It sure as hell took long enough and yet somehow it feels like it came fairly quickly. "It" was the last piece of the new job puzzle. The great county of Gloucester New Jersey moved with glacier like speed to issue my substitute teaching certificate. Yours truly is now an official substitute teacher. There were a lot of administrative hoops to jump through but zero training. I have to admit, I was/am scared s**tless. The scheduling coordinator talked me off the ledge and advised me to take a lot of aide assignments until I felt comfortable. The teachers I have met and worked with have been fabulous.
The school district uses an automated system that calls the house and asks if I am interested in a job. We got a call at 5:15 in the blessed am! There is also an online system to select jobs. The problem is there is not a lot of detail in the job listings. I found out the hard way this is deliberate! My first assignment was with a lot of special needs Down syndrome preschoolers. One kid was emotionally disturbed and screamed almost nonstop.
I smartened up and learned to research the teacher named in the assignment. 'Child Study Team' translates into 'tough crowd'. It is still ok to volunteer for these jobs, but if you don't have special education training, such as myself, you have to know what you're getting into.
I was lucky in the sense that there were other aides there and one of the more experienced women took the screamer. I couldn't imagine how on earth the amazing teacher didn't run screaming from the building herself and somehow managed to conduct class! The first day was thankfully only for a half day. I was wiped out just from that! I was only visiting that room for one day. I couldn't imagine how these people deal with that every day for a whole school year. These people need capes!
Monday, March 30, 2020
Friday, March 20, 2020
Ode to a Germ
In the town where I live now, came a germ from 'cross the sea.
It closed everything down, people everywhere were feeling green.
So we cleaned and sanitized and we stayed glued to our tv's.
Now we're all stuck here inside of what we call our quarantine.
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine.
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine.
And our friends can't come around, stay away from uo, go next door. Take your germs and go away!
And we hoard all our tp, every one of us, is scared to sneeze. Trapped inside, fearing disease, in our Corona Quarantine.
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine!
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine!
It closed everything down, people everywhere were feeling green.
So we cleaned and sanitized and we stayed glued to our tv's.
Now we're all stuck here inside of what we call our quarantine.
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine.
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine.
And our friends can't come around, stay away from uo, go next door. Take your germs and go away!
And we hoard all our tp, every one of us, is scared to sneeze. Trapped inside, fearing disease, in our Corona Quarantine.
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine!
We all live in Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine, Corona Quarantine!
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
The First Anniversary of Still Nothing
It is an incredibly dreary day outside for a Tuesday in mid May. This is appropriate considering we are approaching a solid year of joint unemployment. We are running low on cash and ideas. Neither one of us is giving up but we are getting tired. I've given up on previous applications. It's hard to keep in mind that people don't care about getting back to you because they already have a job! What's wierd, for me, at least, is that I thought there would be some summer camp counselor part time jobs at my local school districts but I haven't found anything. Am I looking in the wrong places?
I've been keeping tabs on how many applications I've sent out. My target is about 100 before I feel I really put a serious amount out there. The resume has also been revamped a bit, too. It was a learning experience when I found out how many formats are available and what things can make a person "look old". I removed my year of graduation long ago but there is, allegedly, a prejudice against your email format, too. The one page length is still good for me but I realized I don't need my entire work history. If anything, only the past 10 to 15 years are enough.
I am looking for part time work that will fit in with my daughter's camp and school schedule. She is still too young to be left alone for too long, not to mention she will not be getting bussing for at least another school year. We also have a great update, to report. During this writing, we learned that my husband finally got an offer of employment. The wages are a lot less than I would prefer. The recruiter assured my husband that these were nice people and they were changing his title to include the word "Senior". If you ask me, they should have offered to increase his wages if they were really nice.
We, as a family, have no choice in the matter because they are providing healthcare. While he will be paying bridge tolls to get to Delaware, he will be avoiding the wage tax, parking, and we hope, dry cleaning since the place is casual. My substitute teaching certificate has also finally arrived and I have begun my foray into teaching. That experience is a whole separate post. I have a lot to learn, putting it mildly. I am also finding out how out of practice I am when it comes to things like office dress, how long I need to get ready, and keeping my trap shut. Wish me luck.
I've been keeping tabs on how many applications I've sent out. My target is about 100 before I feel I really put a serious amount out there. The resume has also been revamped a bit, too. It was a learning experience when I found out how many formats are available and what things can make a person "look old". I removed my year of graduation long ago but there is, allegedly, a prejudice against your email format, too. The one page length is still good for me but I realized I don't need my entire work history. If anything, only the past 10 to 15 years are enough.
I am looking for part time work that will fit in with my daughter's camp and school schedule. She is still too young to be left alone for too long, not to mention she will not be getting bussing for at least another school year. We also have a great update, to report. During this writing, we learned that my husband finally got an offer of employment. The wages are a lot less than I would prefer. The recruiter assured my husband that these were nice people and they were changing his title to include the word "Senior". If you ask me, they should have offered to increase his wages if they were really nice.
We, as a family, have no choice in the matter because they are providing healthcare. While he will be paying bridge tolls to get to Delaware, he will be avoiding the wage tax, parking, and we hope, dry cleaning since the place is casual. My substitute teaching certificate has also finally arrived and I have begun my foray into teaching. That experience is a whole separate post. I have a lot to learn, putting it mildly. I am also finding out how out of practice I am when it comes to things like office dress, how long I need to get ready, and keeping my trap shut. Wish me luck.
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