I.T. to Teacher

At the school I was subbing for (I really should have given it a name) each grade had a big class picture taken. The day they were handed out to the kids they were a topic of discussion in my classes. Who looked good, who didn't. Who they liked, who they didn't. You get the idea.

One class tried to get as many people as possible to wear the class shirt. Well, less than half of them did so the picture was photoshopped so that more of the kids were wearing the class shirt. It was an OK photoshop job. The newly dressed kids had very flat shirts that all looked the same, and none of them were in the front row. Anyway, no big deal.

My senior year in high school a number of kids got in trouble for flashing white supremacist hand signs in some pics that got in the yearbook. You may think that's horrible, but it was just stupid. Stupid in that the only black guy in my class was declared an "honorary white guy" by the white supremacist crowd since he was a part of their group. Go figure. They all had to publicly apologize to our class right before graduation or they wouldn't be allowed to participate. We got some real heartfelt apologies delivered in monotones that implied, "We're sorry we got caught" and, "I don't see what the big deal is." Class acts, all.

Anyway, back to the point of this whole post.

In another of the class photos a kid is flashing "the shocker" on his leg, subtlely (for plausible deniability I'm sure), but it's there.

The shocker is a vulger hand sign made by folding down your ring finger. Read this (not you, Mom) if you really, really want to know what it stands for. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I saw it and had to laugh that the shocker got through the censors, but they felt it important to change kids shirts to match. At this school the shocker would not go over well with the faculty. For example, I overheard one teacher talking about how they stopped reading a book 3 pages in when it had a swear word. I'm guessing that the powers that be just don't know about the shocker. It seems like it would be much easier to photoshop part of a finger into the picture than it would be to change people's shirts.

I'd be curious to see how long it takes someone to notice it when it's on the office wall next year.

The school I've been subbing at finally called regarding the physics job I applied, interviewed, and practice taught. You know, the one where they were going to decide by May 1. The principal called and wanted to let me know that they'll probably make a decision next week, that he didn't want to be holding me back from anything (no problem there), and asked if I had gotten a job yet. I told him that I have had several interviews and one is very promising. According to my sources all of the other applicants for this job have very promising potential jobs, too.

As for my most recent interview, I did get the email from the principal. They must have sent it via e-pony express because it took 3 days to get to me. Following that email was one from the head of the science department saying how happy she is that I accepted the position, etc. So, I think I all but officially have the job. I haven't signed any paperwork yet so I won't say I have a job, but it looks really good.

Now what I have to do is pass the TExES math/physics test on June 10. I've been studying, but I still have a bit to go in my review. I'm not too worried about it; just a little. I haven't done this stuff in 6 years so it's a little rusty, but it's coming back to me. I really don't want to fail the test the first time I take it. I understand many people have to take these tests multiple times to pass, but I just think that would look bad.

I've been applying for summer jobs, too. I've applied to 3 retail places in the past 2 days. Each of them have used the same online application system which has a survey at the end asking questions about how you feel about things, what kind of worker you are, do you like people, etc. Not bad, except the first 2 places each had 185 questions in their survey. The same 185 questions. Ugh. The third place was a little better in that it only had 100 of the same 185 questions. I wish it was more like the teacher survey I took. I took it for one of the school districts I applied to, and when another asked me to take it the site knew I had already taken it and allowed me to send my scores to this new district. Easy. It's like they were using this crazy thing called technology to reduce the amount of work we have to do. That's what it's for, right?

So you're probably wondering how my interview went this morning. It went well. So well that I'll skip over the interview and start with what happened after the interview.

Twenty minutes after I left the school the principal called (one of the 5 people in the interview) and told me that they felt I would be a good fit for the job and if I was willing to cancel any pending interviews I had then they would cancel their remaining interviews for this job.

Wha?!?!?!

I quickly agreed since I felt like this was a place I wanted to work. So, I'll be getting an email from the principal stating what we talked about and I'll respond with my agreement. It sounds to me like it's the next best thing to a contract. If all goes as planned I'll be teaching upper level physics as well as AP Physics B & C. Yowzers! That's going to be a tough first year!

I was stopped by a student in the hallway and told, "I heard a rumor that you're going to be our physics teacher next year." I could only reply, "I've heard the same rumor, but they're not telling me anything." This is a kid who will be taking physics next year, and she seems hopeful that I'll be their teacher. I've got the kids on my side, now I just need the administration to hop on the bandwagon.

In other news, the school year is over for me. Now I need to get a summer job.

Late last night I got a call from a nearby school inviting me to interview on Friday for a physics position. I'll get a call soon informing me of the time of the interview.

I still haven't heard anything from my other interviews. I'm supposed to be hearing something this week or next from both of them, if the timetables I was told are accurate. Oddly enough, I hear that the students where I sub think I've been given the physics job. I wonder if they know something I don't.

During a slow class a couple of students were asking me if I knew other subs at the school. I have met a couple, but don't know them. They told me that one was mean, and another looks like a chipmunk. So I asked them what they say about me in other classes. The student replied, not defensively so I'm inclined to believe him, that there are two subs they don't talk about. They don't talk about me because "you're cool," and they don't talk about another guy because "he's a joke of a sub." I must be doing something right since I'm not a joke of a sub and am still cool.


In other news, I discovered a student in my class ditched class today when she had a quiz to take. She came into the room as the starting bell rang and said she had been in the office during lunch and they requested that I give her a pass so she could go back to the office. I told her she had a quiz to take, and gave her the pass thinking (silly me) that she would finish her office business and come back to take the quiz. I never saw her again. After school I went to the office and asked about her. She finished there with about half the period left and then apparently ditched the rest of the day. I left this info in my note to the teacher. Hopefully her teacher gives her a zero for the quiz. I know I would.

While the office workers were looking through the sign-in sheets and passes to find when the girl had come and gone a teacher I'm friendly with came in. After pleasantries I mentioned what was going on since she was waiting for the office people to finish. She commented about how diligent I was. Diligent? I figured it was my responsibility to do this. Maybe other subs wouldn't bother.

For the past few weeks I've been seeing one particular kid in a lot of the classes I've been subbing. He has an interest in physics and seems to be a pretty sharp kid. The physics teacher mentioned him to me one time as the kid who wants to know why the electrons follow the path of least resistance rather than the other path. You may think, "Duh, it's the path of least resistance." Well, he's the type that would want to know how the electrons know that. My kind of kid.

He knows I have a degree in physics so he's been asking me all sorts of questions; the problem is we only have a few minutes between classes to talk about things. It's hard to explain black hole evaporation through quantum tunneling, radiating properties of matter in the accretion disks of black holes, properties of quasars, wave-particle duality, and what makes a supernova go bang in just 3 minutes a day. After we talk I usually get a flash of insight, "Ah, I should have told him about Cherenkov radiation as an example of the speed of light changing depending on the medium!"

I hear you, don't think that I don't. You're thinking, "Cherenkov, wasn't he the guy in Star Trek who was looking for the nuclear wessels?"

It's challenging to try to remember my physics, bring it down to a high school level, and present it all in a few minutes. It sure is fun, though.

My interview with the principal today was short, but I think I did ok. He asked me some of the same questions I had been asked last time so I knew the answers to those. He also asked me a lot about how I would work with failing or ESL kids. Failing kids I had ideas about. ESL kids I had no clue about. I made some stuff up and said I'd utilize resources the school made available to me. We'll see how that went.

He said they're interviewing everyone for every position over the next 2 weeks and that they'd get back to me.

At one point the principal told me that they have a high failure rate in math of one quarter. So 20% of the students are failing math. You don't say....

In other news, I encountered no traffic on my way to work this morning, and had the best Burger King experience I've ever had today. I didn't have to repeat myself once, my order was correct the first time, and the workers were polite and friendly. Hmmm....