Bureaucracy Blues

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I am so very, very sad to report that while teachers go back to school tomorrow, I am not allowed to join them.  And when the students go back a week from today, I will not be allowed to join them, either.  In fact, I will be lucky if I get to go to school the day after Labor Day.  Why, you ask?

Bureaucracy.

This high school wants to hire me, and has no other candidates at this point, and they have recommended me to the School Board.  I have already gone to the county office and completed all of my new hire paperwork and gotten an ID card made.  BUT.  The School Board hasn't officially approved hiring me.  What they are waiting for, I have no idea.  They aren't going to interview me or anything, so whatever information they need they must already have.  Yet here I sit, waiting for a formality.

Then even when the School Board does approve me, I still don't technically have a North Carolina teaching certificate.  Yes, I have completed all of the requirements, and yes, the school district accepts a letter of certification of completion of an approved teacher education program (what a mouthful) from my University, but no, I cannot start teaching in this state under those conditions.  I never thought I'd wish for the South Carolina education system, but down there, this would never have been a problem.  Also, apparently in North Carolina, to be a sub, you must not only have an active teaching certificate, but you must also interview with a principal at an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school before you can get hired on. So this means that to hire me as a sub and have me start out the school year as my own sub would actually take longer than hiring me as a full-time teacher!

So for now, I wait.  Who knows how long it will take for these mountains of paperwork to be processed?

Ah, bureaucracy.  Gotta love it.

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Guess Who's Back... Back Again...

Ahoy!! (Hopefully, you watch The Big Bang Theory and get that joke.  And if you don't, hopefully you think I am awesome and own a yacht.)

I would love to report that this summer has been full of lazy days on the beach, watermelon, outdoor concerts, and cookouts with friends.  Unfortunately, it has been full of my last two graduate classes (in one of which I received a B, which ruined my beautiful 4.0 *tear*), moving, commuting an hour to wait tables open to close, and a fruitless job search.

Okay actually the moving was good.  I love Wilmington... or at least I think I do.  Because there are basically no Social Studies teaching jobs to speak of, I have been driving to and from North Myrtle four days a week, so I really haven't gotten to spend much time up here at all.  BUT!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel...

I FINALLY GOT A JOB!!!!!!

Well, not officially, I suppose.  They do have to complete a background check before they can actually make the offer, and of course there is paperwork involved, but as teachers go back to school Tuesday, I'm rather optimistic that this process is going to be rushed.  Words cannot explain the immense feeling of relief that rushed over me yesterday.

I will explain more once I sign on the dotted line, but I am so soo excited.  And not only to have a job, but to have This Job.  I think this school is going to be a wonderful fit, and I absolutely cannot wait to get started.  Having never really found a true niche for this blog, I think it's going to fashion itself as a chronicle of my first year of teaching.  While the Interwebs seems to have a plethora of blogs and resources for elementary teachers, I find there isn't as much community for high school teachers, which is too bad.

I've also realized that, having fallen deeply in love with reading blogs, I really changed why I wanted to start one in the first place.  When I first logged into Blogger (two awful, ugly blogs ago) (and yes I realize this one probably isn't much better), it was because I missed writing.  I wanted to start a blog for me. Then, as I began reading blogs more and more, I wanted to be a Blogger.  Obviously I failed miserably at this, and I know it's because I shifted my goals from blogging for me to blogging to blog.  Regardless of the goal, the few paltry posts this blog has are mostly me musing about blogging, without actually doing it.

The upside?  No one reads this anyway!  I feel confident that I could really delete the less than twenty posts I have and just start from square one (since I'm only at like square one and a half, anyway), but why bother?  It will give me something to look back on, and, if anyone ever ends up reading my blog if I ever get it going, it will give them a chuckle to see How It All Began.

Or maybe not.  But who cares?  This blog is for me, and I HAVE A JOB!!! :)