So here's the update on my life. On Wednesday, September 10, we were called into an emergency staff meeting where we were informed that the school district had lost 600 students and needed to cut $4 million immediately. We were asked for suggestions on how to accomplish this. The school board met the next Monday, September 15, in a "special work session" and decided to lay off 24 employees. I found out the next day that I was one of those employees and my last day was to be Friday, September 19. 4 people in my building were affected. I was offered a long-term sub position which would take me through December--actually, it was for my own job--the person who displaced me (not her fault, obviously) was pregnant. Try explaining that to kids--they demanded to know why the school didn't just "fire the pregnant lady" because "she wasn't going to be there anyway," which led to many chats regarding discrimination in the workplace!
However, I was asked to come in to a charter school in Dearborn for an interview about 2 hours before the end of the day. This, plus knowing that I would be back to sub if nothing panned out, was about all that kept me going. That, and the incredible support of my family and friends.
After packing my room on Saturday, September 20, I spent the next few days filing for unemployment and jumping through those hoops. I interviewed on Wednesday, September 24 at 11:00 and was hired at 2:30.
I went in today to "observe" and "fill out paperwork." In actuality, I ended up teaching a 6th grade class (that's fun to do--try filling a 90-minute block with about 30 seconds of prep time. Oh, and you don't know anyone's name. Awesome) and bringing back oodles of papers that I just filled out here at home. I also have to at some point before Monday find the time to get fingerprinted and get a TB test. Otherwise, I can't work.
The administrative side of this has been a mess, but I'm excited about the position itself. I will be teaching 6-8th grade writing, which is a little different than I am used to but I'm sure I can figure it out. There's about 500 kids K-8, about 150 in the middle school. The student population is around 70% Arab-American (mostly Iraqi), 20% African-American, and 10% other. It is a very different environment than a public school. The kids wear a uniform (staff does not, which means I still have to think about what I wear each morning). The staff is mixed too--mostly female, it seems. I will have a parapro in the room with me, which is something new for me to get used to. And the kids are in general pretty low--a lot are still learning English, many have parents who do not read or write English. Around 90% are on free or reduced lunch, so that's another challenge for us. The kids I met today were very excited to see me. The 8th grade class that I observed will definitely need some work, but I think a lot of the behaviors I saw stem from poor classroom management. I told them things would be different on Monday!
My day was full of revelations, like teachers can have 45 minutes to eat lunch. 45 minutes? I don't know what to do with myself for so long. I have gotten so used to shoving my face full in 20 minutes that I can no longer eat in polite society. Also, we get both Christian and Muslim holdays off. That means I will not be working most of next week for Eid, which is fine with me--give me more time to figure out what the hell I'm doing.
I will definitely keep you posted as new developments arise!
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