Over a year, WTF!
Okay, it's been quite a while since I posted here. Maybe we should start with a general update.
Last April, I got some bad news. The charter school where I was teaching was not going to be offering me a contract for the next school year. The official line was "behavior management concerns", although that didn't seem to make sense to almost anyone with whom I had worked. This was particularly baffling considering I had made 100% of the bonuses they had set up based on student scores and teaching observations.
Still, I decided I would make the best of it. The good news was that the teaching job market was way better than the previous year, with many, many more opportunities. I had 3 interviews, but unfortunately I had no response from any of them by the time the new school year was about to get underway.
I decided to go with substitute teaching (which I had pretty much expected to be doing a year earlier anyway). I went with a service that provided substitutes for charter schools across the cities. We had used them at my previous charter school. At first, it was very slow. I only got four placements in my first two weeks.
Having time to sit around and think about my situation was not a good thing. Before it was over, I had signed up as a substitute for three nearby districts, applied for a job at a local convenience store chain, and even visited one of those day labor places.
Everything started rolling along after that. I found substitute teaching to be pretty fun, once you got beyond the mad scramble, wait to see if anyone needs you, walk into the unknown part of the job. I made a couple of great connections at charter schools at which I wouldn't mind eventually working. Teachers were starting to request me. Also, I did get that convenience store job over the weekend to help supplement any shortfalls I might have had during the week in addition to the times I knew I wouldn't be working (holiday and summers).
Then, a fateful Wednesday in mid-October happened. I came home from what had been a pretty terrible 3rd grade class, probably my worse substitute assignment to date (and they were actually happy with my performance, but more on that later). I noticed on my caller ID that a friend and co worker from my previous charter school had called me. She had moved on to a different charter school in the area, and we had briefly talked and exchanged some files we had worked on together the previous year. She hadn't left a message, but since she had just tried calling me 5 minutes before, I decided I would give her a call back.
"Are you still looking for a job?" she asked. "Submit your resume to this email address now." I quickly did it and almost immediately got a call back from her principal, asking if I would like to substitute teach at their school for the next two days with the possibility of being brought in permanently.
Now I had already set up something at my youngest daughter's school for the next day, but with the possibility of permanent work, I would have to cancel it (at the risk of being blacklisted there!). Somewhere in the flurry of calls between the principal, my previous co-worker, and my daughter's school, I got a call from the teacher I had been a substitute for that day (remember the bad third grade class?) wondering if I could fill in for her again because she had pneumonia (I had to tell her sorry but no).
So, what was going on at this charter school suddenly in desperate need of a teacher? Apparently, they were bringing in my previous co-worker to the kindergarten class to model classroom management for that teacher (she is one of the best teachers I've ever seen at handling urban students) when the kindergarten teacher decided she had enough and just quit.
Now, they wanted my co-worker to take over the supposedly rowdy kindergarten, and they would bring someone for her well-behaved second graders. She made a strong recommendation for me. I came in and substitute taught for two days, was offered a contract for the rest of the year that Friday, and the rest is history.
I am now the teacher of an absolutely fabulous group of second graders (already broken in very nicely by my previous and once again current co-worker). I even inherited two class guinea pigs!
The only problem I have in my life right now is that I'm still working at that convenience store over the weekends. The work is easy and I feel a strange sense of loyalty to them, so I haven't been able to bring myself to quit there, but it does sometimes make for working many days in a row (my record so far has been 21 straight days after Black Friday).
Last April, I got some bad news. The charter school where I was teaching was not going to be offering me a contract for the next school year. The official line was "behavior management concerns", although that didn't seem to make sense to almost anyone with whom I had worked. This was particularly baffling considering I had made 100% of the bonuses they had set up based on student scores and teaching observations.
Still, I decided I would make the best of it. The good news was that the teaching job market was way better than the previous year, with many, many more opportunities. I had 3 interviews, but unfortunately I had no response from any of them by the time the new school year was about to get underway.
I decided to go with substitute teaching (which I had pretty much expected to be doing a year earlier anyway). I went with a service that provided substitutes for charter schools across the cities. We had used them at my previous charter school. At first, it was very slow. I only got four placements in my first two weeks.
Having time to sit around and think about my situation was not a good thing. Before it was over, I had signed up as a substitute for three nearby districts, applied for a job at a local convenience store chain, and even visited one of those day labor places.
Everything started rolling along after that. I found substitute teaching to be pretty fun, once you got beyond the mad scramble, wait to see if anyone needs you, walk into the unknown part of the job. I made a couple of great connections at charter schools at which I wouldn't mind eventually working. Teachers were starting to request me. Also, I did get that convenience store job over the weekend to help supplement any shortfalls I might have had during the week in addition to the times I knew I wouldn't be working (holiday and summers).
Then, a fateful Wednesday in mid-October happened. I came home from what had been a pretty terrible 3rd grade class, probably my worse substitute assignment to date (and they were actually happy with my performance, but more on that later). I noticed on my caller ID that a friend and co worker from my previous charter school had called me. She had moved on to a different charter school in the area, and we had briefly talked and exchanged some files we had worked on together the previous year. She hadn't left a message, but since she had just tried calling me 5 minutes before, I decided I would give her a call back.
"Are you still looking for a job?" she asked. "Submit your resume to this email address now." I quickly did it and almost immediately got a call back from her principal, asking if I would like to substitute teach at their school for the next two days with the possibility of being brought in permanently.
Now I had already set up something at my youngest daughter's school for the next day, but with the possibility of permanent work, I would have to cancel it (at the risk of being blacklisted there!). Somewhere in the flurry of calls between the principal, my previous co-worker, and my daughter's school, I got a call from the teacher I had been a substitute for that day (remember the bad third grade class?) wondering if I could fill in for her again because she had pneumonia (I had to tell her sorry but no).
So, what was going on at this charter school suddenly in desperate need of a teacher? Apparently, they were bringing in my previous co-worker to the kindergarten class to model classroom management for that teacher (she is one of the best teachers I've ever seen at handling urban students) when the kindergarten teacher decided she had enough and just quit.
Now, they wanted my co-worker to take over the supposedly rowdy kindergarten, and they would bring someone for her well-behaved second graders. She made a strong recommendation for me. I came in and substitute taught for two days, was offered a contract for the rest of the year that Friday, and the rest is history.
I am now the teacher of an absolutely fabulous group of second graders (already broken in very nicely by my previous and once again current co-worker). I even inherited two class guinea pigs!
The only problem I have in my life right now is that I'm still working at that convenience store over the weekends. The work is easy and I feel a strange sense of loyalty to them, so I haven't been able to bring myself to quit there, but it does sometimes make for working many days in a row (my record so far has been 21 straight days after Black Friday).