Well, to say the least, it has been a long time since I have posted. Truth be told, when life gets a little overwhelming I'm more of a head-down and plow through it silently kind of girl than one who shares it. So much has happened since March that I'm not really sure I want to get into it in detail. The fact is, I have kind of dealt with it and really don't want to rehash it much. However, I suppose I will address what needs to be addressed for posterity's sake and do so in the most direct and concise way possible... if there is a way to do so.
WORK
I have absolutely loved being an English and Drama teacher, however, for almost three years I worked to have my school offer a Dance program. When the province issued a special arts designation to the school I was finally able to achieve my dream and start my very own program from the barres and mirrors up. The new program was part of an effort to draw students from outside boundaries to our school. Though for a very long time we had been bursting at the seams (we had 635 graduates this year), we were now faced with a drastic enrollment decline thanks to a new school finally being built in a nearby town. Though I won't get into the short-sighted nature of school locations, the result of the reduction in the number of students coming to the school (this year will see only 155 grade 9's) has caused a school staff surplus issue the likes of which our school board has never seen. Last year the school lost 27 staff and this year the school said goodbye to another 17.
In the midst of all this chaos, I was personally having a crisis of profession. I was feeling disillusioned with the state of the teaching profession, the idiocy of the union, and the quality of education we were providing our students. When I changed professions and entered teaching, I did so with the express intention of making learning accessible to the students who were most at risk of failure and whose needs were not being met academically, emotionally, and psychologically. Though I was doing my best in a traditional school setting to meet my goals as a teacher, I found that the red tape and bureaucracy was really getting to me. I was hoping to have a spark reignited within me by starting the dance program, alas, I still found myself in a pretty dark place.
It did not take long for me to realize that there was also something very wrong behind the scenes in the enrollment department. Students were being called in to Guidance and being moved out of my dance course. Being the only certified dance teacher, I had been saved from being surplus and moved to another school because I was needed to run my program. However, no students in the course, no program. My program had become the target of student poaching for the livelihood of other programs. Within three days, and completely under my nose, I had my program erased and I was told I was going to have to move schools with the hoard of other teachers who were also leaving. I was devastated. The fact that I was the teacher primarily responsible for the entire Grade 12 College English program did not matter either. It was a seniority and union thing, I was told.
As if the speed with which this had all happened wasn't bad enough, I was told a school an hour away was interested in me because of my teaching specialties. "Please tell me you are kidding me, right?" now I'm being asked to commute for a decent job too? I was repulsed. This had to be a window opening and not a door closing. I was ready to quit teaching before this chaos, maybe this was the stiff kick I needed to get out.
Then in an awesome twist of fate (which I completely do not believe in) God had me bump into a friend in the grocery store. I knew the moment I saw her and spoke with her that God was once again proving my need for patience should be worked on. Long story not-very-short, she made me aware of a new location for my school board's alternative education program. And, it was literally going to be down the street from the school I was leaving. This information had yet to hit the press. There really were not any teachers willing to start the program at the site because of its location, and she suggested I speak to my principal. So that's what I did.
The following day I walked into the principals office and asked about the proposed location. Once he confirmed it, I told him that that was where I wanted to be moved. Now, in most cases of teacher surplus in my school board, administrators trade teachers like an NFL draft to meet the various needs at different schools. In the case of the alternative school, they do not enter into the draft with other schools because, as you can imagine, if an unwilling teacher were placed into this program, they would not be very happy. Well, far be it for me to be part of the norm!!!! Within three days of being surplus from my school, I made to choice to join the staff of Archbishop Romero.
I will now be working at a suspension/expulsion school for students who have been removed from school do to various reasons (most of which have legal ramifications), and I could not be more excited! I realize that with the giant size of my school board I am SO VERY LUCKY to have a job in the face of surplus. Our board guarantees a job somewhere, no matter what. So many of my friends who are in small school boards have been surplus and find themselves jobless. Further, unlike so many others, I had a choice of where I ended up.
It has taken my family a bit of getting use to the idea of me teaching in a suspension/expulsion setting. I have assured Dave that contrary to his worst imaginings, I will not be waring a Kevlar vest to work everyday. The school has various locations as oppose to only one site, so I will learn the ropes at one of the existing sites and then I will move into the new location where I will be the one responsible for starting up the new branch of the program. The stark reality of this particular job is that there is a very high burnout rate due to the nature of the role. However, before I make a choice to leave the profession of teaching all together, I knew I needed to finally be immersed in the job I first entered teaching to do. No doubt this new chapter in my life will provide many stories to blog about in the the future.
