Crossing T's

I signed my "Home County Public Schools New Hire Commitment Form" today for the job at MHS, which prohibits me from accepting an offer from another school in Home County and requires MHS to hire me, providing I do all the paperwork required and the background check doesn't turn up anything untoward.

[In national news today, a math teacher in Duval County, Florida (Jacksonville) was suspended for 15 days because of an incident in which he choked a student, which another student filmed with a cell phone. Commentary on the incident seems to be evenly split between those expressing outrage the teacher wasn't fired and those saying the choking was probably justified because the kids are out of control. I have no further comment.]

Looks like I'll be teaching Algebra I, Geometry and Honors Geometry. Which means I won't get bored going over the same subject matter 5 or 6 different times in different sections of the same course, but also means that my lesson plan preparation time will be about 2.5 times what it would be for one course. On top of certification coursework and whatever consulting / tutoring / other teaching I end up doing to try to make ends meet, it should make for a full day. But hey, I get summers off.

I also found an apartment, which I love. It's about $100 more per month than I planned to spend, and $200 more than I had hoped, but it's a beautiful place. It's also in a neighborhood that I really, really love. I can walk to the grocery store, the Starbucks, the library and several restaurants and bars. The only bad news is that it's not available until October 1, so I'll be living out of a suitcase for another couple of months. On the whole, though, yesterday was a pretty good day.

Jobbed Up

Today was the first day of certification classes, which was interesting. More on that at some point. During lunch today, however, the big news happened...

I got an offer from the high school I interviewed with on Monday. So that's very good. I also asked some of the people running the certification program about the school (which will henceforth be referred to as My High School, or MHS) and the reviews were uniformly non-negative. Which is really very good, given that all the options for participants in the career-changers program are "high risk" or "high needs" schools, virtually all of which get some pretty negative reviews. So MHS is in the front row of the second tier, to use a Bob Uecker line. Also, I really liked both the principal and assistant principal, so that's good. I haven't accepted the offer yet, but it's only a matter of time.

I'm pretty excited. Now, it's on to the really annoying stuff, like finding an apartment that is simultaneously in my price range and not so disgusting I can't live with myself living there.

Today

Feels like the first day of school. (I start certification classes today.) I have my lunch box, my backpack and my brand new pad of paper. All I'm missing is a handful of sharpened no. 2 pencils.

This is how the world begins... not with a bang but a whimper.

I'm back in Home State, waiting for news about my job interview and looking at places to live relatively near that school, based on the assumption I'll get an offer. The interview was with the assistant principal and went very well. I think I mentioned I had met the principal of the school during the career-changers program interview process, and was impressed with him. Apparently the feeling was mutual, at least according to the assistant principal in our conversation yesterday. As for next steps, the two of them will discuss their impressions, and then we'll all wait for the hiring freeze to be lifted, which should happen any day now.

I'm struggling mightily with the feeling of being in limbo -- not really knowing where I live, not knowing whether to tell people here that I'm back, not knowing exactly what to tell people at the place I just left what my status is or will be, etc., and not knowing for sure when I'll know any of those things. Everything right now seems to be a "maybe," and it's making me nuts. Also, I really, really dread the moving process.

Back to Home State

Today is the last weekday I will be in Current State before returning to Home State to begin certification classes, so unless I get a call today asking me to interview at a school here, I will not be teaching this year in Current State.

I do, however, have an interview at a high school in Home State on Monday afternoon. The principal is new, but sat in on my final interview with the career-changers program, and asked to interview me for a math job. So that's looking pretty good.

I've told E I'm unlikely to remain in Current State, but he is at camp until next week, so I won't see him before I leave. I have KB this weekend, and will let her know I'm moving back to Home State. Sigh.

All that said, I'm excited to get started.

No News

I had a conversation yesterday with a guy here in Current State interested in becoming a math or science teacher. (His wife worked for my ex-wife. [Pause] The second one, thanks for asking.) Anyway, it turns out he's been interested in teaching high school for over a year and has completed an application with one of the counties in the metro area, but didn't know about the career-changers program. I now don't feel so bad about having missed the deadline by a week.

I'm still kicking myself for that, however, because I believe I would be a shoo-in for a job if I'd gotten into the program, as I did in Home State. As it is, I now have one week remaining in Current State, during which time I need to get an interview and a job offer in order to stay here. Otherwise, it's back to Home State to start taking the certification course and waiting for job offers there.

More Good News

Current State: The largest county in the metro area where I currently reside just posted a generic math teacher opening -- not specific to one school, but county-wide. So I have gone through the standard reference-request, transcript-sending, ACE test-reporting song-and-dance for what will hopefully be the last time. There are now two weeks remaining prior to the first day of in-service training for teachers in current state, so whatever happens needs to happen soon.

Home State: The head of the career-changers program emailed me saying the new principal of one of the schools there wants to interview me, so that's significant progress. I think he's the principal who sat in on my interview earlier in the career-changers process, and if so, I liked him pretty well. The certification classes in Home State also start in two weeks, so something needs to happen soon there, too, although school doesn't actually start until August 20th.