Back to School

I’m sitting here in my perfectly turned-out classroom with about twenty minutes left in my ludicrously long and luxurious prep period. (A girl can get a lot done in ninety minutes!)

The advantage to having first period prep on the first day of school is that I’m not the first person anyone sees, and I get a chance to eavesdrop on other people to see what they’re doing to kick things off. Just hearing other people talking to their classes without self-destructing makes me breathe a little easier.

I say that, but it’s kind of silly, because I’m not scared. I thought I would be nervous about starting the school year, but I feel pretty dang confident about it all. I’m looking forward to working with sophomores again. I’m looking forward to teaching again. The only thing that really gives me pause is the block scheduling, and I think I’ve got a grip on it now.

A few notes:

• There were flowers and earrings – golden CHS mascots – on my desk when I got here, and I’m still not sure how Mr. Bees did it. Going to have to tickle it out of him, I think.
• Instead of a ear-shattering buzzer, the morning bell – and the warning bells leading up to it – is Westminster Chimes.
• A girl came in during my prep to ask if she could be my TA, somehow not realizing that it was my prep despite the emptiness of the room (they don’t TA during your prep).
• High school students are considerably taller than middle school students. I’d forgotten that.
• A girl looked into my classroom from the hall and saw my Australia poster. She said to her friend, “Australia! I love that movie! Except that there was this one part that was pretty inappropriate.” Her friend replied that she had a book she’d like, but that it had an inappropriate part. The girl said, “That’s okay, I’ll skip over that part.” When she said that part of the movie was pretty inappropriate, it sounded just like my sister at that age.

It’s my first day of school all over again. Wish me luck, and best of luck to all of you out there for whom it is also your first day! Happy teaching!

Ruining My Spring Semester

I am doing a better job at teaching than I am at blogging about it. (Although to be fair, I’ve got some notes and drafts stowed away. Probably ought to finish them and get them posted, huh.)

I love what I’m doing. Some days are hard, and some weeks – like this one – exhaust me with the sheer emotional load of caring about and for these children. I’m told that I’m doing well. I feel like I’m doing a good job. I’m feeling more comfortable, more at home, here at LMS. I’m settling in.

Too bad it seems to all be falling apart around me.

I’m what they call a Category 1 teacher, which means that I was hired at the very last minute. Technically, I suppose, I was a desperation hire. The enrollment numbers turned out higher than was anticipated just before school started, and I lucked into a position. I would have put my whole heart into my teaching anyway – why do something less than 110%? – but this was extra incentive. I had to do a good job if I wanted to keep my job next fall. See, Category 1 teachers are on a non-renewing one-year contract. I knew from the outset that I was going to be gently terminated at the end of the school year and, if all had gone well, rehired for the following year. This, of course, was also contingent on there being appropriate enrollment numbers. Unfortunately, it could take until the last minute (again) to find out about those numbers. That creates a very real possibility that I’d be Category 1 again: no tuition reimbursement, and no job security.

None of this seemed too worrisome in the fall. I reckoned it would all work out in the end.

But now the economy has fallen apart. They’re talking about laying off teachers, among many other things.

Apparently, and according to a friend and a contract expert, this is the scenario I’m facing:

At the end of the school year, I’m done. I will pack up and empty out my classroom. I am going to be paid through August, because it was a one-year contract, but I am in the same place I was before I ever got the job. I am not an employee of the school district. I’ve gained one important thing, in that the school knows me and (allegedly) wants me back. That’s a very important foot in the door.

The schools have to wait for the state, and the state has to wait for the feds. Once everyone gets their ducks in a row, they’ll know how many teachers they need for next year. If last year is any indication, this will be late in the summer.

Soooo… all summer, again, I’m going to be worrying about whether or not I’m going to have a job. I’m going to have to print out resumes again, get my application into the aggravating HR pool again, interview again. I could be back at LMS in my same classroom, or I could be in a high school on the other side of the district, or I could be sitting on my couch at home. If they are even hiring at all, it’ll probably be late, and I’ll probably end up Cat 1 again – which means we’ll do this again.

It isn’t supposed to be like this. Once you get hired, you’re supposed to be able to teach if you want to and if you aren’t awful. You’re supposed to get a job, work hard, get tenure three years later, and be able to breathe. You’re not supposed to fall in love with a school and the people in it just in time to get kicked back to the curb.

I’ve been assured by several coworkers that our admins are going to fight to keep me, but I know as well as anyone that these things are rarely within anyone’s control.

Worse, I know how miserable Mr. Bees is. He has graduated. His diploma (three emphases, a minor, and certification to teach two different subjects) is sitting on the mantle. He wants to be in a classroom so much, but if it was going to be hard for him to get a job as a social studies teacher before, it’s going to be nigh unto impossible now. When they’re cutting loose existing teachers, they aren’t hiring untested ones.

I figured I’d teach a year, get tenure within reach, and then consider that whole “baby” thing I’ve heard so much about. (Don’t get me started – I want to start a family so bad that my teeth hurt when I think about it.) Now I don’t know what to do.

I don’t want to lose this job. But I guess, in a manner of speaking, I already have.

Unpleasantly Small World

A second school campus in Arkansas – this time, the University of Central Arkansas – was shot up last night. Two young men were killed, and another was shot in the leg.

One of Mr. Bee’s students recently moved to our area from Arkansas. (Not to be too specific, but Mr. Bee’s school is approximately 1,700 miles from the University of Central Arkansas campus.) Last night, the student – we’ll call him Art, Art from Arkansas – decided to call up one of his buddies back home. He was on the phone with his friend at the moment when he was shot in the leg.

From what I hear, Art heard a loud noise and then the phone hit the ground. A moment or two later, someone else picked up the phone and shouted, “He’ll call you back later,” before hanging up. Apparently, the friend had immediately blacked out from the pain. Meanwhile, Art had no idea what was going on. He learned later that there had been a shooting, but it wasn’t until he was in the school library this morning that he heard his friend’s name on the news. Fortunately, he was able to get hold of his friend’s parents and find out that he was going to be okay.

Junior High Job

After school I checked my phone and found that I had a phone message. The exact transcript of the message follows:

Hi, [Mrs. Bees]. This is [Principal], from [Junior High]. Thank you so much for your interview. You did one of the best interviews I’ve ever been involved in, and I also appreciate the note you followed it up with today. We really had a tough choice, to be honest. You were second on the list. We did end up offering the position to someone else; he was just a little more experienced in this area. But please continue to apply for jobs in the [Urban] School District; you are an awesome candidate and I will do what I can to help in any way I can in you getting a position with [Urban] schools. If you have any questions please give me a call at [cell phone number]. Thank you and good luck! Bye bye.

I knew it was a “no” by the time she said her name – you can just tell, you know? A completely different timbre to the voice. My consolation is that if a person must be rejected for a job, this is a very nice way for it to happen. (Someone “in the know” has since confirmed that I was their second choice, and not by a wide margin, so she wasn’t just being kind.) Not only do I have an advocate on the inside – which is more precious than gold – but I know that I did very well on my first interview and that I have what it takes to get hired if there is an opening.

I’m disappointed. Could I not be? The school is beautiful, conveniently located, well-regarded. I had a good rapport with the staff I met. Moreover, it was a job – a job in my preferred district, which rarely falls within reach of those of us fresh out of student teaching. (The other day someone asked me if I hadn’t done my “year of subbing” as if it were a written requirement of applying for a job in Urban District.) A job means Mr. Bees and I can stop worrying, means that we’ll have income and benefits, means that we can officially start the countdown before we start our family.

But I’m okay. It’s just… one of those things, right? It will turn out for the best, I really do believe that. As excited as I had become about the possibility of teaching ninth grade English, I still have a desire to teach seniors. Maybe an opportunity is just waiting for me to stumble upon it.

 

* I wrote a thank-you note and had Mr. Bees, who was available while I was busy teaching, hand-deliver it for me.

Pomp, Circumstance, and Two Districts

I was invited to attend CHS’s graduation, as a teacher, which meant that I got to promenade ahead of the graduates and sit on the floor for the ceremony. Although I taught sophomores, I had gotten to know several seniors through their relationship with my mentor and was happy to witness their big day.

No graduation ceremony is very interesting – including, in my experience, one’s own graduation ceremony(s) – but I enjoyed the new perspective on the occasion. Someone mentioned to me that I must be especially dedicated (her comment had a perhaps imagined undertone of “are you trying to suck up?”) but the fact of the matter is that I honestly think it these moments are so important for young people – and it seems important to me to share in that. Goodness knows that the high school diploma no longer holds the value it once did, and it seems to me that a kid has to go out of his/her way to not make it to graduation; regardless, this is the one rite of passage remaining for American youth, and one shouldn’t underestimate the potency of these rites.

The following week I went with Mr. Bees to CeHS’s graduation, which we attended as regular guests. Unlike me, Mr. Bees has been teaching seniors and has developed relationships with about 150 of them. It was heartwarming to stand by him as one after another gowned senior approached him afterwards with warm exclamations and the occasional declaration of gratitude.

I went to high school in Suburban School District, although not at CeHS, and their version of the graduation ceremony was more like my own than CHS’s. At CHS’s graduation ceremony I had been gratified to find that the people had apparently “grown up” a bit since my own walk across the stage. There was very little showboating on the stage, no inappropriate footwear, appropriate levels of respect paid to speakers, and only two airhorn blasts. From where I sat, it appeared that the vast majority of the audience stayed in their seats for the entirety of the ceremony. While some students received uproarious applause from their large families, there was no one who didn’t receive a round of applause. Every teacher seat was taken.

Then I went to CeHS’s graduation and discovered that things hadn’t changed so much after all. The national anthem and superintendent speech were drowned out by audience members bellowing their graduates’ names. Airhorn blasts punctuated the role call at regular intervals, deafening the unfortunate spectators in front of them. After every name was announced, another group of spectators stood up and walked out of the arena. At least two graduates were wearing the kind of light-up plastic heels more traditionally seen at strip clubs, and there were a startling number of male graduates sporting bare legs and dirty tennis shoes. At least half of the seats in the teacher section were empty.

Urban School District (CHS’s district) and Suburban School District (CeHS’s district) are separated by few enough miles that children who grew up on the other side of my street attended the other district. They both have high-quality schools and teachers and a lot of community support. Personally, I would be quite happy to work for either district – I think that they both have significant strengths and comparable weaknesses. And yet, they are miles apart in many fundamental ways. There is something intangible there that made their two graduation ceremonies vastly different. The first felt sacred, important. The second felt like I must have missed the kegs on the way in. I am not at all sure what is going on there.

Paycheck!

I got a job!!

Well, kinda.

I was in the right place (next to my mentor teacher) at the right time (the moment when the principal of our summer school learned that one of their English teachers quit at the eleventh hour) and now I’m going to teach a semester of ninth grade English this summer. It will last about 3 and a half weeks, mostly in June, two classes a day. The pay is awesome (around $23 an hour) and the experience is priceless. Plus, it’s at CHS. Mr. Bees will be in classes at the time anyway, and we could definitely use the money.

The first semester of 9th grade English is pretty cool. Short stories and poetry. I’m excited…

In other good news, both DR and BR recently expressed confidence that I will be able to get a job this year. Feels good to hear it from people “in the know.”

Exciting News!!

We’ve been sitting on this a while because we wanted to make sure it was going to pan out before sharing… but I think employment is on the horizon!!

Mr. Bees and I have both taken a couple of education classes from Dr. P. He is on the board of a new charter school that operates under an exciting educational philosophy – or at least we think it’s exciting, because it closely approximates a teaching system that Mr. and I have thought about ourselves. Among other cool things, this new school incorporates grade-level teams at the junior high level and colloquium-style team teaching at the senior high level. Teachers for younger students work together as a cohesive unit: one social studies, one language arts, one math, one science, all of whom teach the same core group of students. It’s a powerful and effective organization, and not especially revolutionary. The senior high system, however, is pretty unusual. Basically, most of the classes are taught by two teachers at the same time. You might have two English teachers in a class, or two math teachers. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Well, not necessarily – not the way this school has figured it. They go through this extensive interviewing, screening, and shuffling process to match up teachers who actually like and work well together. It’s pretty complicated, but the end result is that you have two compatible teachers sharing classroom duties and complementing one another’s teaching styles.

They’ve discovered that this does extraordinary things, not only for students but for the teachers. Teaching is a pretty lonely job, on an “adult” level, and one of the biggest reasons for teacher turnover isn’t pay but the feeling that they are isolated or underappreciated. This system promotes collaboration between colleagues and a lot of support. Being in a similar position as a student teacher with an awesome mentor teacher, I can attest to the fact that teaching with a compatible partner is a BLAST.

Doubly interesting is the fact that they have colloquium classes. If I am understanding this correctly, they have classes where two teachers from different disciplines work together to teach a broader subject. For example, this year they are teaching a class about Harlem – by a music teacher and an English teacher. They’ve done a biology+history class, a music+science “physics of sound” class – stuff like that. (I guess last year there was an English+”community sciences” class where they wrote and read about food!) Some of these classes are electives, and some are alternative core classes.
Next year they are looking to implement an alternative core for seniors, a colloquium taught by a history and/or civics teacher and an English teacher. It covers a lot of the same themes from a senior government class, only using historical fiction as a base rather than textbooks. Basically, it’s your senior government class and your senior English class all rolled into one. And it’s not a cupcake class – because this isn’t a cupcake school. Apparently the kids really have to jump through hoops to get in…

The pay is amazing, easily twice what we’d make in a local public school – to start. I guess that’s what happens when interested parents are behind the funding. We’ve seen interactive video of the facilities and are really impressed; the school is (obviously) new, with lots of state-of-the-art technology. Beautiful community. They’ve got a strong music program – I mean, obviously it’s small at this point, but growing rapidly. They even think they’ll have a football team next year! There’s an in-school (well, it’s just barely off-school, like a seminary building) day care facility for teachers (and, I suppose, students) who have young children, which is something I’ve always thought needed doing in schools.

Most exciting for us, I guess, is the fact that they are committed to hiring progressive young teachers that will bring energy to the school (while, no doubt, being more easily molded to the school’s vision). They’ve been having on-site interviews at our college, and they spoke to Mr. and I in January and again early last month. This morning I received an email from Dr. P. Basically it said that the other Board members and the hiring administrator were SUPER impressed with Mr. and I, and thought it was so cool that we were married and both teachers. They really liked our vision and teaching philosophy, thought we interviewed really well, liked the way we looked on paper. And I guess they just happen to be looking for compatible pairs to teach that new English/government class next year… and apparently, they’re going to offer us both positions for the 2008 academic year!! (They’re even going to work with Mr. on the alternative certification program – it’s a pretty common problem what with NCLB; basically they go ahead and hire you, and you have three years to complete the certification process.)

There is only one down side to the entire thing, which is why I’ve saved the bad news for the end of this email. The problem with the school (it’s called the Zomboski Academy, by the way, not sure if I’d mentioned that) is that it is located in a town in southern Alaska. That kind of scares us, to be honest, but then again… Mr. and I kind of figure we are young and relatively unencumbered, and while we’re not really in a position to go do Peace Corps or something, we should do crazy adventurous stuff now while we can, right? The school offers a heavily discounted travel plan so that out-of-staters can visit home frequently, and they pay to move people to the area. Plus… if we end up teaching there a while, we will qualify as Alaska citizens – which means that we’ll get in on that oil stipend. Neat, huh?
Anyway, we are SO excited. A little scared, yes, but… I mean, seriously. Could it be any better? An amazing new school that teaches right to our interests and philosophy, AMAZING pay, terrific benefits, great administration – wow. I’m practically beside myself with excitement.

PS Oops, I meant to give you the school’s website. They are in the process of getting accreditation (which allows you to get a .edu URL) so for now their address is www.zombo.com. Make sure and turn on your speakers to hear their fight song! It is located in a smallish town called Rosalyn, AK. This year there are 300 students in the senior high school; they expect a total enrollment of 1,000, from all the neighboring areas, next year.)

Job(less) Prospects

It’s spring break, which means that it is time to get serious about applying for jobs. I’ve got an appointment with the Career Center to go over my resume (I think it’s good, but I want it to be excellent) and I’m meeting with one of my English professors this week to write a recommendation letter. I’ve got an education professor on the line to do so as well, and am hopefully going to get letters from my supervisor, mentor teacher, and principal. Those are the important three, so I really need to keep on top of them.

Ugh. There is a lot of work I need to get done this week, when I would really prefer to be goofing off.

The biggest worry right now is whether or not I will actually get a job. I think I’ve been riding on this fantasy that I would get hired at CHS next year. There was a little bit of suggestion to that fact; I’d heard that there would be three job openings due to increasing student population and a teacher’s retirement. This week, however, the tune seemed to change. And, because I needed to know, I asked DR about it today. She confirmed my fears: it doesn’t really look like there will be any openings at CHS after all. In fact, there will likely be no openings in the entire district.

This is not a good thing.

I’ve heard that there’s going to be a part-time opening at CeHS (in the district from which I graduated high school) but part-time is kind of rough. Better than nothing, I guess, but I need benefits and I’m not sure they come with the PT gigs. It would be kind of cool, gotta admit, to teach in the same building as Mr. Bees for a semester. The style of education out in the M School District doesn’t appeal to me nearly as much as in the B School District – it’s much more regimented and less progressive – but it’s a nice, “clean,” secure district. Within reasonable driving distance as well.

The rational side of me is confident that something will turn up, and that it will be all for the best in the end. But the emotional, nervous, realistic-about-the-way-things-work side of me is concerned. After all, neither Mr. Bees nor I are currently bringing in any money (unless you count his unemployment checks, which will dry up before too long). He will still be student teaching in the fall, and won’t be able to hold a job. If I don’t get a job, we’re going to run out of savings, and then we’re going to lose the house and goodness knows what else. Definitely a less than ideal set of circumstances.

Mr. Bees and I went all-in on this whole “teaching” thing, and our gamble really needs to pay off.

On the plus side, Mr. Bees’ mentor teacher is friends with a government teacher at BoHS (far from the best school in the area) who will be retiring next December – just as Mr. is graduating and ready for a job. We had planned on him substitute teaching until the regular hiring season, but it looks as though some foundation is being laid for him to take this position. Desperately trying not to count the chickens. But it would be a job, teaching his preferred subject area, and in the B School District (which is definitely preferred).

Of course, ideally, we need to be teaching in the same district for insurance reasons.

I just don’t know. I’m stressing. I think perhaps the largest part of it all is disappointment. I’ve really grown attached to CHS. I love the building, the teachers, the administration, the kids. I love that it is Jock High, and I really can’t even begin to explain why. I’ve had this idea for the past several weeks that I would get to see these kids grow up from squirrely sophomores to near-adult seniors – maybe even teach them again, depending on what grade I ended up with. And now… not so much. It’s all about starting over again, and I’ve never dealt particularly well with forced change.

Keeping my head up. It will all work out in the end.

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Exciting Stuff Afoot!

CHS returns to school from Christmas break a full two weeks before the university, but exciting things are already afoot. To wit:

1. Mr. Bees is now in his Block II at CeHS, where he was placed with a real live 12th grade American Government teacher. That’s pretty rare; there are so many more poli sci education majors out there than there are appropriate mentor teachers that a lot of them get placed in junior high history classes. Anyway, he’s loving it so much that he went in every day for the past ten days. Keep in mind that A) he is only required to put in 100 hours this semester B) the semester hasn’t started yet and C) he is most assuredly NOT a morning person.
2. Yesterday was a half day at CHS, and yet I didn’t leave the school until after 4 PM. Why? Because DR and I were working on getting the classroom ready for my invasion! How cool is it that I now have a desk of my own? That I have the keys to the building and will probably go in this weekend and do my own bulletin boards in preparation for the next unit? That I’ve been given enthusiastic permission to do as I wish with the classroom? Squeee!
3. It’s not just that she’s so happy to hand over the wheel to me… I have a truly awesome mentor teacher, and I love her to death. I am one lucky sonuvagun. Daughteruvagun? Hmm.
4. ALL (BUT TWO) OF OUR STUDENTS PASSED THE EOC! One of the students who failed is ELL and is being moved back into the ELL program. The other… well, we need to work on the other.
5. Our average score for the regular sophomore English class was slightly higher than average for the rest of the department.
6. ALL (BUT TWO, I THINK) OF OUR STUDENTS PASSED FIRST SEMESTER SOPHOMORE ENGLISH!
7. I’m putting together a poetry unit that has me disproportionately excited. It is being so much fun, and I’m just shocked – I was honestly expecting not to care for this unit. At this point I would be quite content teaching nothing but poetry all semester. Can’t, of course; there’s Shakespeare and standardized test prep and (ick) Lord of the Flies to contend with.
8. My dog is spinning around and around and around and around, far in excess of three times, trying to make her pillow comfortable. That’s not related to student teaching, but seems somehow notable…
9. I’ve been asked to come to lunch twice next week, gratis, and help interview two candidates for new professors of English education at our university. Hate to be out of school, but this seems like an awesome opportunity and way to give back to the program, plus – hey, free lunch! When you are in a two student-teacher household, you don’t turn down free lunches!
10. Did I ever mention that I got a 4.0 last semester? I’m still kind of buzzed about that.

(Up there at the top… should that have been “to whit”? Things I woulda thought I woulda known…)

There is some bad news, however. Remember Ramona? Well, having given it a semester, she’s decided that this whole “public school” thing is for the birds. I think she’s taking a couple of classes through CHS still, things she couldn’t have gotten through home schooling, but she’s ditching us. Sucks. But she’s hated it from the word go, and hasn’t worked up to her potential, and maybe she’s right – maybe it isn’t for her. We’re disappointed, though, and we’re going to miss her. I would have been quite interested to see what she contributed to our exploration of poetry.