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05/09/2005: "Possible Return to Teaching"
I've been at home over the past school year, taking care of my son and attempting to write my dissertation. Some days I'm amazed at how much I've gotten done; others I feel as though I might never finish. We don't have a babysitter (our issue) so I write early in the morning and do whatever reading I can at night.
This weekend I ran into an old friend, a guy who I'd worked with at WPHS, and he told me of a possible opportunity, teaching in a well run high school.
It's a tempting idea- returning to teaching in an inner city school. I am definitely one of those folks who gets more done when I have no time. I also miss the constant intellectual churn of teaching.
Today I spoke to the folks at human resources who told me how to go about getting "restored to service." I think things may actually have changed in the district, because everyone I spoke to actually knew the answers to my questions, and the two folks who admitted that they didn't know something were able to direct me to someone who did.
With the switch to site selection, it appears that many folks are returning to the district. In the past, I would have no chance, with five years seniority, of getting a job at Central or CAPA, or even Bodine. Now all three of those schools are site selection, and I could apply, and maybe even have a chance of getting a job. (I do believe that some of these magnet schools have long enjoyed site selection, mostly because their principals were willing and able to work every loophole in the system.)
The only problem with site selection is that people still aren't going to want to work at some of the more troubled comprehensive high schools. And the thought of enduring the interview process for the chance to work at a totally dysfunctional high school seems laughable.
I will hear soon whether I've been "restored."