Where oh where do I begin? Let's start at the beginning and move quickly to where I am now.

In Aug of 08, I received my next challenge and this one was a bit tougher then the first. The school department which I worked laid off 129 teachers. Making things even worse, the powers in charge decided to cut out all Technology Education at the middle school level. When Tech Ed was added as a requirement for graduation for high School testing via MCAS I thought for sure we would be safe. For what ever reason we were not and I was out of a job with less then two weeks before the start of school. Making things even more fun Joshua was born the following week which meant Lucy was out on maternity. Oh and Zack was starting pre-K as well. But fear not Lucy and I had been planning for this for some time so our bank account was ready. We grabbed health insurance from unemployment to cover the times till Lucy's return and I went and subbed for a year to supplement the income.

During my time of subbing at the local vocational high school I got to see alot of my students. God made darn sure I got to hear what my students thought of my class, my teaching style and my background. For the most part it was all positive except for the few who were not interested in technology to the level I was pulling them. (think future K teachers, doctors and nurses who were into science but didn't really want to know about bridge designs and such) One of the biggest things being pushed today in schools is for women to get into technology. My wife has a masters in CS, the top in my Engineering class was a women, and one of my former co-workers's wife was an engineer. So for me I never really saw the problem but if you look at the numbers men do make up the majority so I guess I can see their point. Back on point, one of my former 8th grade girls, who I drove nuts by forcing her to think and solve problems, picked Engineering as her top choice for the school. So all in all I was feeling pretty darn good about what I had accomplished while teaching at the middle school level.

Months went by and my wife returned to work and I turned into Joe Landscaper. Then the time to flood the teaching market came with resumes and cover letters but unfortunately it went without very much interest being shown. So I decided to start a business. As with any small business they start slow but at least it was something that I could control by my time and effort. Then out of the clear blue sky a local school department called me for a totally unrelated position. I had applied for one position but it got cut by the budget before I was even able to interview. They were very interested in me because of my Engineering background AND my teaching background. So to make a long story shorter, I started today. My title is Instructional Technology Facilitator for the entire school district. The perks, I still get to drop Zack off at school in the morning, I'm working school hours and the location where I will be mostly is less then 5miles from my house.

God has once again taken care of us in a big way. So to all of you who knew what was going on I thank you for your prayers, thoughts, help, and support. Now if you don't mind I need to go to work.

;-)

p.s. I'm getting a blackberry as a requirement of my job. :-P~ No winners.

Category: Family | Permalink | 2 locked comments