Tag Archives: Teaching

02/9/12

{365.40} I Make an Arduous Journey From the Mountains

This morning I got up bright and early for my interview with the school district’s Substitute Services recruiters. The process for becoming a substitute teacher in Clark County, NV is so much more complicated than what I’m used to — in the (very small) district I moved here from, they didn’t even interview you before you got your orientation invite. Here, there are a lot more steps involved.

Not to mention the fact that we happen to live right in the extreme northwest of Las Vegas, which means anytime we have to go anywhere, it takes FOR E VER. I am so totally not joking about this. The reason why we live on the outskirts of town is because David’s job is out in the middle of the desert, at the other, less known Air Force Base out here. Even from where we live, it’s still a 45 minute commute or longer, depending on traffic. We considered 45 minutes to be better than the hour+ he would have to deal with if we lived anywhere else. But, the travel issue aside, we actually love living out here. It’s a great neighborhood and really, most stores and such are nearby. It’s just when things need to be done in offices that are “downtown” that it gets crazy. I looked it up, and even the North Las Vegas police department HQ is stil 35 minutes away from where we are… and we actually do live in North Las Vegas. My interview was at 8:40am; I left at 7:40am, a full hour before I was supposed to be there, and I still only arrived 10 minutes early! This isn’t because of traffic, dear friends. The traffic actually wasn’t all that bad, not anywhere near bumper to bumper. The real issue is that we just live in the freaking mountains. LOL.

So, I made this crazy sojourn to the district’s office waaaay way far away from here, and was welcomed by a very extremely nice receptionist (all her writing utensils had been transformed via arts and crafts into amazing flowers and I was told that my name would be on “a very special list” that I needed to initial on to sign in), whereupon I sat primly in a waiting room chair for ten minutes.

I spent a year working in HR, doing interviews and recruitment and all that fun stuff, so now that I’m on the other end of the job hunting spectrum, it’s been very interesting. I tend to not only fill out applications, but evaluate them. As I filter through the recruitment process, I examine how this particular HR department handles things. And, as a great side effect of sitting through upwards of 10 interviews a day, I am now immune to interview jitters. I remember when I was about to interview someone for the first time and how nervous I was — I think I was even more nervous than the person I was interviewing! So now I see interviewers as human beings instead of being terrified of them. I always remember what it was like to be in their shoes.

Today the person I met with wasn’t actually a member of the HR team there, he was a retired junior high principal who had come in to help out. He was very, very fun to talk to and actually it ended up that 75% of the interview was him talking about his son, who is serving in the Navy and stationed in Japan right now. Somehow this always happens when people ask me how I ended up in Las Vegas and I tell them my husband is in the Air Force — everyone has some kind of story or connection. So, we got along well and the actual questions were super easy. I just have to wait now for their office to go through my file and approve me for the next steps, like fingerprinting and etc. Fingers crossed for all of this to happen in a timely manner… I’ve heard it can take months for substitute teaching paperwork to go through. Ugh!

01/29/12

{365.29} More Muffins & More Paperwork

Baked a batch of cinnamon streusel muffins for David’s breakfast this week. Well, he actually likes to take them for lunch too. They’re pretty good, although the streusel tends to get everywhere.

This evening I filled out some paperwork and such for substitute teaching, and I have an interview with the school district on the 9th. It’s amazing how much they require just to sub in this district! I think I’m just shocked because in Wichita Falls, all you needed to do was fill out a form online and wait for them to mail you an orientation date to attend. Then, you went to the orientation for about an hour and a half, registered on their sub finder system, and voila~ Here, they require a separate “Substitute License” for the state of Nevada, an initial app used to determine if you qualify as a candidate, and then another longer application that you then bring to your interview. The interview is scheduled online and I guess it’s just so they make sure to talk to everyone being considered to sub. It’s nice that they’re so particular about the people they hire for classroom work, but boy are there lots of hoops to jump through. I will still need to get fingerprinted (TWICE, for the school district AND for the BOE state licensure requirements) but have my transcripts and forms pretty much ready to turn in. Hopefully they’ll allow me a license with provisions for PRAXIS testing. Fingers are crossed. If I can get myself on the list of substitutes, it would be great.

I’m a bit worried about how steady the work will be, although this district is about a billion times larger than the one I came from (Clark County has the 5th fastest growing district in the nation, apparently) so they would have a lot more schools and vacancies available than WFISD. Since they pay subs pretty well here, I could maybe get away with only working three days a week and still be able to pay my student loan bill monthly. FINGERS ARE CROSSED. The process of becoming a substitute is insane but will hopefully be worth it in the end T-T Even after this interview, I still need to meet all requirements for the license and then they make everyone bring proof that they aren’t positive for TB, as well. Which means another doctor’s appointment for me in the near future… ugh. But! But I need to get this wrapped up and start working. We get by on David’s income, but it would be much better if I had a job too. My student loan payment is ridiculous.

I hear stomping on the stairs outside… our idiot neighbors are home and probably about to turn their TV on to max volume. *yay*

01/17/12

{Project 365.17} I Fervently Wish For a Time Machine

Yeah, okay, so hindsight is 20/20 and time machines are not available at Target. WHATEVER. I still wish, after attending a presentation on teaching at the Airman & Family Readiness Center on base today, that I could warp myself back to 2006 and switch my concentration to grades 4-8 instead of elementary. And you know what, I might even be brave enough to make that 4-8 Math.

— I am pausing here to allow the people who know & love me to recover from the initial shock. —

Back in December 2009, when I got my student teaching assignment for the coming final semester of college, you really should’ve seen my face when I saw “Fourth Grade Mathematics” in the second half of my schedule. I mean, WHAT?? Are you kidding?? ME, teach MATH??? This is the child who had to stay in from recess every day for like two weeks in 1st grade when we were supposed to be learning about “borrowing” in subtraction. (“I don’t want to borrow numbers! I don’t want any numbers at all!!” *rage-crying*”) My first ever D in a school subject was in freshman year when the only thing I could process about geometry was proofs because it involved writing WORDS. So, I was seriously dreading getting assigned to this 4th grade math class for 2.5 months.

The first half of my student teaching, btw, was in 1st grade and I spent 5 days a week working from 7:15am until nearly 7:15pm getting materials and lessons ready for 6 subjects a day. (For free!) I thought this was still preferable to 4th grade math because teaching how to count by fives for roughly half an hour a day is not anything like teaching fractions to multiple classes over and over again. (Also, OMG EEW FRACTIONS.) Really, on my last day in 1st grade, I wanted to cling to all twenty-four of my adorable 7 year olds and just weep for dear life. It was certainly a highly hysterical cosmic joke to place someone as math-phobic as I am in a situation where I would be tasked with subjecting myself and many children to math all day long. HILARIOUS. TERRIFYING. Same thing.

But! What happened was a total surprise to me. After my first week teaching fourth grade, and my first week teaching a content area subject to a grade level that would have to go through standardized testing during my time with them, I realized that I was okay. I WAS OKAY! I really have always wanted to share this story with my 7th grade math teacher, Mr. Lanehart (who is actually my Facebook friend, hahaha), because when I was in his classroom glaring skeptically at his “MATH LOVES YOU!” banner and listening to him tell me that, even though I detested math, math would always love me unconditionally… I would never have imagined myself actually enjoying myself being a math teacher. In fact, if time machines went on sale at Target right now and you warped yourself over to 7th grade me just to declare that I would someday consider teaching math, I would’ve laughed hard enough to rupture the space-time continuum. I’m fighting the urge to crack up at myself right now, even. Life takes such unpredictable paths. I firmly believe that the universe conspired to put me in that 4th grade classroom just to prove to me what I was capable of.

No, I still don’t *like* math in the slightest. That may be too much to hope for. *cough directed at Jason cough* LOL.

However, I had fun teaching math. I LOVED fourth grade. If I could choose a grade to teach, I would go for 4th in a heartbeat. I taught four periods of math every day, plus I did after school tutorials for the upcoming standardized tests, and it was math math math all the time. I was fortunate to have a mentor teacher who was amazing, but what really made this experience unforgettable was the discovery that I, the opposite of a mathematical genius, was able to help kids who felt the same way about the subject. Kids who had been introduced to math in all the wrong ways, leading to a bad first impression that perpetuated itself over time. Math was the equivalent to a monster under the bed. Like me, they had nursed the theory that if they just stayed under the covers and didn’t go LOOKING for math, it would leave them well enough alone. (If only!) I met children who were like me in that they interpreted a math problem in roundabout, not necessarily standard ways. And I found out that, while I was able to reach the majority with the lesson plans given in the book and the strategies recommended by my mentor teacher, I was also able to reach kids who were afraid of math simply because I was also afraid of math. We shared a language. I’m sure any teacher will tell you that connecting with a student is a moment of glory. I had many of those moments, while I was teaching math.

How did I get on this subject today? Well, when I went to that presentation earlier, the main recommendation to me was that I work on adding endorsements to my existing credentials. And you know, I thought about math. Maybe. Which is a definite improvement over my default answer of NEVER/OVER MY DEAD BODY. (I am a fan of small victories.) I’m not saying that I see myself acing Calculus or transforming into a math genius EVER, but I am interested in the possibility of teaching math to kids during that window of time when they will either decide that they can do math, or that they can’t. I know about this, because it happened to me. Somewhere in elementary school, primarily in 4th grade, I made up my mind that I was horrible at math and couldn’t do it. This, after a stellar career as not only the 3rd grade Around the World champion, but also the 3rd grade multiplication-table-memorization Queen. I never hated math until I got to 4th grade. True, I did NOT have a good teacher that year. She basically taught from her desk and never gave us anything but worksheets. My attitude towards math took such a downturn that year that my mom actually scheduled a parent-teacher conference. (In the world of Asian moms: an intervention. Hahaha) When I asked her about it years later, she told me it was because she had a theory that if I’d never had such an awful math teacher in 4th grade, I would’ve felt very different about math as a result. Seriously, she still talks smack about that lady!

So really, I guess what I learned about myself while student teaching in math was that I could be a math-phobic person who could convince math-phobic children that math loves them. And that, even if they never love math back, they can at least look math in the eye and say, “Math, you’re okay.” And because of this revelation, I am looking at my future in teaching from a different perspective.

01/12/12

{Project 365.12} I Have No Idea Where My Day Went

I’m pretty sure I totally lost track of time today. I woke up at 9am, walked the dog, did some dishes, and baked a cinnamon streusel coffee cake (yum) before sitting down and playing Sims 3 for a while… manipulating the lives of others always gives me a deep sense of enjoyment. LOL. Read a book for while, spent some time rejoicing over the ahhhhmazing $20 promo coupon that Shutterfly e-mailed me, and then before I knew it David had sent a text message that he was driving home from work. Since we didn’t have anywhere we had to go today, or any chores to really accomplish, we just spent the evening doing whatever. Now it’s almost midnight and I can’t believe the high degree of “absolutely nothing” that I did today. Wow. But, I do have a really eventful week coming up, so I guess I won’t begrudge myself some overly luxurious I-have-no-obligations time.

I may actually get to send my certification stuff in next week since the last of my transcripts finally arrived in the mail today. I’m pretty sure that’s all I was missing, but I’ll need to send my paperwork in by certified mail and then wait for however long it takes them to process it. I already feel like they’re just going to send a letter saying I need to take the Praxis exams, since I doubt they accept the Texas-specific certification tests I took and already passed. Of course not, that would be too easy! Blahhhh. Oh, wait, now that I’ve been thinking on the subject, I do still need to get fingerprint forms before I can send this in. DAMNIT LOL. I’m not entirely sure how that’s done here, the website just said the blue fingerprint forms are available at local police stations but not if the fingerprinting needs to also be done there. In Texas, I got my fingerprinting done at a participating agency, which happened to be at a chiropractor’s office. Soooo another mystery to solve/hurdle to cross/annoying thing to deal with. I have my fingers crossed that they cover the fingerprinting part at that seminar I’m going to on Tuesday.

David used one of his free days off (his reward for working 2pm-9pm at the simulator’s check-in desk the week leading up to Christmas) for tomorrow so he’ll have a ridiculous 4-day weekend. We’re going to have a Studio Ghibli marathon in our living room~~ And spaghetti for dinner tomorrow. We really aren’t the kind of couple who likes to go out on dates all the time, nor do we have a designated “date night” or anything. We mostly like to be at home, something that a lot of my friends think is hilarious. One of them asked me yesterday why I pretend to be so antisocial when I seem like such an outgoing person, to which I replied that it’s true; I’m outgoing and I don’t mind meeting new people or spending time with friends, but only if I really have to. Mostly I just like to be left alone. Hahahaha. Sort of paradoxical, but whatever. Home is where we’re happiest, and I see nothing wrong with that, honestly.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the kitchen to have a slice of that cinnamon streusel coffee cake I so graciously baked for us earlier~~

01/4/12

{Project 365.4} I Finally Take Down the Christmas Tree

Every year, our tree goes up at Thanksgiving. This is something my mom did when I was still living at home, and it was something my sister and I always looked forward to. First, waiting for dad to bring in the huge storage bins containing our holiday decor, then the process of detangling Christmas lights and winding them around the assembled tree. We never had a real tree — probably would’ve had my mom sneezing and ill for the entire season — but it was okay because a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree as long as you have some lights and ornaments. One year, we even had a tree made of wrapping paper that my dad made on our living room wall because we had just moved to Virginia (I was about 5 or 6) and my parents hadn’t bought a tree of their own. It was still great. Now that I’m grown, I still put the tree up at Thanksgiving and it stays there until after New Year’s.

Which I definitely followed to a tee this year, and then some, because I am soooo late taking it down this year. LOL. As we were driving home from Hemet on Christmas Day, I thought about pulling the tree down and packing it all up again on January 1st. Here it is, January 4th, and I finally accomplished this task. It wasn’t that I procrastinated, I kind of just kept forgetting. The tree has become such a fixture in our living room because it went up so soon after we moved in and it seems like it’s always been there. But, today, I dragged the holiday storage bin out of our spare room closet and got to it. I’m now covered in glitter, but the ornaments are wrapped in their tissue paper and the leftover gift wrapping supplies are tucked in beside them, to hibernate for the rest of the year until the holidays come again. There’s something about putting the tree up: a cozy feeling, buzzing with the excitement that Christmas brings for me every year without fail. But there’s also something about putting it away that cements the feeling that it’s a brand new year and we’re starting the 365 day journey all over again. I don’t mind that the season is ending. Even the empty, Christmas tree-less space in the corner by our front door isn’t a sad thing, or even an ending in itself. It’s just another year beginning. And taking the tree down only makes putting it back up even better, the next time.

In other news, I got a call from the Clark County Reads volunteering program this morning and will be attending orientation next week on Thursday evening. It’s not a job, but I’ll feel more productive and I miss working with kids. Basically, volunteers work with two children who are having reading difficulties by reading with them for 30 minutes each a few times a week. I’ve done reading tutoring before and reading out loud is one of my favorite things to do in the classroom, so this sounds good to me. The program lasts until April. I figure it will get me into the schools so I can be more familiar with which ones I’d be subbing in around this area, and maybe seeing my face regularly will get some teachers to request me as a sub sometimes. I don’t suppose a little networking could hurt. I’m hoping they can assign me to a school that’s relatively nearby because paying for gas without being paid for the work doesn’t really add up well. David already doesn’t seem to get why I would do this, and for free, but it’s okay. Not everyone understands that I would totally work for free if I could teach school all day. I honestly wouldn’t mind. Being paid to do something I love so much would be a bonus, though. Haha.

I also signed up for a seminar at the Airman & Family Readiness Center on base two weeks from now, called Teaching As A Second Career. Okay, it’s supposed to be my FIRST and ONLY career, but they’ll have some reps from the school district there to talk about the certification process and I think it may be enlightening for me since I’m going through that right now. Still waiting on transcripts of course, since the registrar’s office probably closed at both MSU and HCC for the winter break at some point. Which is alright. I think I’m finally starting to accept that maybe this time is meant for me to just take it slow. To accept that I’m not useless, but merely in transition.

In any case, it will be good for me to get out of the house on my own. I need to be driving around more so I’ll be used to the place by the time David has to leave for TDY in March. And, to end this entry, I just realized that I very lamely typed out “Chistmas” instead of “Christmas” in my photo caption so I am now fixing it. Fail~

12/27/11

S.A.H.W. Syndrome

It takes a ridiculous amount of paperwork just to be told that my Texas teaching credentials won’t be accepted in Nevada. Don’t accuse me of being negative, because I’m not — I’m trying to accept this. Hahaha.

So, I am currently a Stay At Home Wife. This is a label that I struggle with daily because I never really envisioned myself being in this situation. We’ve been here in Nevada for a little over a month now, and I’ve put in on average about 3 applications a week, with no results so far. Sure, a month is really not a very long time in Job-Hunting Land, but technically I’ve been out of a job since October. It’s a bit painful for me to be here every day, feeling shiftless and guilty about not having anything better to do than read books and eat Instant Ramen. I want to go shopping, but end up talking myself out of it because I feel like this money isn’t mine — it’s my husband’s, because he’s the only one earning anything right now. When I had a paycheck of my own, I guess I felt a little more entitled to purchase something here and there. And then there’s the scary fact that the outside world begins to look more and more daunting to me the longer I’m here, refreshing job search engines and wondering when my transcripts will come in so I can continue the most likely fruitless process of getting my teaching license transferred from Texas to Nevada.

In the beginning, when I first quit my toxic job in Texas to get ready for our first PCS (corporate HR is not a pretty place to be from 8am-5pm daily), the novelty of getting to be at home all day, every day was really nice. Relaxing, refreshing, and a major relief after the stress and drama that was my full time job. But then, the rejuvenating feeling faded into one of decreasing self worth. I coach myself throughout the day, tell myself I haven’t been looking for too long, that the paperwork (miles of it) will eventually go through and maybe then — MAYBE THEN! I can substitute teach.

Call me ungrateful, or a perpetual malcontent, or even a whiner, but this is definitely unfair to me. I’ve talked about it before, but you’ll discover that one of my major issues in life is that because I became a military spouse, I had to trade my chance at a career. This has been affecting me since even before David actually enlisted; straight out of college, I applied for a job that I eventually got, but because I was probably going to move away in a year or so, I wasn’t ever considered for a promotion despite the mind-boggling amount of work I put in every day. I was told repeatedly by my boss that I was her top choice for so and so salaried position, but that unfortunately they weren’t willing to invest in someone they would only lose next year. Embittered by this, I kept working hard nonetheless, not that it got me anywhere. My paycheck remained a pittance and my Bachelor’s degree continued to rot into paper pulp in a file box under my desk. For one thing, this wasn’t even a teaching job, because I had the good fortune to graduate during a major hiring freeze in the education field. So, if you think about it, here I am being passed over for promotions, stuck doing entry level work in a field that I never even trained for. This, I fear, is what I will have to resort to for a good chunk of my life.

What’s more, as I go through all this paperwork just to get my license transferred, I face the reality that even transferring my license could mean nothing at all. The teaching profession is suffering incredibly right now, with more hiring freezes and lay-offs continuing across the country. The local school district is “taking applications” but I have little to no chance, considering elementary teachers are not in demand. I’ve considered taking tests and shelling out more cash to get certified in something like secondary teaching or even middle school, but I’ve so far stayed away from it because I’ve always been more passionate about teaching 3rd through 5th grade. The truth is, I will be here jumping through hoops to get re-certified for Nevada, paying $161 just to apply, more money to get finger printed, more money to probably have to take tests all over again, all for the disappointing outcome of getting to substitute instead of having my own classroom. Sure — something is better than nothing. But what about the career I’ve always wanted? What about the little girl who stood on the stage in Kindergarten and proudly announced that when she grew up, she was going to be a teacher? It seems so drastically unfair that I have to give this up.

A lot of things have been in the works for military spouses like me — partnerships with companies who have agreed “not to discriminate against military spouses” during the hiring process, job search boards aimed at employing us, hiring preference for support jobs on base. But what it all boils down to is that my husband enlisted in the Air Force, and I signed my life away jointly. If I had little chance of getting a teaching job due to the economy and unemployment rates and the current depressing state of education, those chances were completely shot when David swore in last June. Who wants to hire a teacher who will move away in 3-4 years? You’d probably spend up to two of those years having to substitute teach just to prove you’re worthy of their attention. Never mind that you’re an intelligent, dedicated, hard working girl who would give everything just to have her own classroom. Who would gladly do the job for FREE, if someone would give her a chance.

In the end, why isn’t there more support for military spouses? Just because we don’t wear the uniform, doesn’t mean we don’t make sacrifices of our own.

 

photo source
11/29/11

Ye Olde Job Hunte

I was reading an article on some sort of military support website not long ago when I came across this sentence (or thereabouts): “Now that you are married to the military, you have become the trailing spouse.” And as I sat there, taking this in, I felt like I was akin to a sad puppy trailing behind a boy wearing flight goggles and pulling a little red wagon. You are the expendable one! You are just baggage! You must follow this man around, be uprooted every four years, and when you have children you get to uproot them too! Career? Ha! Bachelor’s degree? Irrelevant! And so on, so forth.

Well, typically I’m not depressed about being an Air Force wife. I’m extremely proud of my husband, he has a really cool job which also happens to be extremely important, and he serves our country. What’s more, he puts food on the table and buys me silly things that I don’t really need, i.e. a new camera, and more Christmas decor. No one in the world could accuse me of not fully appreciating everything he does for me and what he will continue to do for our family as the years go on. However, I’m often caught here in this place where I wonder what’s to become of me, really.

I come from a military family, too. But growing up, my mom never worked. Our family of four lived on my dad’s E-6 salary, and while we didn’t have all kinds of fancy things, we lived well. We had good food roughly three times a day. We had two cars and video games and computers. I couldn’t have the $200 prom dress that I coveted beyond reason, but in the end, it was okay. Now, there’s only two of us and we seem to cost more than what my own family ever cost in all the 22 years I lived in my parents’ house. It fairly boggles the mind. There is no question about it: I have to work. I have to find a job, and I need to do it soon, because we need the money to support our way of life. We just had this talk in the car on the way home from dinner tonight. So, now I’m depressed all over again.

It’s not that I don’t like working — I’ve had a job since I was 13, handing out commissary coupons door to door in the humid Florida summers. I started babysitting, technically, when I was only 11. I’ve been working for my money for a long time. I like to stay busy and I like to feel as though I’m a functional adult in society, just like (most) everyone else. Equally important to me is the sense that I have my own money to spend. Therefore, we can conclude that I certainly wouldn’t mind a job. The problem here is that I don’t want just ANY job, because I have a degree in education and I’m certified to teach. Teaching is my passion. And yet, here I am, in a new city and with all these fresh possibilities, searching for Human Resources jobs because I can’t teach in this state. My Texas certification means nothing to Nevada until I pay them loads of money, do miles of paperwork, and jump through hoops. And it’s this way in every single state I could go to. It’s probably going to be this way every single time we move. I may never have my own classroom, I may never feel fulfilled in my career, or even have a real career. If the moving around wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that teachers are just not in demand right now. Hiring freezes and lay-offs prevented thousands of people like me from working in schools. In the small town where I come from, and in the Texas small-town mentality, they were only really hiring people that they knew already — girls whose mothers and grandmothers had taught for the district, girls whose uncle or aunt or something or other were already employed there. It’s been ridiculous and also extremely painful to face rejection in this way, to be prevented from doing what I love to do by all these outside forces that I have no control over.

And so, the question now is, will this be my life forever? Will I be the one who tags along, who finds any kind of job possible in whatever new place we are living in, because we need my income and there is no choice but second best? I sit here, fretting and worrying over the fact that we’ve been here 2 weeks and I still haven’t found a job, even continuing the job hunt in my DREAMS while dead asleep, and I’m horrified that this is going to happen over and over again. Everyone and their mother told me that teaching was THE thing to do, teachers would ALWAYS be needed, DEFINITELY go with that degree. I spent 4 years of my life in college, went thousands and thousands of dollars into debt for a piece of paper that proves I did, and it all essentially signifies nothing. Useless. I’m by no means the only person on this sinking ship, but that’s hardly comforting. Even less comforting is the thought that millions of people live their entire lives hating their job and yet continue on, every day, because they have to. Is this it, for me? Becoming an expert at searching for dead-end jobs? For menial office work, for everything BUT the field I actually trained for? There are so many obstacles. It’s like fighting a rising tide.

…Anyway, now I have to go back to job hunting so I can find a job to help pay bills and foot the cost of all the re-certification fees required by the Nevada Board of Education, which I will tack on to the 26,000 I spent getting certified the first time.

Bitter much? YES.