A Job Offer

Sunday, March 24, 2019
A Milestone Moment

On Tuesday, March 19th, I hit a milestone as it was five years ago on this date that I was convinced by my daughter to write this blog.  Five years, two hundred and fifty-three posts and over fourteen thousand page views coming from somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty countries and shortly I'll post blog number two hundred and fifty-four.  Never in my imagination did I think I'd be doing this for five years.  So much for shameless self promotion, time to move on to more important events.  

We were measuring in the classroom recently using both inches and centimeters rulers.  I thought the lesson plan, how it was presented to the scholars, by the person that occupies the front of the classroom, went quite well.  After all, I am talking about a degreed and licensed teacher with multiple years of experience.  All of that came into question recently during a Monday morning community circle with the scholars.  The topic for Monday morning community circle is simple, what did you do over the weekend?  The scholars always go first and then the adults, should they choose, can share their experiences.  I chose to pass this past Monday morning so the other adult in the room could share a story.  It went something like this.

I decided to buy a new light that would hang over a table in my house.  After a few struggles removing the old light and then hanging the new light I recognized immediately that the new light hung too low over the table and it could easily hit someone in the head.  Being frustrated that I'd have to take the light down, make a cord adjustment, and rehang the light I decided to take a short cut.  To speed up the process I just decided to eye ball the length of the cord and then make the cut.  Finally my new light is hung for the second time and now the light hangs too high above the table.

The hanger of the light is now past frustrated and has moved into the danger zone and I'm certain words were spoken that I could not place in this blog.  So, what to do now?  Call the manufacturer, explain what happened, and get another light shipped to the house.  Amazingly, after listening to the I'll just eye ball it and cut it story, the manufacturer agreed to ship the second light at no additional cost.

As it stands right now I'm not sure if the second light has been hung.  If it hasn't I'm going to offer this bit of advice to someone well prepared to teach young scholars how to use a ruler.  "Measure twice and cut once.

A couple of weeks ago the BigB#4 asked me to stop by her office as she had an open position at the school that she thought I might be interested in taking.  I've been aware of this open position for some time as two individuals were lobbying me to take the position.  I've gone back and forth about taking the position a number of times before I decided to stop by the BigB#4's office and talk.  Here is what I was offered; this is an overhead position that will support classroom teachers, it is a job share position as I would share this full time position with another individual, I'd only work two full days per week, I'd have to clock in at the start of the day and clock out at the end of the day, I'd have to do lunch duty each day I worked, and I'd make around $9.50, maybe a little more.

Here is my thought process on taking this job.  Would it be nice to be paid again, yes.  Would part time be better than full time, yes.  Would I be more interested in this job if I only had to work mornings, yes.  Do I like the idea of having to clock in and clock out, no.  Do I like the idea of doing lunch duty, hell no, nobody does.  Do I like the fact that I'm committing myself to two full days of school a week for an entire school year, no.  Do I think I'd be adequately compensated at $9.50 per hour or slightly higher, no.  When I was a paid instructional assistant in that Special Education classroom I made $14.42 per hour.  This is a job sharing position.  The person I'd be sharing the job with has a teaching degree.  If we are doing the exact same job will I get paid at the same level as this teacher, highly unlikely, as I can't see a teacher taking a job that pays around $9.50 per hour.

So, it is decision time.  What am I going to tell the BigB#4?  Anyone care to venture a guess?  Ready, I turned it down as I didn't like the idea of committing myself to a paid position and the commitments that go with it knowing that my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse is retiring.  And, if she is retiring, it makes no sense for me to un-retire for the second time.

T4, OtherT4, and I are now on spring break, two weeks where T4 and OtherT4 can simply relax and I can do yard work.  The timing for spring break was perfect as a big change took place recently.  AnotherT4, who accepted the third fourth grade teaching position in January resigned in March.  In fact, this teaching position has turned over twice in less than a half of a school year.  So what does the future hold for T4 and OtherT4 with this opened position that apparently will not be filled?Somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty scholars per classroom.  To my teaching friends that read this blog, what are your thoughts on a classroom with thirty scholars crammed into it?  I'll share mine in the next blog post.

Back to my milestone.  I'm struggling with the blog and I have to make some adjustments.  Quitting entirely is one option but I'm not to that point as the remaining nine weeks of the school year are going to be real interesting.  Having approximately sixty scholars roll through T4's classroom for a daily math lesson is going to be pure survival mode and I certainly don't want to miss all of that fun.  The month of May is rapidly approaching and that means three days of camp with all of these fourth grade scholars and I've agreed, in a moment of weakness, to camp overnight with them.  The other option is to post updates with less frequency.  I've already moved in that direction as some of you may have noticed.  I think that is what I'll do for the remainder of the school year and then go from there.

That is it for today.  The NCAA basketball tournament is in full swing.  I think I'll make some popcorn, crack open a cold something, sit in my favorite chair, and watch some basketball.  Thanks for following along.