Update

Traveled to Home State last week for a meeting of the career-changers program 'winners' (i.e., those of us who made it through the process to be officially in the program). The program director went out of her way (again) to note that some of the people in the program probably won't be placed in a school until as late as January. However, this time, she went out of her way to indicate that I, with an interest in high school math, and already qualified to begin teaching (by virtue of an undergraduate degree in the subject), will not encounter that problem, but will instead be assured of a place in the classroom in September. So that's good news.

Of course, I really want to be in Current State because that's where E and KB are, but it's good to know I have a place to work come September even if nothing comes through in Current State. My expectations in that regard have swung back to believing I may not get an offer in Current State -- many counties are increasing class size and taking other measures to reduce costs, given the current economic climate, along with the fact that state revenues are down dramatically from last year, with no immediate prospect for improvement on that score. In fact, some counties are now reducing the property value assessments (because, of course, property values are in fact way down), which will further reduce school funding.

Meanwhile, I've been studying for the General Knowledge portion of the ACE for Home State. I am exempt from that portion of the exam in Current State by virtue of my SAT and ACT scores from 30 years ago, but Home State insists teachers actually take the test. I bought a study guide, expecting to sail through it and then take the laughably easy actual test. Not so fast, my friend. Yes, the math portion is laughably easy. But the reading portion is not so much hard as very tricky. The drill is to read a passage of 2 - 3 paragraphs, then answer several multiple-choice questions about it. Should be a piece of cake... but the choices are not 3 wrong answers and one correct one, they're typically along the lines of one wrong answer, 2 correct but very specific answers and one correct but more general answer. They're looking for the generalization. Or they ask what the passage implies, then give a wrong answer, a couple of answers that are directly stated in the passage, and one answer that is borderline, but potentially implied. They're looking for that one.

Similarly for the vocabulary / grammar section. I was expecting "Find the error in the sentence: She gave the test to John and I." Instead, I get "The main concerns of the mostly aristocratic clergy must be the evocation of piety among the congregation and overseeing good works in the community." Hmm... 'evocation of piety' seems goofy, but I can't find a grammatical error there. Could 'mostly aristocratic clergy' be flawed? Is it possible to be mostly aristocratic? Maybe the issue is that the sentence doesn't make it clear whether most of the clergy are aristocratic or that all of them are partially aristocratic. Or maybe 'evocation' is wrong. Does VOCATION have two front hooks? Damn, I should have studied the eight-to-make-nine stems harder, back when I was playing Scrabble. Nope. Turns out, the error here is that the clause structure doesn't match -- the clergy's concerns should be either "evoking / overseeing" or "the evocation / the oversight." Great. I'm clearly unqualified to be a high school math teacher unless I can immediately spot and correct that kind of shoddy sentence construction by my students. How else can they hope to succeed in a world in which the national conversation is on a level characterized by Senator Grassley's (R - IA) Twitter post of June 7, 2009 (reproduced verbatim below)?

"Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."

I remain, for the moment, on skedul, but refusing to be workinWKEND.

Welcome to the 21st Century

So I took the "Home State" version of the ACE today, the "Currently Residing In" state version of which I took at the beginning of April. The Home State version was computer-based whereas the Current State version was paper-based, although Home State allows one the option of choosing paper-based.

Paper-based testing requires enormous administrative feats, which ensures that they will only be offered in a limited number of sites at a few times during the year. Taking a computer-based version meant I could go to a testing facility right here in the Shining City where I currently live, choose a date and time convenient for me and (and this is the biggie...) get my "unofficial" results moments after completing the test.

I passed. It's not as momentous as passing the Current State ACE, because I probably already had a job in Home State through the career-changers program I'm participating in, and I wasn't as concerned about it, given I'd already passed a very similar test a couple of months ago, but still, it's good to get that done.

The tests were similar, but with some significantly different emphases... for example, there was only one real stats question on the Home State test, versus probably 8 - 10 on the Current State test. There had to have been 5 or 6 circle/angle (geometry) questions on the Home State test, versus only 1 on the Current State version.

One fairly weird thing... I did a day in a "high needs / at risk" school in Home State, in which I sat in on an Algebra II class and a Geometry class. There were questions on the test relating to both class sessions, which, given that there are 180 days in the school year and only 70 questions on the test, is somewhat surprising. Both were questions I would have struggled with if I hadn't been in the class.

On to the info session in Home State, next week.

Certifiable

Here's the subject line from the Home State Department of Education's email to me noting that I'd applied for certification:

Teacher Certification Program - Welcome, [TOKEN:First Name][TOKEN:Last Name]!

I feel so much better now.

Late Returns from Outlying Counties

One of the counties in which I'm most interested in working had no job postings for teachers throughout April, and I had heard they were in a hiring freeze. It seemed unlikely they could actually accomplish a complete hiring freeze, given that many teachers retire each year, and there are limits on the size of classes. Nonetheless, I wasn't optimistic, given that they hadn't posted anything.

Today, however, I noticed the county has posted 7 or 8 open math teacher positions in 5 high schools. I immediately applied for positions in all 5 high schools. So that seems like good news...

More transcripts

To apply for educator certification in home state, I have to send official transcripts to the department of education of the state. Of course, if I've applied for any jobs in the state, I've already requested the transcripts be sent to each of the counties in which I've applied. Wouldn't it make sense to coordinate this in some way? Say... send official transcripts to the state department of education, then allow the relevant counties to access those records? Hmm...

Meanwhile, it's back to FedExOffice (formerly known as FedExKinkos) for another round of copying and faxing request forms. Sigh.

School Visit

One purpose of the previous post was to describe the in-school visit I made as part of the career-changers program, which I then forgot to include. So here it is, in a post all its own:

I went to a school where most students are "at risk" kids... low income, often single-parent households, etc. My assignment was to shadow a teacher throughout her day, and deliver a 15 minute presentation to one of her classes so that she could assess my ability to interact with the kids, my "front of class" presence, etc. That went fine. The fascinating part was my observations of the classroom when I wasn't presenting. My assigned teacher (I'll call her Miss Marple) taught three Algebra II classes (1 1/2 hours each) and had one free period. During her free period, I sat in on Mr. Poirot's geometry class. Miss Marple was enthusiastic, energetic and clearly enjoyed interacting with the kids, respecting them and what they had to say. Mr. Poirot, when I introduced myself and described why I was in the school, spent 10 minutes telling me what a horrible job it is -- the kids are disrespectful, the system is broken, no one can teach anything and no students can or will learn, the pay is terrible, etc., etc. Miss Marple's students were respectful (within the constraints of being 16- and 17-year-old kids), took the class seriously and were clearly trying to learn. Mr. Poirot's students fully lived up to his expectations -- they were disrespectful, disinterested, surly and uncooperative. He spent as much time as possible avoiding interaction -- lecturing on terminology and then an enormous amount of class time on individual work that was essentially the day's homework.

It was the clearest demonstration I could ever hope to have that the teacher is the one who determines how the interaction will go... There's no reason teaching kids can't be fun, involving and rewarding, if the teacher is willing to put in the effort to meet the kids halfway. On the other hand, it can be hell if the teacher makes it so. At least, that was my takeaway. I am virtually certain the program designers didn't set the school visit up in this way to make that point, but they probably should.

Mid-term Update

In my "home" state, I'm in a program for career-changers seeking to become teachers. I missed the deadline to enter a similar program in the state in which my youngest children live, so I had to go a different route there. Because I'm not in the program in that state, my odds of getting a job there are lower, but presumably still pretty good, particularly now that I've passed the Assessment for the Certification of Educators (ACE) in that state.



Anyway, the final interview for the career changers program was Thursday, and it seemed pretty clear I passed that hurdle, based on the end-of-interview conversation. Moreover, the lead person for this program was very careful to state that, because of the budget cuts, even people who are in the program may not have jobs until December or January. But then the other people in the room spent a lot of time trying to avoid completely undermining what the lead person said while still indicating that, as someone with a masters in math, I am almost certainly going to have a job in August. So I guess the probable worst case at this point is that I'll have a job in the home state. Still obviously would prefer a job where the kids live, of course, but we'll see.

One new wrinkle as of noon today... E's mom lost her job. (That now puts E's mom, KB's mom and me all out of work. Sheesh.) Anyway, there's a solid chance she'll need to leave the state to find a new job. So at this point, my taking a job in the home state for a year and then figuring out what to do based on where E's mom (and E) have landed is actually looking like a solid option.

Meanwhile, K is a lawyer. Or at least, a graduate of law school. Or at least, a person who has gone through the graduation ceremonies at law school, and is merely awaiting notice that she's passed all her last semester courses making her officially an actual graduate of law school. The bar exam in July will, as I understand it, finally determine lawyerhood. Whatever, it's a pretty cool thing. And, as an added bonus, I learned how to play Flip Cup, a game I wish I'd known about 30 years ago. (Did it exist?)