New
Older
About Me
Cast
Diaryrings
contact
Wishes
clix
my ebay listings
Image
Design
Diaryland

July 01, 2006
day 7
June 30, 2006
day 6
June 29, 2006
day 5
June 28, 2006
day 4
June 27, 2006
day 3

Listening to: Burning Sensations "Belly of a Whale"

Ah, there is nothing like sitting at your desk (or Jim's rather) reading...your new math textbook! Yes, that's right boys and girls, Jenn finally settled down with a job!

*pauses for applause*

I should backtrack a wee bit. I know I mentioned during the thon how interviews and such were going. I don't know how many of you subjected yourself to 48 entries, and since I was a dumbass and did my entries in weblog form, you can't see quite a number of my entries any more. Whatever.

I will recap:
I had 6 interviews in the area, plus an email for another interview yesterday. One was 2nd grade, three were 5th, another school had two openings: 3rd and 4th, a 4th, and then there was a 3rd grade gifted position. One was actually in Jim's town, the rest were anywhere from 8 miles to 25 miles away.

As I said during the 'thon, I had my interview for the in town, 3rd g&t position on Friday. I was at the school for 90 minutes, my longest time ever, and 30 minutes after I left I got a call back from the principal, who told me how interested the team was. Cool.

Well, yesterday was my last interview. I had not heard from anyone else in a while (which is funny because I came home to that email request for an interview) and had pretty much resigned myself that if I was going to get anything, it would be one of those six schools. The interview was with the principal and the AP and I was getting a good vibe from them. Unless furiously scribbling notes is a bad thing, but I did not think so. The interview is over, I ask some questions, and then the principal remembers a question: Have you taken the Praxis? (dun dun dun) Let me invite you inside my head: d'oh! (followed by a string of explitives)

Well, it appears that thanks to Bush, Title One schools cannot hire someone who has not taken both praxis one and two (whatever the state requirements are). Hmph! Even though I am registered to take it on the 14th, and the school year starts on the 2nd, that is not good enough.

So we chatted a little about my other interviews, the other schools. They smile warmly at me, tell me how interested they were, how they would hire me if they could, but assure me I will get a job in the county.

When I left, I turned my phone back on, since it beeps annoying inside schools (lack of signal) - which this is a sidenote, but schools are the only buildings where this happens. UMass buildings, fine. My house, my parents house, Jim's house fine. Stores, fine. Every time I set foot in a school though....Anyway, it said I had missed a call, and only listed a number. So I checked my voicemail, and sure enough it was the principal from Friday's interview. All he said was that he wanted to talk to me and to call him back. I call back, he is not there, I leave a message.

I didn't want to get my hopes up. After all, on Friday he wasn't even sure if the position was approved. He was out on Monday...maybe he was calling to say that the position was approved and after more interviews he would know.

So I set off in Jim's car, phone on "deafening" plus vibrate and took off down route one. The phone rings along the way and I pulled off into a Chuck E Cheese parking lot. It was someone from the county, congratulating me, offering me a contract with the school. I was ready to scream, but found a way to control myself. I am still a little disappointed the news came from this guy, but whatever.

So yeah, I am going to teach little 3rd grade "smahties." I went into the school, absolutely beaming, this morning. I met a few other people on staff, but returning teachers are not set to return until August 25th. We went over my schedule for August, which is absolutely packed - and oh shit, August starts Friday! Heh...The good thing is that a lot of the things I have to do are paid, so that will be nice. I have not collected a pay check since February.

I also got a bunch of books. Mr. M (my principal) gave me a few books that reflect the philosophy of the school and I collected the teacher's edition of the math text. It's so exciting. I never thought I would be excited by reading a math text, but I am pretty impressed with the series, and at this point everything is so new and overwhelming, but it is great.

It also turns out that my mentor for the school is a teacher that was part of the interview team. She has been teaching forever, and is fabulous. Every time I met someone and told them I was teaching 3rd g&t they would gush about how fabulous she is and how lucky I am to be part of her team. Plus Mr. M is pretty cool (as principals go) so I am really looking forward to starting.

So, with all that figured out, it is time to set my sights on finding a home. Cause uh, I am tired of living out of boxes. Actually, I don't even do that really. Jim offered to let me move in to his room and he would find something else or commute from his parents or something, but I don't know. The price is great and the location is okay, and the people for the most part are cool...but I don't know. I mean, it's not like I would kill myself having to live here. Buuuuuut, I can easily see it driving me a little crazy. One thing that would definitely suck is that I have been buying a few things along the way for the new place, and one idea that I had was getting a full sized bed. Well, um, a full would not fit in his room. Well, it could, but nothing else would. ha..So, since I bought new sheets and a new comforter I would be a little peeved. Plus, um, his housemates are not very big on neat and tidy. Now, I am no Martha Stewart, but the only science experiments I want to find are in the classroom, not in the fridge. Seriously, you never know what you will find: eggs that are ready to hatch, rock hard leftovers, food that now comes in colors you should never see in food. And that's just the kitchen. *sigh*

Plus what kind of bitch would it make me to displace him like that? I mean, hell, I know he offered, I would never have asked. But still. The tough thing is I don't think I could afford a place by myself and the idea of finding housemates is not appealing. Mr. M did mention there were some other people new to the school, so maybe they would be looking or would have something to offer...

Before - After