Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Finally, the update! (cross-posted)

Hehe, patience, y'all, I wanted to get all the Maine stuff up first! :)

So as you know, I've been teaching one subject in one grade in one borough (some of you probably, hopefully, know more details than that. But I'm trying to stay mildly anonymous :D). This new job is a charter school in another borough (nearby, starts with B), teaching a different (sort-of related) subject, in one grade higher. This hasn't been taught at this school before, as it's still growing. So there's no existing curriculum and I've never taught it before, and it needs to cover A LOT of information about a couple hundred years of the country. I have zero idea about the logistics of the curriculum--I'm crossing my fingers they have bought or will be buying a textbook. But I have no idea, and it's KILLING me not to know yet. So that part of it defintely makes me a little anxious and apprehensive, but I'm looking forward to the new challenge, and proving to myself that I can work hard, persevere, learn new things, etc etc.

What I do know and love is that the school has adequate facilities, and it has excellent resources. The teachers' room has a free copy machine (at my previous school, teachers had to buy a copy code [cheaply, but still] AND provide paper) and shelves of books, just sitting there (not stashed away in a secret room in a secret stairwell, covered in asbestos dust). Plenty of money for classroom books and supplies. Plenty of schoolwide expectations and reinforcement systems. A longer school day and a longer school year (several mandatory weeks in summer for students and teachers), but also a 10k raise.

The training starts next week! I am eager to meet other teachers, get to know more details about the school, hopefully learn a bit about the curriculum, and get fired up.

Since it's a new borough, this necessitates moving! I am very sad to leave my cute apartment in my quiet and cute neighborhood. But the BF and I are planning to move in together to a new place. So that's exciting (although the apartment hunting is a pain and the moving is going to SUCK ASS).

I now have to figure out how to resign--the bureaucracy of this profession in this particular city is mind-boggling. I called two numbers today and apparently have to go into some office in person to physically resign. I'm going to attempt this tomorrow, wish me luck.

This whole development makes me feel vindicated about not going to China (because I would have been there at the time all this happened) and VERY glad for turning down the other offer. I wanted new things, and this year promises that pretty much every single thing in my life will indeed be different, with just the kind of things I was hoping for. Wow!

5 comments:

Not Quite Grown Up... said...

Congratulations! Everything sounds so exciting!

Also, I tagged you for a meme-type-thing at my blog.

Anonymous said...

Jules, I'm so happy for you - this is all so exciting and I'm looking forward to following your new teaching adventure.

Though, I'm sad for you, too, that you have to leave behind that totally awesome blue wall. I love that wall. You'll have to paint another one when you and Andy find a place.

Also, could you send some "Give M a job, please!" vibes my way? 'Cause my phone? It ain't ringin' :(

(P.S. I moved to Wordpress)

Anonymous said...

This is just fabulous! A supportive school, a raise, and a location that allows you to move in with the boyfriend!

I'm so happy for you, and can't wait to hear all about these new changes.

17 (really 15) more years said...

Congratulations!

Word of advice- do not resign- take a leave of absence if possible, just in case. Always best to cover yourself - call the UFT today.

Ms M. said...

I think I teach what you are going to be teaching...feel free to e-mail me if you need anything, I have LOADS of binders full of stuff and would happy to offer up some ideas since I had to build all of mine from scratch and it was torturous... msmsapples(at)gmail.com