The Hunt Is Over; Now the REAL Work Begins!

I must have done or said something right this time around, because I got a job. This was the second job I interviewed for last week, and it is certainly going to be different. If my last contracted job was a shock because if its small size, this one will be a complete and total headspin, because it only has about a hundred students. It's not exactly a public school, and there may be some cultural shift there, too. Okay, I'll come out and tell you that it's a tribal school. Yes, all of my students will be Native American. I'm mostly going to teach math, but I know I'll get at least one section of science (probably biology), too. Everyone is also telling me that I'll have to wear lots of hats, so we'll see what other duties I'll have. But since two of the four sports offered by the school are cross-country and track, which were the two I did in high school, I think I can help out there some. The school gets a lot of funding from both the tribe and the federal government, so it's well wired, another part of the job I think I'll like. (I'll even get my own iPad!) Something this school does that ought to be interesting is that it segregates the classes. A lot of them are either all boys or all girls. I've heard about the studies done in such situations, and how successful they've been, so I'm eager to see it in practice.

Two things worry me. One is that school starts next week, I'm already a little behind in getting things set up, and I still have lots of paperwork and stuff to deal with. I already have an appointment to get my fingerprints taken tomorrow afternoon, just as a for instance. I think it's safe to say that my summer is over, and I must now devote myself to getting ready to hit the ground running.

The other worry is that, in the past, whenever I've gotten a contract, my attitude has pretty much been, "Well, I've got the job, now I can relax." Why, yes, I can hear the rest of you giggling out there, now that you ask. Hey, you don't have to hit me over the head with a clue-by-four too many times before I figure things out. So yes, this year I'm going in with the attitude of, "Okay, now I've got the job, what do I have to do to keep it?" I think that is going to help me a lot more. Fortunately, I have experience, I have colleagues, and I'm going in with my eyes wide open. So I hope it goes well, and I can hang onto this job for a while until one opens up in my local district. Yes, I do still want to teach here in town, partly because it's where I live now, and after subbing here for two years, I've become impressed with how things work. I'd like to be a part of that — but not as a substitute if I can help it!

One more thing that excites me about this job is that they have smartboards. In fact, they're having smartboard training tomorrow morning, and I'm going to go in and find out what they're all about, and work with my new colleagues. Hey, I have to start building up clock hours for my certificate renewal and get the lay of the land, right?

I can't guarantee that I'll blog terribly often during the school year, but I'll do what I can to at least keep everyone up to date.

Year 2, Day 0

I went into school today to start getting ready for the new year. YAY! We don't officially start until tomorrow, and the students don't come in for another week after that, but I felt I needed to go in and start the process of tidying things up, now that all of my stuff is in my new room (YAY!). It also gave me a chance to leave Laura alone for a while so she could get some work done on her new job (YAY!). However, I left my keys at home. I was able to get into the room, but not the cabinets. Still, I got a lot of stuff sorted and put away, and even hung some of my posters up.

First big surprise of the year: Some students were in decorating the halls. One of them, who I taught some last year (and wasn't, shall we say, my most cooperative student), told me that she missed me, and that she'd wished she'd taken the third trimester of Geometry from me last spring. YAY! This is a good sign.

Today was not, however, my first day back at all this month. Over the summer, we lost our second-and-a-half math teacher (the plan was, he'd teach two science and two math classes this year) to another, larger, closer-to-his-home district. The district also found the money to hire both a full-time math and a full-time science teacher. (Essentially, our librarian who retired last June won't be replaced, instead of the librarian and math teacher who retired, which was the original plan.) So guess who got to help interview the new math teacher candidates? Yup, I was part of the team! It was odd, being on the other side of the interview at long last (YAY!), but not at all bad. I certainly had a lot of empathy for the two candidates we interviewed. It was tough, as they were both good, but before I left, we offered the job to the first candidate, who lives two states away and had to talk it over with his wife, and juggle the logistics. Apparently it didn't work out, because today I found out that the second candidate will be the new teacher. That's cool, as we all thought that either one would work. YAY!

Tomorrow, the school year officially kicks off, with the entire district faculty meeting in the school library (yes, that still blows my mind) and other stuff. I'll probably stick around a bit to do some more organizing, too. YAY!

Today's post was brought to you by the interjection YAY!