End of the School Year!

I have had a busy year teaching (hence no posts) and have thoroughly enjoyed myself. The last day of school is just around the corner and I can't believe the year is already over! Today we had a chemistry "photo shoot." I plan to put this picture on the "title bar" of our chemistry periodic table quilt. Students were each assigned an element and were asked to depict a use of their element on a fabric quilt block using "quilt friendly" mediums. I hope to have the quilt top construction finished this weekend.



Of course, they insisted on a goofy picture too...



This weekend I will be finishing writing my final exams - and grading all of those late assignments that start to roll in about this time.

More Job News

Matt was also recently hired at a new company. He will be working at NuScale, a nuclear power plant design company, located in Corvallis! We are both thankful for our employment opportunities.

Unexpected Milestone

Wow. I have been gone a while. So here is the deal. From October 2009 to July 2011, I was working two jobs. One in retail and one as an HR Admin. Together, these jobs kept me working between 60-70 hours a week, depending on the week. The first year I worked 7 days a week, and then starting in Jan 2011, I managed to get Sunday off. During the summer of 2010 I applied for over 40 teaching jobs. I got interviews, but jobs went to candidates already working in the school districts. The summer of 2011 I went to the teaching fair in Portland and it appeared that NO one was hiring in science. It was a little depressing. I didn't really find any great job listings as the summer progressed until my sister, who subs for the Vancouver School District, called me and said that there was a posting for a science position. This was in the middle of July and it had already been posted for a week (Note: School starts at the beginning of September). I applied, and, after a few weeks, I was called in for an interview. I thought the interview went well, but I realized that there were probably a lot of qualified candidates. When the middle of August rolled around, I figured that since this left only two weeks until school, the position had probably been filled.

Earlier in the year, my siblings and I had planned a camping trip at Barview for three days at the end of August. We got two adjacent sites and set up lots of tents! It was so much fun to have Kristin, Katie, Megan and I, along with Megan's husband and children, Matt and our cousin Emden all together. We relaxed, played on the beach, ate good food, and had a generally great time. The third day of the camping trip I was getting ready to take a shower (Barview campground has great showers, by the way) when Matt's phone (which we had been set up to receive forwarded calls from our home phone) rang, and, after answering, Matt held out the phone to me. The person on the other line indicated they were with Vancouver School District HR and were very interested in me but could not get in contact with any of my references. WOW. Here I was in the "wilderness" holding my clothes, toiletries, and a towel and thinking that it hadn't occurred to me that having my references' phone numbers on me at all times was a good plan. I told HR I would try to contact my references myself and have them call back. I got off of the phone, told everybody what had happened, and then Matt and I frantically tried to find phone numbers for everyone! As two of my primary references were college professors, we were able to find their office numbers online. However, this was a week and a half before the fall semester started and I didn't expect anyone to be there. This proved to be accurate, but I left messages anyway. I then called my current employer, described the situation, and asked if she would be willing to at least provide a reference. She very kindly did so, and then, luckily for me, my CBC/WSU professor called me back and she also called in a reference.

When I returned from the showers, we started packing up camp. When everything but the last tent was packed, HR called back and OFFERED ME THE JOB!!! I was to come in for HR stuff on Thursday, which was exactly one week before school started. Best camping trip ever!

I saw my classroom for the first time the following Friday and then put my nose to the grindstone! It has been a wild and crazy ride so far, but it feels SO good to do what I love! The work load is approximately 70-80 hours a week...(not a lot has changed here), but it is much more enjoyable. I am enjoying students and the academic experience. I have a great administrative staff, science colleagues, and kids. I honestly couldn't have asked for a more perfect situation. I teach two class of integrated science (this is a Freshman course) and thee of Chemistry at Fort Vancouver High School in Vancouver, WA. The commute is short (25 minutes) and I have my own classroom. I am truly grateful!

So, if you don't hear from me too often, know that I am writing or grading something or maybe sleeping! Matt and I have tried to make Saturday our "no school work day," but that is a work in progress. Today we are headed out to run errands: get binders for school, get notebooks for school, get binder clips for school.... you get the idea!