Since the last time I blogged was Spring of last year, you can tell this past year was a hum-dinger. I've just completed my first full year of teaching! 7th Grade English Language Arts in the Northeast of Philadelphia.
It was: wonderful, terrifying, difficult, amazing, mind-spinningly busy, loud, teeth-clenchingly frustrating, ever-changing, transcendent… and so on. The planets must have been aligned perfectly for Pisces because I had terrific luck! The district hired me, but when I went to my assigned school I found that the school had hired another teacher. Because this is Philadelphia, the administration of the school didn't bat an eye. The other teacher and I were pulled aside and told, "keep a low profile, maybe no one will notice and we'll be able to keep you both." Only in Philadelphia!
This is how it came to be that I spent my first year co-teaching with a wonderful and experienced veteran teacher of the district. She gave me feedback, suggestions, showed me how to navigate the challenges of our district, school, and classroom.
Being the era of budget reductions, my first year ended with a lay-off. 1300 teachers with 1 year in the district were shown the door in June, me included. It's the end of July now, and I'm just catching my breath. September looms uncertain for all except one thing: teachers go on maternity leave, retire, have illnesses, and many other occasions that cause schools to need long-term subs. If I can't find a full-time teaching position, it's back to Aesop and the sub registry for me!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)