How true that was for such a long time!
I felt my running streak came to almost a demise in this past year. But maybe my streak of bad luck has come to an end? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.
Within the past two weeks, my life has been an interesting mix of...well, I just don't know what to describe it as...but for lack of a better word, an interesting mix.
I haven't publicly blogged about it, except in my other blog, "Pineapple Pirate School for Language Snobs", but a year ago, I was let go from one job I absolutely came to despise. You can see the post here.
I worked for an online school based out of Orlando. At the time I got hired, it was an absolute God-send. I was in a terrible relationship. I had no money as my own paycheck was being sucked dry by bills and, "other" people. The school, as I am a teacher, hired me and paid me $8K more a year! I could finally leave my oppressive situation and finally start over! Yes! You can also read about that here.
Things at that job were more than great for a year! Then came a huge change that made everything spiral down. At one point in the final year of my time at that place, I had over 253 students. Anyone who works in a regular brick and mortar understands that your sanity will be close to nil and you'll actually want to strangle yourself for lack of peace. Not to mention, my own kid had no schedule and was practically raising himself. I'd often hand him my tablet and he'd whine, "Mommy? I'm hungry!". I'd tell him to wait "just a second" and a few hours later, it would be 11 o'clock, and he's fallen asleep. I remember thinking to myself, "Just waiting for summer!" As I mentioned above, you can read the whole incident above.
Then came the summer. With the online teaching job I had, you don't get summers off. I reveled in my newfound status of an unemployed Spanish teacher about to go back to Argentina for a month during the North American summer. A week before I left, I got a phone call from a middle school down the street from where I am currently living. I went to the interview, got the job a few hours later and proceeded to get really excited about what I was going to be doing for middle schoolers.
It takes a special person to be a middle school teacher.
I was to teach six 90-minute classes of "Intro to Spanish". On my roster, I noticed that I had more students in a tiny classroom than I had ever had before. Total, I had about 241 for first semester and about 246 on the roster for 2nd semester. Broken up into each class equaled around 40-42 students in my classroom. The first couple of days of school, I had a few kids even sitting on the floor. Not classy for a county school district that is supposed to be #1 in all of the state of Florida.
For the remainder of the semester, I tried my best. I even had people come in to give me pointers on what they would do in my classroom if they were the teacher. People that came in were not all consistent in their feedback with me. It was so confusing. The majority said they understood what my dilemma was in terms of a small classroom and too many students, and gave me credit for that. However, the principal gave me bad marks on everything.
I am the type of person that doesn't like to beat around the bush. I am a resilient soul. I'd rather someone be completely honest and up front with me and tell me, "This is how terrible you are doing." or "We don't like you." etc. If someone doesn't like me, fine! I don't care if you don't like me. I'll kindly remove myself from your presence and get the hell out of Dodge. Then we can both exist in our own ecosystems without each other's negative Baloney Sandwich.. But don't sit there and be wishy-washy with me and pretend that you're my friend and that we are going to eat ice cream together, and then go and tell people that I'm a horrible person, teacher, friend, mom, sister, daughter, etc.. Karma is not a kind thing. I'd hate to see what it does to people such as bad souls as some of the people in the school district I was in. A friend (a REAL friend) warned me, "Don't be too friendly with these people, Ren! They don't understand people like us and will back stab you at any moment!" I took her advice, but man! She wasn't joking. I ran into a former co-worker and was very warm and friendly with her. What a cold shoulder... Just because I've been terminated doesn't mean that I'm radioactive or toxic. Puh-LEASE! People can just be snarky...just saying.
Anyways...back to what I was saying...All the great ideas that I had with my students flew out the window because of the small size of my classroom. I mean really small. My classroom was 13'x25', I believe. I know the 13' to be true because I measured the tiles for the width of the room for a project my kids and I were doing together. I wanted to do language and culture center tables with them. I wanted to be able to play games for them to learn. All the kids were shoved into that tiny classroom and were practically on top of one another. As a result, I also had some kids that were mean, and evil and downright rude. I realize I am the adult here, but if you haven't taught, and have never taught middle school, you don't know what Hell on Earth is like. Middle schoolers are exactly what I described up above.
However, I did have about 3 classes that were lovely, well behaved little children. Some of them would give me Oreos, or blue little staples to put in my stapler. Some gave me chocolates and flowers. Some even gave me hugs and told me that I was their best and most favorite teacher. If that's not love and if that's not success, I don't know what is. One student even said that she wanted to be a Spanish teacher because of me. Granted, she's only in the 7th grade. She may end up changing her mind, but that was still nice.
I was let go the day before Christmas break. I had just finished a messy project with my students where they made Three Kings Day crowns. Glitter was everywhere. I had paper plates strewn about. Glue was stuck to the desk. I was busy cleaning up when the principal popped his head in the door and asked to speak with me. Everything after that was a blur. He'd mentioned that my progress had not improved with my classroom management. I knew what he was referring to.
About a week before my firing, I had been really sick and out for three days. The reports I had received about my students were HORRENDOUS. My kids were the epitome of evil children on speed. My classroom neighbor, who could hear everything through the walls and the vents said things had gone really badly while I had been out. That the principals had been called down several times to my classroom. It was not a pretty sight.
I will pause here and interject myself and say that had I had the necessary resources and maybe transitioned back into classroom teaching, maybe I would not have gotten fired from that job too. But I like to believe that God has a plan for everyone and maybe it was just His will for me to get fired. I'm still a little sore about it all, though.
In any case, I was let go right before Christmas. The principal had the nerve to say, "Well, it's the holiday season. You'll get a part time job somewhere." I wanted to slap that bastard across the face.
His secretary, whom I will say is a lovely angel, stayed with me to help me pack. She told me several times that she was amazed at how well I was taking it. I told her, "I'm trying really hard to be strong here and not cry."
That happened December 19, 2013.
A friend of mine goes to a church close by where some of the kids I had attend Sunday School. One of them somehow connected my friend and I together. I found out that there had been a substitute keeping watch over the new round of kids that I would have had. Each semester brings in new kids. I had been excited that I was going to start fresh with new kids. I even had new policies in place for the 2nd semester. Alas, it was not to be.
It's only been after months of fruitless job searching online that I was able to find a part time job through people I know.
In order to get unemployment in Florida, you have to search for 5 jobs or more a week. Only one person called me in for an interview and that was the county where I live. They needed a graphic designer, but still haven't called me back. That's okay, though. Because, through networking, I got a job!
In fact, the same day that I started working for the photo and video studio I am working for right now, I went to visit an old employer just to see how she was doing. She needs someone desperately and said she would love to have me work for her!
So now I have two jobs. I am super excited!!!
Let's see what life has in store for me now! I'm hoping my negative streak is over.
Maybe teaching is not for me anymore.
