Lewistown is my new home
I am thirty-four years old, and after nine years of working, on and off, on an education degree at Western Illinois Univeristy, with some success, some failure, some growth and regression, I finally have a teaching job.
On Monday, I report to work at Lewistown Community High School. I will be their new Spanish teacher.
I first encountered Lewistown by way of Practicum Observation. I reentered that, along with a Testing and Assessment class, and an online Literacy class, in the fall of 2013.
Something different happened at Lewistown. I had fun. Even though they didn't have many resources, I had fun. I looked forward to the 100 mile drive from the Quad Cities to Lewistown.
Caitlin Streeky was my mentor teacher. I passed with an A, for the first time. That was the corner for me.
I went back to Lewistown and covered her maternity leave as she cared for Andrew and accepted the long-term substitute teaching job in 2014.
This led to more substitute teaching work in Lewistown.
This led to a job as an interventionist in 2015.
Finally, student teaching in 2016.
I never gave up on the Oral Proficiency Interview. Yes, the second I knew I had passed, I was filled with euphoria and dread. I knew I would have to face the exact same problems with organization, preparedness, classroom management, content mastery, elocution, use of classroom resources, technology, and use of the state and national and common core standards.
There was a lot of suffering in student teaching. There were a lot of points where I didn't think that I was going to pass.
Monmouth turned out to be a quagmire. Every day, I went in and went to work, I set goals for myself, I didn't take a break. For anything.
Then came the edTPA. I didn't pass in my first portfolio, but I had the crucial experience of writing, assembling, and uploading a submission, and doing so on my own terms. I'll pass that soon. But passing the WIU portion of student teaching means my Master's Degree means something, and I can now teach in public schools with the Title 2 Provisional Grant for Spanish and ESL which I acquired over the summer.
Now for the thank yous.
I wouldn't have bothered to take the Oral Proficiency Interview if Caitlin Streeky hadn't pushed ms so hard for two years. I didn't pass it in the fall of 2013, when I took it shortly after finishing my practicum observation (that was the same day I found out about Jennifer Lawrence's pixie cut when I watched the Google Plus interview with the Catching Fire cast.)
I tried again in the fall of 2014, after I covered her maternity leave. That was the time I went and covered a portion of a P.E. class at Lewistown later that same afternoon. I didn't pass. I took it again in April of 2015. That was the same day I went to Subway and read the review of Furious 7. I didn't pass. But I took it again in October of 2015, going to Illinois State University in Bloomington Normal. I passed it this time.
Thanks, Caitlin.
As I had to leave ISU in 2005 in the middle of work on a Master's in Foreign Language which I never finished, the community doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. But passing the OPI in Stevenson Hall on the Normal, Illinois campus healed over an old wound. And I wouldn't have been that motivated, at all, to drive all the way from Lewistown to Bloomington-Normal if it had not been for the agreement to meet Annalea Forrest for lunch that afternoon in Champaign-Urbana on the campus of University of Illinois.
Annalea graduated from Lewistown after the fall semester of 2014. I only subbed for a scant few of her classes. But she was always a smiling face when I came shopping at County Market. The type of student who probably would have made me nervous if I were a student, just for being pretty, but was disarmingly nice. She also has a younger sister, Grace, who is as intelligent and will thrive off of the college environment after her 2016 graduation from Lewistown. Annalea, thanks for giving me more reason than just taking that test to cross the state of Illinois on a Wednesday in October.
Then there's Jeanine. Jeanine and I were in Peter Pan, Oklahoma, and Mary Poppins at Music Guild. 2013. 2014. 2015. During Oklahoma, I was stressed, because I was about to start my job at Lewistown in Caitlin's place. I'd only made it 5 and a half weeks into student teaching in 2009. I didn't know if I had the physical strength to teach Spanish for eleven weeks, much less teach six classes, ranging between Spanish 1 and Spanish 4. Jeanine was an assistant choir director at a middle school in Bettendorf in 2014. And she was also looking for upward mobility. She'd eventually get a job as junior high music teacher in Grinnell, Iowa. She left for Grinnell to start that job the same day I left for Lewistown to serve as interventionist. Both headed to remote parts of our respective states. She gave me much needed encouragement both as a dance partner getting through The Farmer and the Cowman and the motivation that is intangible for being a teacher. Thanks, Jeanine.
Then there's Claire. I met Claire while working on Peter Pan at Quad City Music Guild. Claire was going into her junior year at Orion High School. She was essential in keeping me up on the pop culture of teenagers. I was just heading into my practicum observation at Lewistown. I told her about how much I loved The Hunger Games. She gathered as much when she walked in on my reading Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins at a Peter Pan performance. That was filling my bookhole left by finishing The Hunger Games. So Claire introduced me to Divergent. This gave me a leg up on talking to students the next few years. I read through the trevails of Tris, Four, Peter, Drew, Molly, Al, Will Chirstina, Caleb, Eric, Edward, Myra, and all of the other faction transfer initiates at Dauntless in futuristic Chicago. I appreciated the energy Claire gave me as a fellow performer. She was wounded in a car accident just days before I started the long term sub job at Lewistown. Her physical therapy was directly parallel in time frame with my rehabilitation as a teacher. Lewistown put me back together again. Appropriately, right after my Lewistown sub job ended, I went and saw Claire at her performance in a Cabaret at Orion. She was okay. She was on her feet. And I could hug her.
Of course there's Gabby. When I got back onto stage at Quad City Music Guild in 2012, that was the self-realization that I needed before I could ever go back to teaching. I was reading The Hunger Games while working on Meet Me in St. Louis. I had just completed the first book and had started on Catching Fire at the time of auditions. I read Mockingjay over the course of rehearsals. Gabby wanted to be a doctor like her dad and had a little sister who doted on her. It was like a parallel universe Katniss Everdeen. And the stage was like our arena. And we were dance partners. So if I could do well by Gabby, of course I was crazy enough to try to be a teacher again. Gabby Pinc gave me my self-concept back. And that is a debt that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
I got married in the middle of student teaching. I finally made Sara Laufer into a Sara-Linnea Laufer O'Neill. So when I was finally making all of these dreams a reality, Sara was there. Just as she has always been. When I had a lengthy debate with myself over quitting student teaching, right at Lewistown, knowing Mrs. Streeky had to leave early for a second maternity leave, Sara gave me the kick that I needed to stay in it. We had a long conversation over the phone one night. She pushed me back. When I came back from a bad week of teaching in Monmouth, where the cooperating teacher was ready to cut me for not having five full complete lesson plans on her desk for the next week by 3:05 Friday, Good Sara was there for me. Sara, I could not have made it through student teaching if it were not for you. I hope that I can earn the right to be your husband. Now that I have the job in Lewistown, I can pursue my dream of teaching Spanish and my bigger dream of guiding young people at Lewistown in their transition to adults. You helped me get to this far. Now, if there is anything that I can ever do for you, just let me know. I look forward to seeing what dreams you will conquer as an actress, choreographer, light and sound designer, producer, prop master, and anything else you set your mind to in the theatre community.
As for me, I have been working on lessons for Lewistown all summer long. There will be gruelling days. I may not have time to update. It could be Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the Oscar race when I finally get around to updating Livejournal again, as my schedule will be so consumed by Lewistown. But this is my chance. This is my first full-time Spanish teaching job. And I intend to get that full license through these means.
On Monday, I report to work at Lewistown Community High School. I will be their new Spanish teacher.
I first encountered Lewistown by way of Practicum Observation. I reentered that, along with a Testing and Assessment class, and an online Literacy class, in the fall of 2013.
Something different happened at Lewistown. I had fun. Even though they didn't have many resources, I had fun. I looked forward to the 100 mile drive from the Quad Cities to Lewistown.
Caitlin Streeky was my mentor teacher. I passed with an A, for the first time. That was the corner for me.
I went back to Lewistown and covered her maternity leave as she cared for Andrew and accepted the long-term substitute teaching job in 2014.
This led to more substitute teaching work in Lewistown.
This led to a job as an interventionist in 2015.
Finally, student teaching in 2016.
I never gave up on the Oral Proficiency Interview. Yes, the second I knew I had passed, I was filled with euphoria and dread. I knew I would have to face the exact same problems with organization, preparedness, classroom management, content mastery, elocution, use of classroom resources, technology, and use of the state and national and common core standards.
There was a lot of suffering in student teaching. There were a lot of points where I didn't think that I was going to pass.
Monmouth turned out to be a quagmire. Every day, I went in and went to work, I set goals for myself, I didn't take a break. For anything.
Then came the edTPA. I didn't pass in my first portfolio, but I had the crucial experience of writing, assembling, and uploading a submission, and doing so on my own terms. I'll pass that soon. But passing the WIU portion of student teaching means my Master's Degree means something, and I can now teach in public schools with the Title 2 Provisional Grant for Spanish and ESL which I acquired over the summer.
Now for the thank yous.
I wouldn't have bothered to take the Oral Proficiency Interview if Caitlin Streeky hadn't pushed ms so hard for two years. I didn't pass it in the fall of 2013, when I took it shortly after finishing my practicum observation (that was the same day I found out about Jennifer Lawrence's pixie cut when I watched the Google Plus interview with the Catching Fire cast.)
I tried again in the fall of 2014, after I covered her maternity leave. That was the time I went and covered a portion of a P.E. class at Lewistown later that same afternoon. I didn't pass. I took it again in April of 2015. That was the same day I went to Subway and read the review of Furious 7. I didn't pass. But I took it again in October of 2015, going to Illinois State University in Bloomington Normal. I passed it this time.
Thanks, Caitlin.
As I had to leave ISU in 2005 in the middle of work on a Master's in Foreign Language which I never finished, the community doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. But passing the OPI in Stevenson Hall on the Normal, Illinois campus healed over an old wound. And I wouldn't have been that motivated, at all, to drive all the way from Lewistown to Bloomington-Normal if it had not been for the agreement to meet Annalea Forrest for lunch that afternoon in Champaign-Urbana on the campus of University of Illinois.
Annalea graduated from Lewistown after the fall semester of 2014. I only subbed for a scant few of her classes. But she was always a smiling face when I came shopping at County Market. The type of student who probably would have made me nervous if I were a student, just for being pretty, but was disarmingly nice. She also has a younger sister, Grace, who is as intelligent and will thrive off of the college environment after her 2016 graduation from Lewistown. Annalea, thanks for giving me more reason than just taking that test to cross the state of Illinois on a Wednesday in October.
Then there's Jeanine. Jeanine and I were in Peter Pan, Oklahoma, and Mary Poppins at Music Guild. 2013. 2014. 2015. During Oklahoma, I was stressed, because I was about to start my job at Lewistown in Caitlin's place. I'd only made it 5 and a half weeks into student teaching in 2009. I didn't know if I had the physical strength to teach Spanish for eleven weeks, much less teach six classes, ranging between Spanish 1 and Spanish 4. Jeanine was an assistant choir director at a middle school in Bettendorf in 2014. And she was also looking for upward mobility. She'd eventually get a job as junior high music teacher in Grinnell, Iowa. She left for Grinnell to start that job the same day I left for Lewistown to serve as interventionist. Both headed to remote parts of our respective states. She gave me much needed encouragement both as a dance partner getting through The Farmer and the Cowman and the motivation that is intangible for being a teacher. Thanks, Jeanine.
Then there's Claire. I met Claire while working on Peter Pan at Quad City Music Guild. Claire was going into her junior year at Orion High School. She was essential in keeping me up on the pop culture of teenagers. I was just heading into my practicum observation at Lewistown. I told her about how much I loved The Hunger Games. She gathered as much when she walked in on my reading Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins at a Peter Pan performance. That was filling my bookhole left by finishing The Hunger Games. So Claire introduced me to Divergent. This gave me a leg up on talking to students the next few years. I read through the trevails of Tris, Four, Peter, Drew, Molly, Al, Will Chirstina, Caleb, Eric, Edward, Myra, and all of the other faction transfer initiates at Dauntless in futuristic Chicago. I appreciated the energy Claire gave me as a fellow performer. She was wounded in a car accident just days before I started the long term sub job at Lewistown. Her physical therapy was directly parallel in time frame with my rehabilitation as a teacher. Lewistown put me back together again. Appropriately, right after my Lewistown sub job ended, I went and saw Claire at her performance in a Cabaret at Orion. She was okay. She was on her feet. And I could hug her.
Of course there's Gabby. When I got back onto stage at Quad City Music Guild in 2012, that was the self-realization that I needed before I could ever go back to teaching. I was reading The Hunger Games while working on Meet Me in St. Louis. I had just completed the first book and had started on Catching Fire at the time of auditions. I read Mockingjay over the course of rehearsals. Gabby wanted to be a doctor like her dad and had a little sister who doted on her. It was like a parallel universe Katniss Everdeen. And the stage was like our arena. And we were dance partners. So if I could do well by Gabby, of course I was crazy enough to try to be a teacher again. Gabby Pinc gave me my self-concept back. And that is a debt that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
I got married in the middle of student teaching. I finally made Sara Laufer into a Sara-Linnea Laufer O'Neill. So when I was finally making all of these dreams a reality, Sara was there. Just as she has always been. When I had a lengthy debate with myself over quitting student teaching, right at Lewistown, knowing Mrs. Streeky had to leave early for a second maternity leave, Sara gave me the kick that I needed to stay in it. We had a long conversation over the phone one night. She pushed me back. When I came back from a bad week of teaching in Monmouth, where the cooperating teacher was ready to cut me for not having five full complete lesson plans on her desk for the next week by 3:05 Friday, Good Sara was there for me. Sara, I could not have made it through student teaching if it were not for you. I hope that I can earn the right to be your husband. Now that I have the job in Lewistown, I can pursue my dream of teaching Spanish and my bigger dream of guiding young people at Lewistown in their transition to adults. You helped me get to this far. Now, if there is anything that I can ever do for you, just let me know. I look forward to seeing what dreams you will conquer as an actress, choreographer, light and sound designer, producer, prop master, and anything else you set your mind to in the theatre community.
As for me, I have been working on lessons for Lewistown all summer long. There will be gruelling days. I may not have time to update. It could be Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the Oscar race when I finally get around to updating Livejournal again, as my schedule will be so consumed by Lewistown. But this is my chance. This is my first full-time Spanish teaching job. And I intend to get that full license through these means.