So, yeah, I suppose that I should talk a bit about the job search. [There are only 6 days left in the current school year.]

Well, "nothing is happening with it" is the short answer. I don't even know what the hell I'm going to do this summer.

I subbed for Miles today - I got there pretty early, looked over the lesson plans, and then went to gab with my friend Monica [who took over for the bi-lingual Kindergarten teacher who is on maternity leave... IT'S A GIRL!}. When I came back down to the room, this semester's student teacher [my REPLACEMENT!] was in the room. Apparently she mistakenly thought that today was the last Tuesday of the school year, when, really, she was supposed to come to school NEXT Tuesday. I asked her [before she frantically ran off saying, "I suppose I should go to work right now so that I can get next Tuesday off..."] what she was doing this summer and she told me that she will be working for the Marin Day Schools all summer, mostly as a substitute. She told me that I should "totally" call them up because "they are always looking for subs, and they would totally hire you". Please let this work out for me because, as of right now, I have no job past this Thursday and we are HURTING for money. Yes, this is why I went back to school for the last FOUR years: to be completely unemployed.

The school district is completely dragging its heels on the whole "hiring of new teachers" thing. We had to have our applications in by April 2nd, and they promised, via auto-reply email when you submitted your resume, that the hiring process would be swift. We were supposed to know by April 25th if we made it to the round where we got district interviews. The district interviews were to be on May 22nd. No one that I know who applied has heard ANYTHING since the auto-email. It just horks me off that they haven't even had the decency to send a mass email saying something to the effect of "The process of hiring this year is proving to be a special challenge. As of right now we have no positions available/don't know how many positions we will be hiring for. We are reading through applications and will get back to you as soon as possible." But, no. Some people on the inside say, "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure that there will be jobs available and you will have no trouble getting one", and I want to keep a positive attitude, but... the waiting just sucks. There is a 1st grade job that I know is open at a school that I liked subbing at, and I will likely contact the Principal in the next couple of days, but I just don't see it turning out in my favor. Right now, teachers that have been "consolidated" have first choice of jobs, and then "voluntary move" teachers have second choice. One all teachers who have been consolidated or just want a change of scenery have made the move, then any positions that are open, or suddenly become available over the summer, are up for grabs to people like myself.

I just don't know that I could handle being a sub next year. The money is decent, but the headaches can be huge. And, again, I didn't go through all of this schooling - and financial aid debt - to get some crappy job that I didn't even need all of this schooling/training to get. Friday will be my last day subbing this school year, and it can't come too soon [even though we need the money]. I'm probably going to go into Miles' room Monday [school picnic], Tuesday, and Wednesday [last day of school] next week - I don't figure I would get any sub work next week anyway. What lousy teacher would take a day off during the last 3 days of school?

So, yeah, I subbed for Miles today and the kids were kind of crazy. So, maybe it IS just me. Or, maybe it IS just because the kids are getting antsy what with it being the end of the school year. It's not a very exact science. I just know that today these kids were VERY active and VERY loud. I realized today that subbing at Bryant is WAY more stressful than subbing at some other school that I've never been to before. At least at some random school I can go in, do my job, and walk away without any consequences for a bad day. At Bryant, because I know all of the teachers and a lot of the kids, there is more pressure to "have a really good day". If things suck, and I yell at a couple of kids, chances are I will see them again soon, or the teacher will find out and I'll end up looking like a complete sucky, jerky teacher. AND, when subbing for Miles, I feel like I should be able to accomplish a WHOLE bunch successfully in a day because I was in there all last Fall teaching. STRESS-FULL.

The Principal of Bryant [who has decided to leave after this school year - yeah, the least he could've done for me was hire me for Miles' job and then left. Heck, his decision to hire me wouldn't have ended up affecting him at all anyway...] has called me in as a sub for Thursday of this week. I guess he wants to use up all of the sub money for the year, so I will likely be a "floating sub" [no sorcery involved] all day, going from room to room giving teachers time to finish up end of the year testing, scoring, grading, etc. Could be fun, or it could be a nightmare. I'll let you know which it ends up being.