It is now May. This is the month that I hope to get a teaching job for next year. Many districts have posted next year’s job openings already, but not Milpitas. This may be because they just got a new principal and she’ll need some time to figure out what’s going on. I hope that’s the case. Rumor has it that there is an available job in my field for next year. It has never been posted. I hope it’s still available.
Friday was just nuts at school: 26 teachers were out at the high school, and there were only 20 available subs (I had personally received 9 requests for this day and had to turn down 8). All of us subs, plus a few teachers, were dispatched to random classrooms on our prep periods.
My English 1A classes were doing Romeo & Juliet, and this was a particularly light day on the agenda so I had them debate this for about 15 minutes:
- Is Romeo & Juliet truly a love story, or is it merely a tragic three day crush that resulted in several deaths?
- If teenagers carried swords today, how would dating be different?
They had a great time and it produced some great discussions. Even so, after the 5 minute quiz, 5 minute video and 10 minute vocab worksheet, I still had 15 minutes on my hands so I turned to physics: there were available pieces of wood (used as dividers during quizzes/tests), so I had table groups attempt to create the tallest structure, all using the same pieces of wood. Let’s just say that none of them will be structural engineers, but it did get them thinking. Afterwards, they challenged me to beat their tallest structure. I handily beat it by about 4x. The students were amazed and took many pictures to post on Instagram. For my prep period, I wound up in another English class. These sophomore students did not know me, and they were not thrilled to be in this class. I had to be on them constantly, which was exhausting. It was not a fun class. But hey, now it’s a three day weekend and I can rest. My cold is subsiding. I should be better for next week’s full schedule of subbing opportunities.
A rare college job has opened up at a nearby trade school. I will definitely apply. It may be my only opportunity to teach at the college level around here with “only” a Master’s degree. I’ll also apply to some of the more lucrative and nearby districts who are hiring Social Studies, English and Art teachers for next year, all the while still hoping that Milpitas gives me a call.