Good Times are Here Again

In the time since I’ve last posted a lot of good things have happened to me. During the last two months I’ve made significant progress toward becoming an English teacher, something that prior to May,  I couldn’t have believed was actually possible.

Thoughout June and July I took a literature class on the Victorian and Romantic Periods, mostly studying poetry.  It wasn’t the most interesting reading and some of it was pretty hard to wade through. But, I’m better for having taken the course.  It was one of the two literature classes I need to become a licensed teacher. Overall, I need four classes, the other two being educational psychology and teaching methods.

Within the last week, I contacted my county’s educational service center and was given an appointment to have my BCI/FBI background check completed. This is another major requirement I need to complete to become a teacher.

Also, I’ve been admitted into an online teacher certification program. Even better, my advisor is allowing me to take the methods course I need early on (in the second set of classes)  so I can become certified with the state sooner.

He didn’t allow this without some caution and at least three separate specific points: you may not be prepared, you may not be able to take all your classes in order, you will struggle to get all your classroom observation completed.  I assured him that I would manage all these things and pointedly kept up my insistence on taking the class. He relented, thankfully. It’s something I truly appreciate.

In addition, in late August I will attend a seminar that will allow me to become an officially licensed substitute teacher, which I plan to do while taking evening courses until I am fully licensed. In essence, I’m hoping this can become like a part-time job.

This is all just so much progress it’s hard to imagine it’s actually taking place. The first part of 2009 was so awful, I drastically lowered my expectations on the potentially good things that would happpen for me.

Whatever annoyances may come with owning a failing car, dealing with bureaucracies from two separate universities, financial aide and several portions of the state government, things are significantly better than they previously were.