Vaporback Writer

I Got It

Posted on Monday, December 14, 2009

I went to one of the local high schools today to meet with a very pregnant English teacher. I substituted for her one day last week as sort of a trial run to see if I could be a good fit for her classes while she’s out on maternity leave. To make a long story short, I’ve got the job. It starts the first week of January and will run through mid-April. And when she comes back, she wants to teach three days a week, meaning that I’ll have the opportunity to continue for the other two days until the end of the school year. Did I mention that she works part time? So I’ll be teaching only in the mornings—only three classes. Two periods are identical sections of marginally motivated 11th graders who I will have for American Literature. I’m far more worried about the third class: AP Language and Composition. I’m not concerned so much about the course content, it’s just that I’ve never taught AP before, and I want to make sure I give these kids the best preparation for the Big Test as possible. They are all college-bound seniors and have a lot riding on this test. Please wish me luck!

Since I’m working in the mornings, I’ll probably even be able to continue teaching after-school Esperanto at the middle school on Wednesdays. My students there are dwindling, but it’s still the highlight of my week.

Although it will be nice to have steady employment for the coming months, the part time wage of a substitute teacher is nothing to get especially excited about. That’s really not the reason I’m accepting this position. The larger attractions are that it will give me the opportunity to actually get to know kids again (instead of just seeing them as nameless faces for random days here and there). It will allow me to meet and make some impressions on faculty, some of whom might be willing to write a recommendation for me at the end of this road. It triggers the right for me to request an official observation from the administration—a key element for job applications—and one that’s surprisingly difficult for short-term subs to arrange. And, hopefully, I’ll be able to arrange to work for a month or so as a student teacher for one of the history teachers in the afternoons—meaning that I can accomplish the “pedagogy assessment” that’s required to get my History endorsement (I’ve already passed the content test). If I can become successfully endorsed in History, other dominoes will fall: specifically my Social Studies and Mid-Level Humanities endorsements. I could be going into the summer (job hunting season) with four endorsements this year instead of the single one I had last summer. Add those endorsements to recent observations and recommendations, and I will be in a far stronger position to find a full time teaching job for next year.

I gotta go start reading.