Last spring I applied for a job at a local high school. I wasn't really ready to go back to work, but there aren't many job openings in this district so I thought I better take what I could get. I had an interview with the principal, head of the English department, and a member of the English department. The interview went well. My friend Tanya who works in the district filled me in on all the new catch phrases. The principal called me five days later and gave me the news: "It came down to deciding between you and one other candidate. It was a very tough decision. We went with the other person because this candidate had experience with which we were more familiar." What does that mean? That's what he told me AFTER I asked if he could give me some advice about how I could do better in future interviews. I asked Tanya what she thought. She thought it meant that they hired someone who either did their intern teaching with them or a substitute from the past year. Another friend of mine suggested that it was my overseas experience that put them off. I can't do anything about the latter but I can make myself more familiar in the district, so I started substitute (supply) teaching in October.
I'm only working two days a week because they don't pay enough to cover the cost of full time child care, and we're not ready to have Luke in all day, five days a week anyway. I'm working at a slight financial loss as it is. I've signed up to work in grades 6-12, any subject, at all the middle schools and high schools in the district. So far, I've worked in three of the four high schools and two of the many middle schools. It's been great. I love being back in the classroom where I know exactly what to do 99.9% o the time as opposed to when I'm a mother and feel like I'm making it up as I go 90% of the time. I've covered four English classes, a math class and one PE class. The teachers are all so well organized and the students polite enough to respond to my all-business approach that the jobs have been easier than my day to day work was as a full time teacher: no lesson plans, no marking, no meetings, no parents, no grades, no on-going drama. The teachers have even been good enough to leave me things to actually teach like grammar, literary terms, and ratios (yikes! She'll have to go over that lesson again).
All of this has been possible because Paul has been so willing to help me and because Luke has been ready for nursery school. When we first took Tim at age two, we quickly discovered that he would have benefited from it at an earlier age. That knowledge along with Luke being the second child has made it easier to put him in school three months earlier than Tim. I have to be at work as early as 06:45 on some days, so Paul takes on the job of getting the boys ready for and to school. He took Luke for his first day, which pulled at my heart a little but also made me feel so fortunate to have a husband that can and will do such things with ease and joy. Luke's taken a liking to school. He's familiar with the place because he's been going with me to take and collect Tim since birth. Except for a couple of tearful drop offs, he happily runs for the toys the minute he gets to his room. When we collect him, usually both of us, he is busy playing with the toys and often doesn't leave them when he sees us. Tim always stops whatever he is doing and runs to us. There are some little things that we're overcoming with Luke. He didn't eat anything at school the first two days. Slowly, he's starting to eat there. It also seems to shut down his bowel, but it doesn't seem to bother him. It's just a bit messy to deal with him when he's home again. I guess that's how he copes with change. Maybe he's saving it all for me as a kind of protest statement.
Paul says that it's obvious that I'm happy being back at work, and I am. It's a break from the boys, a chance to talk Shakespeare instead of Disney, and a time to tend to my needs a little. I'm very lucky. I've been able to stay with the boys for so long and even now I get to be home with them most of the time. I'm lucky that I can go to work without earning a living. Paul takes very good care of us that way. I wake up every morning, happy with what the day will bring. If it's the alarm that wakes me for work, even if I've been up in the night with Luke, I'm pleased to be up and going to work. If it's Luke that wakes me for a day with the boys at home, I'm happy that I can sleep a bit later and enjoy the slow beginning of the day that staying at home brings.
