The New Job

This morning at 8:30 I'm going to the school so I can sign all the necessary paperwork for my new job. I wasn't nervous about the job interview but I'm a bit nervous about this, not sure why. Maybe because it's a contract and that means that I'm under an agreement to work there, which means that if a better opportunity comes along then things are more complicated (like I'm sure that's not going to happen but I suppose there's a slim chance) I now have to go into my online applications for the school districts and choose the "yes" option when it asks if I'm under contract at a school.

When the assistant principal called me and offered me the job I was so excited that I didn't have clear questions ready to ask. Looking back what I should have done was sit down and generate several questions "just in case." I didn't want to put the cart in front of the horse though so I didn't have any questions ready and therefore, have a lot of unanswered questions right now. Though I'm sure that I'll get a lot of information today when I go to the school.

As of right now here is an explanation of my job......I'll be a fourth grade intervention specialist. Every grade level has three teachers and then an intervention specialist. My job consists of going into the fourth grade classrooms and working on several different types of interventions with the below level kids who aren't labeled as special ed. but are way below grade level and need a lot of help. I will be working closely with all the fourth grade teachers and I'll have access to their lesson plans on a weekly basis so that I can develop lessons for the kids I'm going to be working with. This is very data driven so I'm sure my merit pay increase after the year is up will totally be determined on how well these kids score on tests. That was FL in a nutshell so I'm very used to being driven by data, I'm not too worried about that.

Here are some of my questions that I have right now:

• Will I have my own desk/space where I can land and keep my stuff? They already explained that they don't have extra classroom space so I will be "pushing in" to the fourth grade classrooms and meeting with kids at tables in their own room which is totally fine with me but I am a little nervous about not having anywhere where I can store and organize my things.
• What will my schedule look like? Since I won't have my own class per say will I get the same types of lunch and breaks during the day as a regular classroom teacher would have?
• What other responsibilities will I have? Some schools have specials teachers and other staff members do bus duty or morning/afternoon monitoring.
• What is orientation going to consist of? I do know that I have a week long orientation starting August 17th for teachers who are new to the school's curriculum. I feel like I should be exempt from new teacher stuff since I've taught for 4 years but this is one exception because I have no experience with their unique curriculum. After that week I'll be going to the school for two weeks for things there but I have no idea what yet.
• How many sick/vacation days will I receive and what will the benefits be like? She mentioned pay, bonuses and health insurance, but does that include optical and dental? Is there retirement?
• How many other new teachers will there be at the school this year? I think every new school I've went to there were quite a few new teachers so I wasn't alone with learning all the new things. My first job there were like over 10 new teachers and my second job had quite a few, though I wasn't new to the county so I didn't have all the "new teacher" crap.

I have to get in the shower so I can get ready to head to the school so I'll probably post again when I get a few of these questions answered.

Ring, Ring, Ring

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today is our 4 year anniversary and I could not have asked for a better present!!! They called right around lunch time and offered me the 4th grade intervention teacher job. I'm just so happy :)

Waiting by the Phone

I remember in college waiting by the phone a few times because I was dying for the boy I'd met the night or two before to call me. I never wanted to be "that girl" because let's face it, I didn't "need" a man in order to make me happy, but I will admit there were a few times that I would sit in the near vicinity of the phone staring and hoping that it would suddenly be that guy on the other end asking me out. Oh how times have changed, now I'm waiting for a school to call and offer me a job. I'm trying to just go on with my day and not think about it, but it's hard. I haven't had an interview in 6 years and I really am hoping that the phone rings with good news.

The interview went very well! There are 2 positions open (I had only known about the 5th grade position prior to me arriving at the interview) and I interviewed for both of them, though they seemed more interested in me for the 4th grade intervention teacher because of my experience in FL schools. I was interviewed by the assistant principal and the intervention specialist, both were very nice. They had me tell about my teaching experience, how I determined who needed interventions, which programs I was using, my classroom behavior plan and just other odds and ends questions. I'm pretty interested in the intervention specialist job because I feel that it would be a little less work because I wouldn't have my own classroom. I would be focusing more on teaching lessons to under performing children and working with the classroom teachers. I wouldn't have my own classroom, I'd be doing push in where I would be meeting with the students in their classroom and working very closely with all the fourth grade teachers.

So they told me that they wanted to have a decision made by the end of the week and would call and let me know one way or the other. I guess I can be happy that it's Wednesday and that means that I should only have to wait a couple of days to get an answer. At the end of the interview I asked if I could have a tour of the school so I also got a tour from the Parent Liaison and got a little more face time with him. I'm really hoping that I made a last impression and did what I needed to do to get this job!

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

It's my first interview in 6 years! I have spent a great deal of time preparing for this interview, reading over the school's website, curriculum, studying the state 5 grade teaching standards, preparing questions, and organizing all my teaching credentials. Sunday we took a family drive to the school and I clocked the time and miles. It's roughly 20 miles and took about 25 minutes. I will probably leave around 7:45am tomorrow because my interview is at 8:30am. I know that I'll be interviewing with 4 people so that is going to be different because I think the most I've interviewed with has been 2 at once. I'm surprisingly not that nervous, just more wondering what it's going to be like. I'm wearing my black skirt suit with a blue button up shirt underneath and I'm going to wear my hair pulled back. Let's hope that I get this job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! R also has his interview tomorrow so I'm wishing him the best of luck too! Oh and tomorrow is my parent's anniversary and ours is on Thursday. It would be a sweet anniversary present!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I GOT AN INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a call today from a charter school that I had applied at back at the beginning of the summer. I remember getting an e-mail about the fifth grade opening and just throwing my stuff together and having R mail it one day. When my cell rang today and I didn't recognize the number I had a feeling it was a job interview request and I was right. There is only one position open and the woman only had one time to offer me so I will be interviewing at 8:30am on Wednesday, July 8th she also mentioned that she had the other days filled up, so it seems as though I'm up against several candidates. I haven't been on an interview in like 5 years so I'm busy preparing for questions they may ask me as well as learning as much as I can about this interesting curriculum that they use. I'm praying that this works out because we really need this! I'm just so happy that I've been given this opportunity!

Wonderful Things

Tuesdays just seem to be bad days overall. R and I think maybe no one wants to drop bad news on someone on a Monday because Mondays are thought of to be bad days anyway so they wait until Tuesday. I feel it's only fair now that I've gotten all the things that suck out of the way that I move on and list all the wonderful things that are going on right now :)

• Baby M will be 10 months old tomorrow and he has the cutest belly laugh and it pretty much always happy. He has almost started sleeping through the night. Half of the time he'll sleep from about 7:00pm wake up for a bottle at 11:30pm and then sleep until 6:30am., but there are still nights on occasion that he wakes up between 2:30 and 3:30.
• We're loving summer! The weather has been pretty great with the exception of this week but even this week has been a nice break from the 90 degree heat that we had, though I love 90 degree heat.
• My flowers and R's garden are doing pretty well. We did some major repositioning of plants this spring and it's really improved the appearance of our yard. R planted a kick butt garden and we are hoping for a wonderful crop harvest come late summer, early fall.
• We got a brand new huge garbage container on wheels for our trash pick up days which is nice to have something brand new that will fit our three bags of trash per week, which is going to dwindle even more because we can recycle more plastics now. Before we could only recycle 1's and 2's and now we can recycle 1-7's, yay!!!!!! I just love recycling, it makes me feel so good. I know I'm pathetic for being excited about a new garbage can but hey, we don't get a lot of new things anymore so it's fun to get something new for free.
• I'm still pumping and getting a little milk so Baby M is getting breastmilk still which is exactly 5 months longer than Little man so I'm excited that at least I didn't lose total supply with my crazy schedule and not having the ability to pump when needed.
• I just finished Ne.w Moo.n and have started Eclip.se and am just loving this series. I didn't start reading it because I had myself convinced that I didn't like this genre, but something about Mey.er's writing style has been totally captivating. I also finished another book while waiting for Eclip.se to come in at the library, The Be.ach Hou.se by Jan.e Gree.n which was really great too! I just LOVE, LOVE reading!
• I get to schedule tutor hours early this week, today at 12pm so hopefully I should be able to get some online tutoring in next week. The summer is really slow but every three weeks I get to schedule early so I can usually get some hours for the following week :)
• I have a three day week this week babysitting so that's a nice break. The baby is really good and basically just sleeps all the time so things have been going pretty well.
• I've started running again and it feels really great!
• I've organized the pantry, junk drawer, hall closet, Little man's closet, my bins of bills and other papers that I've been saving, and some files. It feels so great to reorganized things so that the space doesn't feel cluttered and messy!
• I've had time to cook since I've been off for the summer so we've been having yummy lunches and lots of grilled food with homemade side dishes and desserts. Oh and we must not forget all the fruit salad I've been making, I heart summer fruit!!!!!
• Free strawberries! The people I babysit for have a huge garden with tons of strawberry plants and they've given us about 4-5 free quarts of strawberries from their garden!!!!

Well that's my list for right now. We are still hoping for the phone to ring about that job in Arlingt.on, VA but if not, hopefully we other good news about other jobs.

Things That Suck

UPDATE: R got a call for an interview next Wednesday for a job that he thinks the job fax service he used sent his resume to so he's not even sure what the position is for and didn't want to sound like a dumb ass asking the woman on the phone. So we'll see how this goes. It makes the other interview rejection for the job up north a little more bearable.

• There have been no calls from Arling.ton, VA since I wrote last, this is never a good sign!
• R just found out that he wasn't selected for an interview for another job that he had networked by cold calling individuals affiliated with the position. This was in an attempt to get his foot in the door for a job that he was more than qualified. Those individuals gave him really great information about the job and also contacted the hiring person on his behalf, guess that new strategy he tried doesn't work.
• He got another rejection letter for another job in the mail today.
• R applied at Mc.Donald's yesterday :(
• It's now been 10 months since R lost his job.
• We're running out of money and exhausting our resources.
• I saw a teacher that was on the tutoring list with me from the local elementary school walking out of the library with a bin, which means she is getting tutoring opportunities and I didn't get any calls for tutoring students. I had convinced myself that there just wasn't a need because people couldn't afford it in this economy, but I was wrong. It was disappointing to see it and to know that the teacher probably really didn't seriously NEED the money like I do, and I'm just as qualified as her.
• I still get excited about finding teaching job openings yet in the back of my mind I know that I'm not going to have a snow balls chance in hell to get one. A local district had a buyout, had 11 openings, got 13,000 applicants, WTF??? I applied for 5 positions in a town near us and am desperately trying to find someone to network with so I can get my foot in the door.
• My friend, A lives in Mary.land and is having to decide right now which job she wants to take, because she has multiple offers. I'm happy for her, but it's depressing.
• That job in Chic.ago that flew R down and put him up in the swanky hotel still hasn't told him that he didn't get the job, and that's just rude in my opinion.
• It's raining and cold.
• I have no idea when we're going to get our break and how much worse things are going to get before that break happens.
• I'm sad right now and it's actually been a long time since I've been this sad. I've been so positive, optimistic, happy, etc... and now I don't know how to keep feeling those things because sadness and worry seems to be creeping in.