Victories

My biggest victory this month? Getting a job!! Better yet? It’s a teaching job! 

Yes, you are now reading the blog post of a senior English teacher Moore High School. Yippeeeeeeee!!!!! :-) 

It all happened so fast that I truly did not have time to write a blog post about it or even to soak up the news. As of a few days ago I was still catching glimpses of myself in the mirror and thinking to myself, “Senior English? Yeah, that’s right! Holy shish-kabobs!”. 

Here’s the story...I interviewed for a job at an alternative school in Norman. It went well, and I had worked with the director before during my Literacy Coach job (she was an assistant principal there). Sometimes it is about who you know, and I hoped that our having worked together would give me an edge over other interviewees. About a week went by before I heard from the school again - only this time, it was from a brand new director! A principal had left one middle school in town and the director who I’d interviewed with was now the head principal there and now this new guy wanted me to come in for another interview since the last lady had left my name as a recommendation. Basically, the administrators in town had done their best deck-of-cards impression and shuffled around. (Surprise!) Anyway, I went in to interview with the new director and the counselor. They tried to throw me some curve balls but I did pretty well. That was on a Wednesday... I came home and overanalyzed my interview performance only to have my thoughts get interrupted by a phone call - Moore High wanted me to interview! I was sure that they had forgotten all about me. I’d sent in my application well over a month ago and hadn’t heard a thing. 

Friday afternoon I interviewed and it was fantastic! The principal and I honestly seemed to share similar viewpoints on education. We must have talked for almost 45 minutes, but it went by fast because it went so well! He even saw it as a good thing that all my experience was with middle schoolers. I’d assumed that my work with younger kids would be a liability; I haven’t been in a high school since I was that age. Instead, he told me he appreciated that middle school teachers always plan for every single minute of the class period. We can’t give those kids two free minutes at the end of the period unless we want to see complete pandemonium. They are just too squirrely to be trusted with unstructured time, bless their hearts. Anyway, he knew that for me to teach high schoolers would mean the kids would work hard for all 55 minutes. 

Monday afternoon rolls around. Now, keep in mind that I had been praying hard for a job, any job. Of course, after the Moore High interview went so well - if I was really honest with myself - I preferred that job. I even specifically asked God to make sure that Moore High would call me back first, since I would feel better about immediately accepting that job. What happened? You guessed it. The alternative school called. 

It felt like I was holding a pair of deuces at a poker table with the high rollers, completely out of my league, and the guys with their cigars and Rolexes had just decided to raise the bet. At what point should I just lay the cards on the table? Shouldn’t I just accept the job offered to me? The bird in the hand was supposedly more valuable than the two in the Moore High bush. Wouldn’t that have been the responsible thing to do? It was a huge gamble. Moreover, my husband was out of the country for work. It’s not like I could immediately get the advice I needed. Welp, it was time to put on my big girl panties, as my mentor teacher would say.

I was honest. I told the director that I was still waiting to hear back from another school and I also wanted to talk with my husband first before accepting a position. He was very understanding, and I told him I could call to touch base the next day. Once my husband got home later that night, we weighed the pros and cons of each job. They were completely different jobs, for one thing. Aside from teaching some students, they did not resemble each other at all. 

The alternative school job? An enormous challenge even for an experienced teacher, which I am not. I would have had to teach all core subjects to the same 10-12 students who I would see all almost all day....Yeah...They would have a little over an hour for lunch and art class when I could “probably do some planning”, in the words of the director. It would be a planning nightmare as well as an unfair break for the students - there are about a gazillion people who could teach math better than me, for instance.

The high school job? One subject, 140 students throughout the day, a high school that kids take pride in, and an excellent group of teachers to support me throughout my first year of teaching. Granted, my knowledge of the British literature that’s typically taught in senior English is very limited. I mostly studied American literature at OU. I’ll need a refresher on some things and will definitely still have my hands full. Still, I wanted this job sooooo bad.

I kept calling Moore High but of course they were doing some training seminar thing and no one was even available to answer the phone. I called the alternative school back and let them know that I still hadn’t heard. He was so understanding about it that I wondered if I was making a mistake. Maybe I could handle the job in this alternative setting? I went back and forth on this seesaw probably every hour. Anyway, I gave the school and myself a deadline. I would let him know either way by Wednesday afternoon, about a day and a half for Moore High to call me.

Of course, a bit later, the Moore High principal called to say that he wasn’t considering anyone else but me for the position. He just wanted to call my references first before formally offering the job. He would let me know by Wednesday evening...evening, as in, after the afternoon time that I had promised to call the super nice, generous and patient director at the alternative school! 

I called on Wednesday at the appointed time and let him know that honestly, I just needed a little more time. He was totally cool. He wanted me to know my options and seemed to respect my situation. About an hour and a half later, Moore High offered me the job that I gleefully accepted. After a little jumping up and down and shouting “senior English!!” at the top of my lungs, I let the family and the Facebook world know. 

The next morning I called to politely decline the alternative school. I still have to write that director a heartfelt thank you note! He really could have been a jerk about it if he wanted to and said he couldn’t afford to wait on me. I’m very grateful.

I’ll report to Moore High tomorrow morning and get to work. Meeting teachers, (hopefully) setting up my classroom unless I have to travel, learning about the curriculum, and lots more. The students arrive on Thursday, so I have lots of decisions and planning to do these next few days. With a very supportive family behind me, I know I can do what needs doing. 

I’ll do my best to keep posting on here. There’s actually more I want to say about victories, but that’s for another post. Now to go pack my lunch for tomorrow... Wish me luck!! :-)

My First Days of School

***Please note that most of this was written several weeks ago, around the end of August. Things have gotten pretty busy around here since then. :)

The first day of school always carries a certain mystique about it, at least it does for a nerd like me. My hopes are high for a super-spectacular year and the possibilities are limitless. I sorta make resolutions, the way people do on New Year’s Eve. Maybe this will be the school year that I find a way to balance everything - school, family, friends, exercise, hobbies, (dare I say?) relaxation. Maybe this will be the year I don’t show up to all my classes late or almost late. Whether it’s truly evident to my classmates and teachers or mainly exists in my mind, I seem to have this reputation as the chick who runs into class at the last minute, out of breath, looking like crap.

At any rate, motivation is high just before the start of another school year. I’m excited to see my friends in class after the long summer and no assignments have been handed out yet...I guess it really isn’t that different for a 6-year-old or a 24-year old in this way!

This year the feeling was heightened, because this year I will be putting much of my studies into real-world practice. Everything that I have learned, everything I was supposed to have learned, and everything I have yet to learn - all of it, with any luck, will go to helping real-live children do some learning of their own. This fall, I am a student teacher.

If you don’t know what a student teacher is, the description is in the title. I am still a student, but I’m very close to being a teacher. I have my bachelor’s degree and am working on my masters, while also doing the training for certification to teach English at the secondary level (middle school or high school). My student teaching is a semester-long internship at a local school and one of the last steps I take to become fully certified (certified to teach that is, though I may go a little insane in the process...). I will be shadowing an experienced teacher everyday, observing her and the students in the classroom and school environment. I’ll then gradually take over many of the teaching responsibilities to the degree that she and I are comfortable. I will have to do at least three weeks of full-time teaching and all the responsibilities entailed.

This is go-time. This is where it all comes together. My college courses have taught me a great deal, but that does not add up to much compared with actual classroom experience. It’s both exhilarating and nerve-wrecking, to be truthful. A friend has told me that I will learn more in this semester than in almost all of my college classes combined. Mind you, this is nothing negative against OU...it’s just that there is so much that has to be experienced and cannot really be simulated in a collegiate atmosphere.

Oh, and did I mention that all of this is free labor for the district? Yeah, I don’t get paid. That’s one reason why so many preservice teachers end up getting certified alternatively, because they understandably cannot go several months without an income (and it’s awfully hard to work while also student teaching, though some have pulled it off). Luckily my hubby can support us, and clipping coupons is a favorite pastime of ours anyway.

The good news is that this internship is also an extended job interview at the school. The teachers and I will be seeing a lot of each other and learning if I am truly a good fit to work at this school. If all goes well, I may be lucky enough to get a job offer in the spring or next fall, if they are hiring. I will certainly fight for a teaching job here in Norman, and the first step is working hard during these upcoming months.

So. That’s how it all works. Nervous for me? I sure am. One of my professors reminded all of us student teachers that we are college graduates and we are capable. I think I needed that.

The hubby and I returned from a trip about a week prior to the start of classes and this is also when I found out where I would be student teaching, who my mentor teacher would be, and what grade level of students. Yeah, I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? The schools, the district, and everyone has to coordinate to set up these student teaching placements, so it can be a long and arduous process. Also, and I didn’t know this before, we at OU are competing with other universities around the state for many of the same placement spots in Norman schools...I guess everyone wants to be here!

Initially I was placed at Irving Middle School, with Carol Wahpepah as my mentor teacher, in an 8th grade language arts classroom...Based solely on the grade level, I was immediately disappointed. I had been hoping for a high school assignment. I had indicated only high schools on my list of preferences when I filled out the form to student teach. Quite frankly, I had expected to get assigned to one of the high schools. I had always thought that OU tried to give you a middle school experience and a high school experience, so that you could try them both on for size. I loved the 7th-graders that I observed at my field experience at Whittier Middle School this past spring. They were positively adorable! But I was psyched for high schoolers this time around.

So I did what any overeager rookie does, especially one that thinks first with her heart and then with her head as I do - I went straight to my advisor’s office the next day, a Monday afternoon. No appointment or anything, just showed up. I was tired of only communicating through email and just wanted to talk this through. Of course he was busy when I first arrived, talking with another student about her dissertation (Hi, Kimberly!). I waited outside for my turn and then calmly explained that I was “a little upset” about this placement. He then explained the rationale as such: 8th grade is as close as I can get to high schoolers if I want to student teach this fall. Many new teachers have been hired recently at the two local high schools, and they cannot take on a student teacher until they themselves have been teaching for awhile. It isn’t fair to them or me; the idea is to give us a highly experienced teacher to learn from and one who won’t consider me a burden to their own growing pains. Also, there are four middle schools here and that means more openings, both for student teaching placements now and for jobs (hopefully) afterwards. Moreover, by doing my first field experience in a 7th-grade classroom and my student teaching in 8th grade...that gives me lots of training in the middle school environment, making me more appealing to a middle school looking to hire someone.

I accepted this explanation. It made sense to the rational part of my brain. At this point, I started getting excited again for the placement. It may not have been my first choice, but then again my life seldom goes as expected, and the changes have overwhelmingly been for the better. I read about my mentor teacher on the school website and looked at the reading list for Norman Public Schools and that’s when I saw it. A single book title. One word: Night. As in, the novel by Elie Wiesel chronicling his experiences in the Holocaust, and the first book that haunted me, grabbing hold of my soul as I read. I was in 10th grade, the only Jewish girl in my class, when I read it. I was now beyond excited that my 8th graders would get to read this and that I would get to reread it, seeing their reactions to it at the same time.

The hubby and I went away for another quick trip out of town, one last hurrah for the summer. As such, I had no time to meet with my mentor teacher before Monday last week...more on that in a second. :)

We got back Sunday evening last week. Orientation for student teachers was Monday morning at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. There were maybe 60 or 70 of us, from all subject areas, in the auditorium, though I am terrible at judging numbers of people in a given room. We were all excited and nervous to begin this new journey. The dean of the college spoke to us and noted that we have the potential to have an impact on thousands of lives...thanks, that really helps with the nerves! But, of course, it’s also very exciting. The one thing I’ve always wanted to do with my life, in some small way, is make a difference. Teaching is the best way to do that, and in spite of any nerves, I am sooooooo excited! Then last year’s Oklahoma Teacher of the Year spoke with us and shared some of her stories. I think she really put many of us at ease, for some reason I can’t even pinpoint...just the fact that she knew what it was like to be in our shoes. :D

I got some lunch after orientation, and opened my wallet to discover that I had been driving without a license. When travelling, my camera bag often doubles as my purse and I put my ID and a money inside. Not having that bag with me, I was just lucky to have a credit card so that I wasn’t stuck paying for Bison Witches with dishwasher duty. Anyway, this gave me the perfect excuse to run home and get my ID, along with much needed hugs from my husband. He is really my rock. When I need support and my world feels like it’s spinning a little too fast, he is there for me and I am grateful.

Next it was off to Irving! I arrived to find that my fellow student teacher, Jordan, was right when she said it was under construction. Of course, I had expected a portion of the building to be under construction, maybe a single hallway or something, but no. In fact, the entire building is being remodeled, with wires hanging from the ceiling, wet paint on the walls, ladders and equipment here and there. I really wondered how kids were supposed to start showing up in two days. Couldn’t they have picked a better time to do this? Say, I don’t know, summertime??

I met with my mentor teacher, who seemed glad to see me. One of the first things she said was that it was odd that my advisor had referred to her in the email as an eighth grade teacher. She used to teach eighth grade but was teaching seventh grade this year....

Crestfallen once again. This was beginning to feel like a roller coaster ride.

I did my best to hide my disappointment. We talked a bit more and I helped her do a few things to set up her classroom. They had only been allowed into the building a couple days ago due to the construction, so every teacher was scrambling. In her words, they had all agreed “to plaster smiles on our faces and get through this construction, knowing that it’s worth it”.

That’s what I was doing, too, plastering a smile on my face. I told myself that it would still be a great experience no matter what. Seventh graders here, at this Title 1 school on the other side of the railroad tracks, would be a little different. And I wasn’t blaming my advisor, the district website still had her listed as an eight grade teacher. Besides, I hate causing any trouble, and I felt like it would all be just fine.

Thankfully my husband stepped in again when we got to discuss it that evening. Reminding me that this was my career we were talking about and that I would only get one shot to student teach, he said I should at least let my advisor know the situation. One polite email later, he did feel badly for the error and said he would do what he could. I resolved to make the best of it if I was to stay put and yet hope for a last-minute switcheroo to an eight grade classroom.

Tuesday was a kind of open house for the incoming sixth grade students, fresh from elementary school and mostly scared out of their gourds. Ms. Wahpepah and I did some more work to set up her classroom while the kids and parents toured the school. Then, after lunch, I came back to another surprise, but this time it was the one I was hoping for - I now had a home in an eighth grade classroom! :D Ms. Wahpapah understood that my two internships shouldn’t be at the same grade level and joked, “You’re fired.” I’m still not sure if it was Ms. Wahpepah or my advisor who did the work to get things changed, but at any rate I was set up to student teach for Ms. Maren Eliason now. Same school, different hallway. It happened really fast, but I thanked Ms. Wahpapah for everything and took off. I texted my husband that I had been “promoted” to eight grade, and went to meet my new mentor teacher.

So, the roller coaster ride was finished on a high note - or maybe the ride was just beginning, depending on your perspective. Stay tuned. :D