Teacher Not Teaching Now Teaching

Yes, it's true.  My district officially rehired me on Friday afternoon!  It is not in my previous position, but it is full time.  I will be working in alternative education at two different sites in the area.  It will be a new challenge, and I always like those.  I do not know yet how to juggle teaching seven subjects, but I am excited about the opportunity to help students one on one, and as a mother of five, I'm really looking forward to working with teenage moms, recent and soon-to-be.  If you are in alternative ed. I'd love to hear your stories and advice!

For my family this means I no longer need to know the daily balance of my bank account and the dates when the water and garbage payments deduct automatically.  Well, let's be honest--I'm still a teacher, so I may need to know some of that, but I may not feel my heart racing as much when the recorded voice at the bank says "Your available balance for use is..."  Those words can feel like a terrible, frightening reversal of a game show finale where I do not win the beautiful dinette set [what the hell is a dinette? Does it just mean small, cheap dining room?].  Instead the automated voice finishes her phrase with some number much lower than my worst guess, and I still can't figure out how the bank makes a computer voice sound more judgemental and condescending depending upon how small my balance has become since I last called.  When there is a recent deposit she sounds positively chipper, almost as if I'm more worthy of allowing them to house my paltry income. 


So, while the title of my blog may not be the most accurate one anymore, it still works I think.  After all it is plural, and, as you know, there are still way too many teachers not teaching right now.  Too many of us who did everything right.  We valued education.  We obtained college degrees, dedicated ourselves to a difficult, oft-maligned profession, and didn't put financial gain ahead of helping others.  Despite that, many of us are still losing our homes, facing bills we can't pay, and a bleak immediate economic future for our families and our school systems...especially in California.  Therefore, I will leave the title unchanged because there are still many teachers not teaching, even though I am again lucky to count myself among those who are.  Furthermore, I am learning not to trust the security of any job.  The chilly winds of March may yet find me "pinked" and pushed again into the same spiral I just weathered.  Only time will tell.


For now, I am grateful, thankful and counting my blessings, and I don't care if those are all the same thing--this kind of moment needs redundancy.  As the Lord has shown me in every period of my life:  He wants us to trust Him and know that He will provide, even when it seems most disheartening and difficult to do so.  I think I'm doing really well, then I lose hope and begin to become frustrated and impatient.  Then, He makes me wait a bit longer before coming through gloriously and with the kind of out-of-nowhere gifts that can only be attributed to Him. So, I'm humbled again...in every sense of that word.  I don't seem to learn the lesson very well, so I keep having to experience it again and again! 


I have a dear friend who has been teaching for many years in Oakland, California.  She and I have enjoyed Giants games and Christina Rossetti poetry together.  We have debated whether or not the conclusion of Jane Eyre is really happy or a sad compromise for a woman who would have been better off as a missionary than as the wife of a blind liar..albeit a dashing, terribly rich blind liar.  I admire her talents in the classroom and cherish her friendship.  You probably have similar friends, those you turn to when prayers are needed because they always have your best interest at heart.  She texted congratulations to me on Friday and quickly sent a second text saying "Keep blogging tho."  I shall take my old friend's advice and continue.  I hope you will be there, too.  I like knowing you are out there.  It has helped me enormously the past few weeks, and I'm sure it will continue to do so in my new role as a

Teacher Not Teaching Now Teaching*

*My ten year old demands credit for this new title.  It was entirely her idea.