Yesterday was a LONG day.

My appointment to process yesterday was at 9:30. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get across the Valley and into Los Angeles. I had to take several freeways…118 to the 5 to the 170 to the 101 to the 110. After talking it over with my dad I decided to leave with 2 hours to spare. Umm. I got there an hour early.  It ended up being alright.

They gave me the papers to start filling out – and they took a good half hour to fill. I turned those in and then had to go to the Health Services office to be cleared as far as physical and TB. The TB was fine. The Physical? fine too. But the problem was that I take (took) Prozac for anxiety/back pain. LAUSD policy says that my doc has to fill another form clearing me to work while on prozac. Great. That’s when the stress began.

I had to get a hold of Kaiser. More specifically I had to get a hold of my doctor. That is IMPOSSIBLE! After a bit of calling around I left a messege. Luckily I had the nurse call me back pretty quickly. “Sorry, we don’t fax because of confidentiality problems.” “She won’t be here until 1:30.” “You can come and bring it here”. All things that were NOT good for me. I was not about to drive all the way to the Valley and back to LA. So I called my dad and he drove the paper (which I faxed to him) down to the offices. Great. I get a call at 1:30 from the Kaiser Nurse Lady Rachel. She tells me that the doctor will sign the papers this afternoon. Uh. Lady? I NEED IT NOW! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR 2 HOURS JUST FOR YOU!

I made it a point to tell her that if I didn’t get this paper signed then I would be job-less. BECAUSE OF YOU, RACHEL! Yea. Maybe a bit exagerated. Nonetheless, it worked. Not too long after that I get a call saying that the papers were signed and ready to be picked up. Again I call daddy and he goes and picks them up and then goes back to work once more and faxes them downtown. At this point? It was 2:45pm or so. While I was waiting for that, though, I went ahead and went to another step and they verified my credential and gave me a book for new teachers. I was hungry so I went to the cafeteria and got lunch. I also spent sometime talking with someone in the waiting rooms there.

After the paper was faxed the Medical Director there gave me my clearance and I was back on my way to the sub-unit. They checked all my paperwork and took my picture!

I have my official card that shows me as a substitute for the 2008-2009 year. WooHoo! I finally left sometime after 3pm. I called Number 1 school, as I was told to do. Nope. Position has been filled. So today I called school Number 2 and… the position was filled as well…. BUT there is another position that opened up. SOOOOO I’m going to drop off my resume tomorrow and next week on Norm day – which should be the 3rd (but might be earlier) they will know for sure if they will be keeping this new classroom.

Principal at Number 2 also told me that there aren’t many, if any, displaced teachers left in our local District 1. Aha! This is good news! Even better? Many of them are hiring!

I went on Google Maps and planned out ALL the schools in a 10 mile radius (of LAUSD) and tomorrow (or the next day) I will drive to ALL of these schools and drop off my resume and letters of recommendation. Woohoo! It will take a LONG time and hopefully it won’t be as hot as today, but it’s worth it. I think.

So that was my Monday. I think I got home around 4:30 or 5pm. I was TIRED!

So I could possibly start working full time come next Tuesday (the 23rd).

If this is the case… well, I am unprepared. I don’t know what is going to be expected of me… I mean, first I’ll be day-to-day subbing… but if that classroom is going to be my permanent job then I should start from the beginning be ready for teaching.

I have one of those nifty “new teacher” guides. But… I figure having real time advice from real people would be more helpful. So… all you experienced teachers – HELP!

What are the basics I should start with? Especially since…, well… I’ll be starting after the beginning of the year. These kids, I think, have either been moved around from one class to another, taken out of a classroom and placed into a brand new one with… no teacher! Or with a sub. Maybe different subs each day. I’ll hopefully find out exactly before I’m actually hired for a classroom (sub or otherwise)… but in the meantime I freak out.

Any books? Sites? anything that you would suggest for me to look into?

I THINK that if I go to the school I prefer – I’ll be in 3rd grade.

I look forward to ANYTHING you can tell me.

Until now I have worked with students on a 1:1 basis. Easy deal. Small kids, stuff I understand and have no trouble with. Now? Now they put me on the floor. This means I work with older kids. Kids with attitudes. Possibly HS kids!

But I started today and with 4 kids. First it was 2 boys and then 2 girls. It was decent. At one point someone, maybe Alissa, told me that usually when teachers start working on the floor they don’t want to go back to 1:1 because it’s more fun and goes by faster. Well. Yea. Totally see that.

That said… I don’t know how much longer I’ll be there. If I start working full time as a teacher… how much energy will I have to go and work part time there? I don’t want to work weekends – one of the reasons I went into teaching. So it will depend on my first week or to working full time.

This? TOTALLY freaks me out.

I don’t know how to teach! I mean, I do. But I don’t! I know how to Student Teach with the big experienced teacher behind me. I know how to TA with a small group of people. But be in charge of my own classroom? Eh. Not so sure. Being a sub? Fine! Go in one day and the next go somewhere else. No responsibility and no one expecting anything from me. But having my own classroom? That means I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE PEOPLE! These little tiny people.

Someone is actually going to give me that responsibility? Even worse, someone (Prof. M) thinks that I am capable of doing the job?

I’m scared.

My niece started pre-school today and as a reward her mom and I took to the mall. While we were at Borders my phone rings (and I hear it, thank goodness). I take it and… it’s a principal from a local school.

Those of you who read this should know all this stuff, but in case there is anyone here who doesn’t understand, I’ll be specific.

With the budget cuts in California – LAUSD is suffering. Parts of the suffering is that there are a lot of displaced teachers. By their contract (thanks to the almighty UTLA) these teachers are entitled to their jobs back if the positions are available. Of course they don’t have to take them, but the schools/district has to offer them to the displacees. This is the problem for new teachers such as myself. Until these teachers are placed they can’t hire new teachers. They can’t hire me.

Okay – so I get the call from this principal who got my name and number from Prof. M. (This is a different school than the other day). The principal tells me that she is in need of a substitute. She has 2 subs in 2 classes right now, and she hopes to hire them next month. At the beginning of the year she took in a displaced teacher. This teacher’s original school (the one he was working at last year) had to open a new class and so he has the right (through contract) to go back to his original school and he has chosen to do that. So what does that mean?

That meants that this principal, we’ll call her DC, needs another sub to cover that class. This person leaves on Friday. I’m not going to be processed until the 22nd. I don’t know if I will be set up to teach the next day or what (I’ll call tomorrow and 1) try to find out if that’s true, and 2) try to get my appointment set up earlier than the 22nd!). I told DC this, and she told me to give her a call once I am processed and that I could take over for subbing.

This is the other part… in October they have “norm” day. Basically during the first few weeks of school there are a lot of kids who are being moved into schools or taken out. On “norm” day they will have their “final” numbers of students and will therefore know how many classrooms they need and therefore how many teachers they need/can have.

So if I am able to do this sub thing at this school then after norm-day, if it’s all good with the numbers – I could be hired as a full time teacher! How amazing would that be? She did say though, that she would actually interview me for this position – although that might be a technicality.

Keep all your crossables corssed for me!

So I’m off to Kaiser, where they will hopefully have all the paperwork I need. I’ll get that and head downtown. That sounds like fun, huh?

My appointment is at 11am. I hope to get there and quickly!

I don’t know how long the whole process takes. I know when I became a TA it took weeks – but that point I hadn’t been fingerprinted, which I have now… so that cuts back on that. So I guess maybe by next week, I’d know?

For the long-term sub thing from yesterday – it would start on October 1st (hmm… coincidence? my birthday). So there’s enough time.

My cell starts ringing this morning and I don’t recognize the number, so I don’t answer. I check the voicemail and see that it is from Professor M. She was my University suppervisor during my last semester at CSUN for student teaching. She loved me and thought I was great! Anyway, she calls because the school she is at now, Beckford, needs a long-term sub! And she thought of me first!

Now… comes in the personal dilemma of… do I take a long-term sub when Haskell was the one who got me on the sub list? Yes, they got me in the door, but I need to consider what’s best for me – and that’s having a long-term sub position which could lead to a full time me me me job. Plus, the pay is better for long term subs. After a certain number of days you get an additional amount of money per day. Something like that.

Anyway, wish me luck! I’m going off to the school!

I was able to get my doctor to fill out the information for LAUSD. I also got the TB test today and in two days (Friday before heading to downtown) I will head to Kaiser again to have it read. After that I’ll make my way downtown. Fun times there. Although it shouldn’t be bad in the middle of the day. I hope.

I found my credential (after I asked Z at work to make a copy of it). More importantly I found my CSET grades! Woohoo! This means I have everything they asked for (other than the medical things… but that’ll be done *cross fingers* by Friday).

Still I’m being a bit cautious about it all. On Friday and on I was very excited, but I have calmed down – which I think is good. I can get excited once I get everything worked out and I get an official employee number (I have one as a TA, but not as a teacher or sub). I think that’s when I’ll celebrate. Then I can make myself some business cards and start handing them out at schools! Woohoo! I think I’ll look into that, so I don’t waste time when the time comes.

Work continues to be good. I’ve worked with one child who I’m not fond of, but from a review I know that I am doing a good job. Although I’ll always feel inadequate.