So quite a few things have happened since last week. Like I said in my last post, I had been displaced from my current school and I was going to a displaced teachers fair to try to find another place to teach for my second year with Teach for America. I was getting prepared in the beginning of the week to meet with principals on Wednesday. I was even applying outside of the school system to a couple charter schools with the help of friends that already teach there.
Wednesday after school. I've got my suit in my car. I'm making copies of my resume in my principal's office, and I'm ready to go get hired by a good school. My principal comes out of her office to hand me her letter of recommendation for me, and somehow it comes up that I'm certified to teach physics and chemistry. She looks surprised and she says, "Well this changes things. We have an opening for physics and chemistry here, and I didn't know you were certified to teach those subjects."
When I took the necessary tests to be certified to teach physics, I sent a score report to the Department of Education, but apparently they are really slow at adding those qualifications to the online database that principals use to get information on a teacher's licensure/certifications, so my physics certification did not show up. My principal told me to contact our district supervisor to see if they could keep me on as a physics/chem teacher.
Nothing was definitive by the time I arrived at the displaced hiring fair, so I was still in interview mode looking for schools I would want to work at. But the district supervisor told me to bring a copy of my score report and show it to her right away since she would be at the hiring fair. So after I signed up for interview slots, I showed my score report to her and she took me out of the room while grabbing another district official. She asked the other district guy whether they would be able to keep me, and he said it looked like it would work out to him.
Everyone was so excited about it. The district supervisor said, "We've got someone that the school wants, and he wants to be at the school, so we're really happy about it. You want to be at the school, right?" And that's where I felt like the only possibility of me ending up at a better school environment was going to end. I nodded in a kind of unassertive way because I wouldn't necessarily say I "want" to be there other than I know the kids need me there. Like I said earlier, I was kind of looking forward to finding a better place to work and maybe make a greater impact on my students at another school.
So they took me off the displaced list and told me to go home early, and that's what I did. I was relieved in a way because I knew I had a position somewhere, but I still had a lot of questions - questions I still haven't gotten the answer to. My principal told me that I would most likely be teaching chemistry and physics, but she would love for me to still teach biology. So I'm looking at a possible 3 preps (3 different classes to plan for at the same time). I could be getting a new, better science room with more lab space since I would be taking over the physics/chem teacher's room that is leaving. But all these things are still very much up in the air in this school system because teachers will hold onto their positions until the last minute and then quit, and things will shift around. Schedules aren't completed until about a week before school starts back, so I'm left with a lot of uncertainty.
Interestingly, another option opened up the next morning. I mentioned I applied to a couple charter schools when I was still on the displaced list. Thursday morning I got an email back from the school director of one of those charter schools to ask me when I was available for a phone call. I spoke with the school director on the phone and lined up a time when I could come teach a lesson at their school. They seem to be interested in offering me a position to teach 9th grade Biology (and only Biology) for next year.
I am really excited about the prospect of teaching Biology, which I like to teach most out of any science, at a great school that is smaller with better support at every level. And it still serves a similar population of students as the one I teach now.
So now I'm in a much different, but better, position than the one I was in last week. I went from having no choice and just hoping I'd end up somewhere to having the choice where I can teach next year. However, I haven't been officially offered the position at the charter school just yet. I still have to impress them with a sample lesson this week. But if I do end up with that option, I'm having a tough time making up my mind about it. On the one hand, I'm pretty sure I'd be much happier at the charter school. There are many more pros than there are cons. On the other hand, I don't want my decision to be about me and my happiness. I want it to be more about the kids. That's why I started teaching in the first place. I think about the alternative to me teaching at The Wood, and how someone else could really fail those kids. I think about the students I'd like to see grow up a little more next year and go on to do bigger and better things. But I also think about the difficulties I would face there with all the uncertainty about my schedule, the administration, the unknown new executive principal. Reflecting on this past year, I don't know how effective I can be if I'm not happy or hate coming in to school every morning. That's why I think that considering my well-being actually does impact the kids that I end up teaching. I'm still not sure what I'm going to decide if I have to make the decision, but the good news is, I'll be teaching somewhere!
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