Funding FedEx

So my ACE scores arrived in the mail yesterday, giving me the last piece of paper I needed to complete the various applications, making today a "fill out forms and fax them everywhere" kind of day. Several thoughts on that:

1. It is absurd that I have to send my transcripts to every single county to which I want to apply. One school charges $5 per transcript, so that was $20, on top of the $20 I'd previously spent for 4 previous requests. The other schools fortunately don't charge, but two of them also do not allow emailed or web requests, so I had to fax them, at $2.50 per fax... times 2 schools times 4 requests... another $20.

2. It is equally absurd that counties can't access the fact that I passed the ACE. So I had to fax my ACE scores to 4 counties... $10.

3. "ACE scores" is a misnomer... for some reason I haven't been able to completely follow, but vaguely understand as having to do with discrimination (according the the website), ACE doesn't report passing scores - only that I passed. So I don't actually know what I scored. I guess that doesn't matter to me, and maybe it shouldn't matter to schools looking to hire math teachers, because the test doesn't come remotely close to assessing whether the examinee can teach, or in fact if the examinee actually understands very much math. Whatever. I passed.

4. Not working in an office with an internet connection, a copy machine and a fax machine makes this process absurdly expensive. I probably spent $75 today at FedEx Kinkos, and that's only half of the total applications.

5. Still, it's done (nearly). I have to mail (!) forms to my references to complete, along with a couple of other ticky-tack things for a county I don't really want to work in. But when THAT is done, I'm through applying and can sit back and wait for the offers to roll in. Yippie.

Last but not least, got a nice email today from a contact of KB's mom. (KB's mom is a fiend about networking). This contact works with something called IB World Schools, which is embedded in a lot of school districts. Anyway, she seems to believe there are lots of unfilled math positions around town, so that's a good thing.