A Much Needed Update

I meant to post the following back in the beginning of the month, but I got busy.

It's been quite some time since I updated here, but there have been many developments. When I last wrote I was feeling a little uninspired. My program, while it sounds like a good idea, lacks a few things, including help during the job search. They provided us with some training for 6 weeks, and 5 weeks of student teaching. Then they said there would be hiring events and an online application where we could schedule interviews. No hiring events occurred and the online application remained empty and still does to this day. It was left up to the individuals to set-up interviews. I sent out my resume to a total of about 75 schools and heard back from maybe 6 or 7. More then half of them said there were no vacancies and I got a couple of interviews and all of them said they would contact me soon, but never did. The last interview I had was at a school I really liked in the Bronx for a bilingual 1st grade position back on November 8th and 9th. My mom and sister visited NYC for the first time on the 9th and fast forward to the Friday before Thanksgiving I realized that the shortened week would make it difficult to set-up more interviews, I hadn't heard back from anyone, so I looked up some flights. I found a flight home for a good price and was at home for the holiday, 90 proof, 2 Margarita Mondays and plenty of time for fun spread over 10 days. I even set out to get some things accomplished. I entered myself into the substitute system for the NYC school district and I meant to send out more resumes, but I didn't.
The day of my 2nd Margarita Monday, the day before I was due to head back to NYC , I got a call from the school in the Bronx I last interviewed with back on the 8th/9th (who said they would get back to me within a week) and the principal said some things had changed, but she would like to speak with me, and if I'm still interested they would like to offer me the position. I agreed of course (the school seemed really well organized, with well-behaved children during my sample lesson, a clinic on-site with a dentist, and a good use of available resources) I couldn't make it until Wednesday morning so as I got off of the red-eye I hopped on the subway, went to my place, changed into a tie, and headed to the school. I spoke with the principal and the change was that the position they now had in mind for me was a Cooperative Team Teaching (2 bilingual teachers, 1 SPED, 1 Gen. Ed.) Kindergarten Teacher position. I agreed, which means....I'M EMPLOYED and I TEACH KINDERGARTEN. I went in Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th of November to observe the current teachers, and then took over for the Gen. Ed. teacher Monday December 3rd.
It's been a handful thus far. The other teacher and I try to plan but our classes have not really gone according to our plans. It's a really good situation for me to start out in with another teacher and only 25 students. Kindergarten is a lot harder then I remember it being. My kids know what a Trapezoid, Rhombus, and Hexagon and there is quite a bit of a literacy block for them as well. I mostly remember playing with blocks and puzzles. My school has a "mini-building" for the kindergarten classes, of which there are 8. Of course I'm the only male kindergarten teacher, and most of the others seem to be married and have kids. The school is HUGE. There are over 1000 kids and its incredibly diverse, which I love, but it also has shown me a bit of racism just in my first few days. There is a significant Latino population of mostly Mexicans and Dominicans, a large population of Albanians, as well as Asian and White populations. My co-teacher is Dominican and she has trouble telling some of the kids apart and told me that "all the mexican kids look the same." Another day one of the other K classes was lining up to go in their room and one of the janitors say one of the asian students in the class and yelled "AAYYY It's my man The Golden Child." I couldn't believe it. I guess its better to have the diversity with a little bit of ignorance rather than none, or blatant racism. I don't know.

Well I'm stuck in the airport currently on my way back home for the holidays. I still have about an hour here, but I want to do some school stuff. I want to re-vamp the seating chart. The kids are way to chatty now. Anyway hope everyone is doing well.

Memorium

I've been bad about the blog again. I need to update about my new job and things but I haven't had much time yet. As a place holder let's all remember the great Ike Turner. McSweeney's ran a great piece at the onset of the war in Iraq about how Ike Turner would handle Restoring American's Honor. Check it out.

He may have been a dick, but he was a great musician: