Last week I turned in the last bit of schoolwork that I needed to finish to complete BTSA. BTSA (which stands for Beginning Teacher something or other that I forgot) is a program mandated by the state which is intended to support new teachers but which is, not surprisingly, mostly a huge busy work time suck draining away the last little bit of free time that overworked new teachers might have had. I’m very, very happy to see the last of it.
Also, passing BTSA (plus paying the state my required ransom money), now means that I have what is called a “clear” credential, which means I have finally completed my training as a teacher. Yea me!
Now, if only I had a teaching job.
Unfortunately (or not), my last school elected not to have me back to teach next year. I think the students liked me well enough, and I had a few who told me they learned a lot in my class, but apparently the administration was not impressed. I’m pretty sure a planned reduction in staff was a big driver in their decision, but I’m not sure that was the only factor.
It’s frustrating, but there you have it - it’s time to move on.
What I plan to do now is put off looking for a regular job for a while and instead spend some time doing some things on my own. In particular I’m planning to do a little programming, maybe a little traveling, and a fair amount of writing. I’m not sure if any of these activities will provide a fresh means of paying my rent, but I feel like I owe it to myself at this point to see if I can do something productive outside of a standard corporate or government setting (an environment otherwise known as a “real job”).
Anyway, call it an experiment.
I originally thought about calling this post “End of the Chapter”, but I wound up liking “Turning the Corner” better. I figure it’s all part of the same trip, it’s just not turning out to all be on one road… or even all in one particular direction.
Tomorrow I’m taking a train to visit family up in Washington (to stretch my road analogy to ridiculous lengths, let’s call it stopping at “Mom’s Diner” at the intersection). The Monday after I return I plan to start my new job - working for myself for no particular pay, seeing what productive use I can make of my time before I run out of the money that I’m willing to drain out of my savings.
It could be an interesting stretch of road.
