elementary PE job I had this past week. It's a large school, so they have two PE teachers, which was a nice incentive for me to take the job, as I knew someone else would be in charge and I'd foller her lead. There were a few classes out for field trips, and the second graders used their time to rehearse for the end-of-the-year music performance, but otherwise it was pretty good. Much of the equipment, however, was already tied up for Field Day this week, so they weren't able to use it in the gym. to further complicate matters, the music teacher was out and couldn't get a sub. They've done this before, however, and combined the PE and music classes for some exercises. The kids are used to it, and did a good job. It is quite a sight to see about eighty first graders all doing Tae Bo in a dimly lit gym, but they did great.

Good news on the job hunt: I got another application in, and this time it only took me two days. This was a district I'd already applied in before, and they still had my electronic application, so all I had to do was update things, make copies of my paperwork, and write a new cover letter. As this was a district that contacted me last month and encouraged me to apply, I think I have a decent shot. But no, I won't rest on my laurels here, as I have a list of about two dozen other districts. I'd better get started, then...

A week's worth of work

I've had an interesting job this past week: Elementary school librarian. Since the end of the school year is coming up, it's been interesting because nobody's allowed to check out books (although renewals are fine), and all of the books need to be back soon. So I've been getting a lot of books and, thanks to some wonderful student and parent volunteers, shelving very few of them (although I do my part). And I've shown the DVD of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi about twenty times, so I am really tired of it. The soundtrack is still going through my head! I'm there one more day tomorrow, and then there's only nine days left in the school year.

The best part of teaching elementary this week, however, has been the late start. I thought about sleeping in, but decided to use the time instead to work on job applications at last. And do you know how many applications I was able to fill in, at the rate of an hour a day? One! Oy, there has got to be a better system! Fortunately, I already have two more days of elementary school (PE this time) coming up later this week, so at least I should be able to get a good start on my next application going this week.

One giant step...

Thank goodness for long weekends, especially when there's no tutoring on Monday. (I do not know why we get Memorial Day off, but not any other holidays during the school year. Good grief, this year we even had to work on Halloween! Can you imagine how many kids actually showed up?) Not only did I clean out the gutters today, I also went through my huge pile of teacher stuff and got it all sorted and organized. The good news is that I now have quite a few current letters of recommendation (and even a few older ones), with more coming. I also found, to my surprise, a mostly positive evaluation from my last contracted job (the one where the year started off with a seven week teacher strike and never really got any better from there), and a few other items that should help in the job hunt. Tomorrow, I'm teaching junior high math at the school up the road, and the video production teacher is going to have a team recording me teach, so that ought to be a good addition to my application portfolio. So very soon here I should be able to finally get going on applying for jobs! Let's hope it works...