(no subject)
Poor LiveJournal. I have neglected you so.
The other night I was reading all of my past entries, and there was a lot of stuff in here that I'd forgotten about. I would never have remembered thinking or doing any of this if I'd not written everything down in what I'm sure had to have been a fit of boredom in several instances. It's hard to say if I'm writing now out of boredom or out of some strange need to try and preserve how the last several months have gone, so future me can read this several months from now and wonder the same thing after several months more of negligence.
Anyway, since my last entry, a lot has happened.
I finished my student teaching at Holt, completed the program at MSU, and set off on my long job search.
I worked at Crystal Springs again last summer, and had even more of a blast than my first summer there. A lot of our shenanigans and tomfoolery are documented on YouTube. (This reminds me, I took some video of our recent Christmas party that I have to edit together and put on YouTube as well.)
During the summer, I applied for math positions at over 30 different schools. I got interviews at about 20 of them. I got job offers at none of them. Why? Because "you interviewed great, and you'll make a great teacher someday, but we have another candidate that has a couple more years of teaching experience than you." So much for MSU grads having an advantage in the teaching market. When they told us, "because you went through MSU's program, you'll have no problem finding a job," they forgot to add, "if that job is in South Carolina, or Arizona, or Georgia." I calculated that the amount of driving to and from interviews I did over the summer was the rough equivalent of driving from here to California and back, and then down to Florida. Plus gas hit $4 a gallon last summer. Ugh.
I did pick up a job back in Sturgis though, albeit not as a full-time teacher. I'm currently an educational aide at Sturgis High School (the official job title is "Student Advocate"). Basically what I do is work mostly with kids who are failing in the traditional classroom setting. They take classes online through a program called NovaNET, and have the opportunity to earn some of those credits while working independently and at their own pace. A lot of the kids we get really take well to the program, and seize it as another way to have success in school. Most of the students on NovaNET are taking Algebra I, which is right up my alley. I really enjoy getting to know these kids and helping turn their high school careers in the right direction.
I've also gotten to do some other stuff on the side. I've been tutoring a few students in different areas of math for a good price. I also helped run backstage at the musical, and am currently getting paid to be the assistant director of the winter play, which is an awesome and fun experience. I also supervise the one-hour after school detention room every Wednesday, and have helped watch doors at the basketball games a couple of times. A few weeks ago, I also helped some students start up an anime/manga club. I think this club is really awesome, not just because I personally like anime and manga, but because it caters to a part of the student body that is almost completely uninvolved with after-school activities. We've had roughly 20 kids show up for each meeting so far, and it's great. I hope it continues for the rest of the year and beyond.
So yeah, life is good.
Oh, and Corinne and I are engaged. That's pretty cool too. :-)
I've been visiting her every weekend since school started, and have popped up there in the middle of the week on a couple of occasions. We spent almost my entire Christmas break together, including over a week with just the two of us in East Lansing. I proposed shortly after New Year's, and we've been happily planning our wedding since. The date is not exact yet, but we're looking at May 2010. It will likely be in the Chicago area too, as that's where we're planning to move in the fall.
Well, that about sums up the big details since last April. My job is going well, I have a wonderful fiancee who I'm incredibly happy with, and we have plans for the future. Everything is going pretty darn good right now!
Now if the Cubs would just win a World Series, life would be perfect.
The other night I was reading all of my past entries, and there was a lot of stuff in here that I'd forgotten about. I would never have remembered thinking or doing any of this if I'd not written everything down in what I'm sure had to have been a fit of boredom in several instances. It's hard to say if I'm writing now out of boredom or out of some strange need to try and preserve how the last several months have gone, so future me can read this several months from now and wonder the same thing after several months more of negligence.
Anyway, since my last entry, a lot has happened.
I finished my student teaching at Holt, completed the program at MSU, and set off on my long job search.
I worked at Crystal Springs again last summer, and had even more of a blast than my first summer there. A lot of our shenanigans and tomfoolery are documented on YouTube. (This reminds me, I took some video of our recent Christmas party that I have to edit together and put on YouTube as well.)
During the summer, I applied for math positions at over 30 different schools. I got interviews at about 20 of them. I got job offers at none of them. Why? Because "you interviewed great, and you'll make a great teacher someday, but we have another candidate that has a couple more years of teaching experience than you." So much for MSU grads having an advantage in the teaching market. When they told us, "because you went through MSU's program, you'll have no problem finding a job," they forgot to add, "if that job is in South Carolina, or Arizona, or Georgia." I calculated that the amount of driving to and from interviews I did over the summer was the rough equivalent of driving from here to California and back, and then down to Florida. Plus gas hit $4 a gallon last summer. Ugh.
I did pick up a job back in Sturgis though, albeit not as a full-time teacher. I'm currently an educational aide at Sturgis High School (the official job title is "Student Advocate"). Basically what I do is work mostly with kids who are failing in the traditional classroom setting. They take classes online through a program called NovaNET, and have the opportunity to earn some of those credits while working independently and at their own pace. A lot of the kids we get really take well to the program, and seize it as another way to have success in school. Most of the students on NovaNET are taking Algebra I, which is right up my alley. I really enjoy getting to know these kids and helping turn their high school careers in the right direction.
I've also gotten to do some other stuff on the side. I've been tutoring a few students in different areas of math for a good price. I also helped run backstage at the musical, and am currently getting paid to be the assistant director of the winter play, which is an awesome and fun experience. I also supervise the one-hour after school detention room every Wednesday, and have helped watch doors at the basketball games a couple of times. A few weeks ago, I also helped some students start up an anime/manga club. I think this club is really awesome, not just because I personally like anime and manga, but because it caters to a part of the student body that is almost completely uninvolved with after-school activities. We've had roughly 20 kids show up for each meeting so far, and it's great. I hope it continues for the rest of the year and beyond.
So yeah, life is good.
Oh, and Corinne and I are engaged. That's pretty cool too. :-)
I've been visiting her every weekend since school started, and have popped up there in the middle of the week on a couple of occasions. We spent almost my entire Christmas break together, including over a week with just the two of us in East Lansing. I proposed shortly after New Year's, and we've been happily planning our wedding since. The date is not exact yet, but we're looking at May 2010. It will likely be in the Chicago area too, as that's where we're planning to move in the fall.
Well, that about sums up the big details since last April. My job is going well, I have a wonderful fiancee who I'm incredibly happy with, and we have plans for the future. Everything is going pretty darn good right now!
Now if the Cubs would just win a World Series, life would be perfect.