God's Grace-part 2 (Homeschooling)

Now that the kids are all set, I turn my attention to looking for a job. This is two weeks before school starts so I know it won’t be easy. In addition, my certification is in Home Economics, not exactly the most marketable field in education. But, my secondary coursework was all in Chemistry since I had intended to be a doctor. That’s a whole “nuther” story, but I had definitely been wise to take the ExCET exam for Chemistry 12 years earlier. This meant all I had to do was pay a fee and add that certification to my list. I called the State Board of Education to find out how to do that and got all kinds of information. First of all, this was July and at the end of August, that record of my Chemistry exam (taken in 1991) would no longer be accepted for current certification. Coincidence? I don’t think so. This was the first of MANY interventions on God’s part in this journey. I also found out that the fee for adding a certification would be the same no matter how many certifications I added. The hiring counselor at the local school district advised me to take another test to add to my list of qualifications. The one she recommended was called the Generalist grades 4-8. This was a test over all 4 core subjects (math, science, English, and history) for grades 4-8. This widened hugely the number of positions I would be able to apply for. The next testing date was in October so I signed up for that.

In the meantime I planned to look for anything I could get and also substitute teach in the local districts. I went through the substitute training, got on the lists and sat back to wait. I also went to the library and got every test prep book I could find. I focused on Chemistry and Algebra since it had been a long time since I had taken either of those and I needed to brush up. He wonderful thing about being a homeschool teacher was that I had taught my own children every subject from grades K-5 up to that point, including a full sweep through history and all of the grammar and elementary math. I felt pretty well prepared to test in all of those categories, which made my studying task an easier one. I spent late nights after the kids went to bed taking Algebra practice tests and working my way through an Algebra text.

For the first 6 weeks of the school year, I was home most days to take the children to school, eat lunch with them, and receive them at the end of the day. We learned about packing lunches, getting ready the night before, and all the other trappings of a public school life. I had a few calls to sub, but not nearly as many as I wanted. My best job was a 3-day position in a 4th grade class 5 miles from my house. I loved that school. I even had wind of a position opening in about a month if I could wait that long. It wasn’t a sure thing, though and I was getting desperate. I didn’t put my kids in school so I could organize the linen closet. I’ll devote the next post to the kids and their experience but they were doing well.

During the fifth week of school, I got a sub call for a science position at the 9th grade center in a neighboring district. It was not the best school and it sounded like a tough job but I took it. It was a tough day. This class had been without a teacher for the last 4 weeks, with a string of subs in and out of their room. The main teacher had been diagnosed with cancer in the second week of school and they weren’t sure if he was coming back or not. The administration was in limbo. I happened to overhear two of the other science teachers talking about how they were looking for a long-term sub to take his place. I had huge doubts about this position but at the end of the day I told one of those teachers I might be interested in it. He advised me to give my resume to the principal. After school I went my and left it with the secretary because all of the administrators were on duty with school release. I was rudely informed that it wouldn’t be necessary since they had hired someone who would be there on Monday morning. I left. I noticed lots of action in the office, including a few police officers. I later found out a huge drug bust had been happening that very day. Apparently, some girls were bringing their parents’ prescription meds to school and selling them in the bathrooms. This is the only place where there weren’t surveillance cameras.

The next Thursday I got a call from the science teacher I had spoken with at SPHS. He wanted to know if I would still come in for an interview. It wasn’t working out with the person they had hired. I went the next day. On Monday morning of the 7th week of school year I walked in to my new position. I would be in charge of 6 classes of Integrated Physics and Chemistry (IPC) until the end of the year. I had a position. I was petrified! I was told it was contingent on my adding the Chemistry certification as soon as I passed the Generalist test.

When I showed up Monday morning, I was in for a tough challenge. I had planned the lessons, set up the classroom for success, and was smiling and ready for the students. The lack of structure and discipline became obvious in each class all day long. There was NO learning going on in this setting. They were actually throwing paper airplanes into the ceiling when I turned my back so I couldn’t figure out who was doing it. They were rude, ignored the rules, and didn’t care about my lectures or even the labs. It took me the first 6 weeks just to reestablish order in the classes. They needed to learn to trust me. They needed to know I wasn’t going anywhere, no matter how ugly they acted. Slowly but surely, a few influential students in each class decided I was okay and convinced most of their classmates to follow suit. The power of peer pressure worked in my favor that time. In a later post, I will share stories from that year. I learned as much as those students did and I grew to love almost all 136 of them.

Filed in homeschooling.