The first three weeks of school have flown by like a whirlwind, literally. I can’t believe that just a few weeks ago, I was brand new with no students at all, a dirty storage trailer that had just been emptied of all its (many) items, and no clue who was who and what was where. Looking back, it’s amazing to me just how quickly that time flew by, and how much has happened in such a short time. Let’s start with the very first week I arrived on campus.
I was hired very late In the hiring cycle for the new school year. Most of my counterparts had been hired by other schools weeks and weeks ago, and there was a group of us (maybe 25 or so) who still didn’t have jobs with the first day of school approaching less than a week and a half away. Scary business. It was so unsettling to get so close to the beginning of school and still not have a clue what school you’d be working at, what your hours would be, what your commute would look like (crucial in our city), and even what grade level you’d be working with. None of those questions were answered for us just yet, and everything was still very much up in the air. I mean, even though you’re waiting patiently and interviewing almost daily and trying to prepare yourself for the job as much as you can, how can you adequately prepare if you’re not sure you’ll work with kindergartners or seniors in high school? How can you begin to purchase materials for your walls and your classroom when you’re not sure whether or not your students will be old enough to read?
And how can you begin to budget your monthly (yes, monthly) paycheck so that you’ll know how much gas money you’ll have to set aside to get back and forth to work until the end of the month comes again? In our city, the bus doesn’t go everywhere. So some places, you either have to have a car to get to or you should plan on a very long and hot walk from the “nearest” bus stop to get to where you need to go. And how much time should you budget for that? Knowing which of our many schools we’d be at would have been a great first step, ya think? I mean, information like that could mean the difference between your getting up at 4:30 – 5:00 am in order to get a jump on the traffic to your (very far away) school, to being able to sleep till 6:30 or so and not have to be to school until 8 or 9 am. Our schools are on staggered opening schedules, so we have many schools that open at 7:30, others that begin at 8:30 and still others that don’t even begin their day until 9:30 in the morning. That’s a bigggg difference when it comes to planning your morning and knowing whether or not you’ll be able to be there to see your own kids off to school before you head on down to the job to take care of other folks’ children. So many things to consider, and yet so many unanswered questions for us. This was a very, very uneasy time.
The same day the remaining teachers without jobs were to be automatically assigned to schools, I got a call with a job offer to a great school. This was one of the interviews I had that went exceptionally well, and I felt really comfortable with my interviewer the whole time. Felt like I’d known her for years. Yeah… this was the right place for me. Looking back, I’m so, so glad that this is the school I ended up at. So many of my friends are at schools doing inclusion most of the day, in classrooms where the gen ed teacher doesn’t really want them there and shows it. I feel so blessed to have the assignment I have. I have my own space. The staff is supportive. The kids are great. I mean, seriously. The worst thing I have to be concerned with behavior-wise is that the kids talk out of turn (because they’re all so excited that they all want to share with you at the same time). Oh. And every so often, they’ll forget to raise their hand to let you know they need something. REALLY??? I thought I’d have so, so, so, so many other behavior issues that it’s not even funny. I spent my entire year of application and program training reading other teacher’s blogs so that I could see what it would really be like in the trenches, and let me tell you, they go through some rough stuff. In comparison, I’m just overflowing with blessings, and I’m really, really grateful. I so admire those teachers who have all those behavior issues to deal with on a daily basis and yet continue pushing through, not giving up but remaining determined to effect change and be the difference they want to see. Hats off to you guys, for real. You deserve it.
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