Dragging in (W)hole

WELL!

I am officially being recommended by my principal NOT to be rehired by the district. He says that with all of the resources he has given me, I should have “improved” by now. Mind you, he took me out of my classroom for 2/3 of the day and let a big mean lady have my class all morning until lunch, so by the time I get in there in the afternoons they are fit to be tied… How was I supposed to implement any changes when I was not IN my classroom??

Whatever.

I’m writing a rebuttal to address the areas he claims I was “unsatisfactory” in. I have outlined student success in a chart and shown the growth my students made in math and writing. I need to find a way to address reading without using AR, because I was new to AR this year and didn’t know how to implement it. My kids didn’t do great in AR, so I don’t want to draw attention to that. I also have at least 3 parents from my class writing me a letter of recommendation to include with my rebuttal. I have two more parents I may ask, if I happen to see them. I emailed one, but I get the feeling she doesn’t check her email terribly often and she might not see it. She is fairly involved at school, though, so I’m hoping to see her and be able to ask her at some point. She was one of two who was completely outraged by my being taken out of my room for so much of the day.

Basically, the rebuttal will argue on my behalf to the school board AGAINST what my principal is saying. I also intend to point out that he has spent no more than 90 minutes in my classroom all year. I’m also hoping to get in touch with the district provided mentor who really liked me and said I was going to be a great teacher (you are not expected to come in as a first year teacher and be awesome with no experience, which apparently my principal doesn’t agree with…) I think she will be better able to express my abilities and what she observed, since she actually spent quite a bit of time with me in my classroom. I’m hoping she’ll prepare a statement saying how much time she spent in my room and what she saw and how she feels I was doing. This all happened before he kicked me out of my room, I’m not going to even try to argue that the class was basically a mess after he brought in another teacher to undermine me completely for most of the day.

Anyhow. What a fucking mess.

In the meantime, I’ve taken all the tests I needed to do for my Wyoming certification. The certificate costs $250, which sucks. I also have to pay $10 to get my fingerprints rolled here in town so I can send that in with my application. I’m going to do that on Thursday this week. I get paid Wed.

I’ve also applied to literally dozens and dozens of positions in Wyoming, primarily in two different districts which are in the bigger towns I think we would be more comfortable living in. One is Rock Springs, which is about 31,000 people, and one is Laramie, which is about the same size but is super nearby Cheyenne, which is the biggest city in the state, I believe.

I’ve looked into the districts and the state mandates for education, and I think we would be really happy there. They have grade level standards, but they don’t use Common Core, which means there won’t be able Common Core Nazi Nonsense like there was here. Teachers are allowed to create and/or implement their own lesson plans, which is what I was trained to do the whole eight years I was in school for my teaching degree.. The cities we’re interested in are also described as “small town” feeling, which is what Fairbanks was like. This town is about twice the size of those ones, and it’s been fun because there’s a lot of stuff to do, but I hate the atmosphere with so many people being nosy and judgmental, and everybody gossiping non stop.

In fact, I just had one of the third grade teachers (who I DONT EVEN LIKE and almost never speak to) come up to me after school a few days ago and say “So I hear you’re moving to Wyoming!” …UHH, wtf?? How did she know that?? I’ve had the librarian proctoring my exams for my certificate application, but I can’t imagine she would have opened her mouth. And Amy is the only other person who knows, and I KNOW she didn’t say anything to anyone. Whatever. Everybody is so bitchy and nosy around here, I just hate it.

Plus Kasin is miserable.

My plan at the moment is to just ride into town in July and keep applying, going to interviews, and trying to get a job there.. if I don’t get hired, I’ll sign up as a substitute. I’m a little bit worried about trying to make ends meet while working as a sub, but I know it’ll get me a foot in the door with the district. I can make some connections, meet principals, be magical and make people love me.. then I could get hired the next school year, if I don’t get hired this year.

However, I have also sent off 8 letters of interest to the principals of the buildings I’ve been applying in. I am trying to be as aggressive as possible in pursuing openings there. I outlined my education and experience really briefly, told them a little about myself and mentioned that I was moving to Wyoming this summer and had heard nothing but good things about their education system, would love an opportunity to discuss the openings and my qualifications, and blah blah blah.

Wyoming has a similar feel to Alaska, so far as I can tell… very outdoorsy and independent, it sounds friendly and I like that there aren’t a TON of people in the state, the towns aren’t huge, Laramie is a college town, which I love.. I guess we’ll see. I’m a little worried that it’ll be too conservative for me, but I guess we’ll see how it goes.. we could always spend some time in Rock Springs if I get hired there, then move to Laramie where it’s more liberal. The big draw is that they pay teachers A WHOLE lot better than most places do (1st year teachers start out at like 48k/yr, here it was 32k/yr.), they’re like #4 in the top 10 states to teach in. They have a great education system, they actually take care of their teachers, and it sounds like the kind of place we would enjoy… so I guess I have high hopes.

I’m just really hoping something there pans out and I have a job to GO TO .. I am terrified of just moving there and not having any income lined up. I have a lot of mouths to feed.

My landlady is coming into town the first weekend of May, and Im a bit stressed about that. She wants to do a walk through of the house. I lined up a housekeeper to come in and do a deep clean and pick up for us, and I plan to buy some grass seed, fill in the holes in the yard and reseed it… it looks AWFUL, because there are a TON of holes in the yard. The new puppy is a MONSTER digger, too.. ugh.

Did I mention the new puppy before? She was being given away by the door at Albertson’s one day, and I just couldn’t leave her there. She was shivering and skinny and the guy trying to hand her off had like 3 teeth and her leash was old and knotted up and chewed on and stained.. I just couldn’t leave her there. She cost like $400 in medical care because she had horrible worms, needed special food to help her gain some weight, and of course I had to go get another kennel because she isn’t house trained. But she’s doing great now and she’s gotten much better with new people, she used to growl and bark and hide from strangers. She came with the name Daisy, we changed it to Paisley.

Unfortunately, she has NOT helped with the yard situation, and she has contributed quite a bit to the horrible state of our carpets. I’ve been cleaning up the pee as it happens, of course, but there are stains and I can’t get them out. She also managed to ruin my favorite band tshirt, which I got at an actual concert for my favorite band… I was SO bummed. :(

Anyhow. Life goes on. Cross your fingers for me on the job front.. and the rebuttal situation. I just want to be listed as “rehireable” so that when other districts call me for a reference check, the HR department can tell them Im available for rehire.. If they were to say I wasnt, I would probably never get hired anywhere else. That’s also part of why I’m hoping to get hired ASAP somewhere, because they can’t check my current employment until after my contract is up. And the determination for whether or not I can be rehired isn’t going to be made until May 4th… so as long as I get processed before that, I’ll be good to go. SIGH

Why is everything so difficult? Everything I do turns into a gigantic nightmare.

At least the weather is nice.
~Me