To Make a Long Story Long

You'll never believe this, but I did finally get in touch with the HR guy. He still hadn't heard back from the high school, but he wanted to send me on another interview in the mean time. Blah. This was a middle school not too far from our house. I wasn't thrilled and wasn't sure when I felt like calling to make the appointment. Fortunately I didn't have to decide, because the school called me. The principal was going out of town and wanted to get most of the interviews done before he left so he wanted to see me the next day (Tuesday) at 9:00. He also wanted me to bring a portfolio -- ew! So I agreed.

Let me give you a quick idea about portfolios, for anyone who isn't a teacher. You basically keep a collection of your original lessons and ideas to showcase yourself as a teacher. Well in Montgomery county, or at least at my school in Montgomery county, there was no making your own lessons. The curriculum guide was completely scripted with step-by-step directions, what to say, what to ask, and handouts. Therefore the only portfolio I had was the one from when I was a student teacher which shows nothing of what I've been doing the last three years. UGH! So I had to go out to my car (late at night of course, because I didn't feel like doing this during the day), dig out my old lesson binders and start digging through for anything and everything that was my original work. The portfolio we put together as student teachers was pristine and huge. It was a 3" binder with every page in a page protector, a one page summary and explanation of every activity, dividers to indicate each standard of good teaching and your sample lessons / explanations to follow. So here I am with a few old sheets of paper that I'm clipping into a 1/2" binder in no particular order with no style or grace whatsoever and certainly no explanations of anything. I didn't have time for that at midnight. And mind you, all of this is for a job I didn't really want, but kind of needed in case the HS job didn't come through.

Anyway, the whole interview day kind of stunk. I had my pseudo-portfolio ready, and directions. All I had to do in the morning was get myself ready and out the door. Unfortunately I realized after my second bite of cereal, that I needed to be walking out the door that minute. So I tossed the cereal down the drain, grabbed everything I needed and took off. The directions were simple and said it would only take me 11 minutes to get there. Riiiiiight. One of my instructions was - "Turn right onto Montgomery Road. Then turn left to stay on Montgomery Road." OK. I can handle that. However, there was never a right turn onto Montgomery, and I was faced several times with turning left to stay on Montgomery Road. So many times that I felt I was driving back home. It was outrageous. I finally called the school because I felt I had gone too far. The secretary gave me faulty directions because she apparently didn't know where I was even though I told her the intersection. I finally turned around to back-track and saw a sign for an elementary school and the middle school I was looking for was actually back there with it. Sneaky. So I found it and the interview went fine. I explained my weird "portfolio" and they seemed to understand. I didn't get any real vibe from them though. They had several more interviews after mine but said they should be making a decision by the end of next week.

Ironically, I just now got a phone call from the Human Resources office saying again that they hadn't heard back from the high school I interviewed with, but they wanted to send me to three more schools. I'm going to lose my mind. This time it's two more high schools and a middle school. One of the high schools is Wilde Lake where I did my student teaching. I wouldn't mind teaching there. The other is one I'm a little scared of. The middle school is one where a good friend of mine from grad school teaches so that could be fun. So now I have to call and make those appointments. July 15 is the state deadline that teachers have to resign or retire by, so now that today is the 16th there are going to be a bunch of new openings.

I will continue to update. And I'm sorry for the boring nature of these posts. But there really isn't much else going on right now, haha :o)