Had my first substitute teaching gig today

Last night, while I was at dinner with my family, I received a call from the substitute teaching Hotline. The Hotline said that there was a job available, but unfortunately I didn't have my pin number with me. So I wasn't able to take that job. I was surprised that I had already received a call to substitute so soon after the class on Monday. I guess they really are in dire need of teachers and subs out here.

I thought that because I missed that opportunity last night that it would be a while until I received another one. But to my surprise I got another call this morning. My wife and I didn't sleep much last night and I promised to watch our kid today, so I wasn't looking for a teaching job for today. But I decided to enter my pin number to hear what kind of job was available.

They needed someone to teach Special Ed at a Special Ed School. This sounded way beyond what I could do. Special Ed can be a tough area with young kids. So I was going to decline the job, but accidentally pressed the wrong key on my phone and accepted to be the sub for the class.

At this point, I could either take the class or call up the Substitute Clerk and council. I didn't want to cancel, they needed me there in four hours. So I decided to let my wife sleep in and I took my daughter to her grandparents house. Luckily, my mother-in-law was home and could watch my daughter.

So, after lunch I showed up to the school to teach. At the front office, the first thing they mentioned to me was that this was a special ed school for children with major physical and mental disabilities. They also mentioned that I lot of subs ask to never be sent back there. It was kind of a warning to me about the kids.

Well, I lasted about a half hour. But not by my choice. The class that I was given is the most difficult in the school. There were three other teachers in the class of 12 kids. I was the substitute for the fourth teacher who had to go to an appointment.

My first task was to help one child eat his lunch. What I thought would be easy turned out to be a difficult task. Turns out he doesn't like to eat. I got him to eat fifteen bights, but then he ran off and laid down on the floor. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Guess they wanted me to pick him up and put him back in his seat. Oh well. One of the other teachers took over that task.

My second task was to take one of the kids that was acting up and a walk. So I held his hand and walked him around the school for about ten minutes. Turns out this happens often with these kids.

The class went on with kids hitting each other and then one started biting another kid. I was told that these kids will sometimes do this when someone new shows up in the class. They are retesting the boundaries.

So the main teacher over the class asked the front office if there was another class I could help out with. Unfortunately, there wasn't. So they told me go home. I was a little upset at this, but I guess this sort of stuff happens. However, they did say that I would still be paid for a whole days work. That was nice of them.

Signed up to become a substitute teacher

I took the substitute teacher training class today. It was a two hour class mostly about policies, a little bit on how to handle the classroom, and more info than necessary on how to use the substitute phone system. We covered things like daily procedures, preventing disruptive behavior, health care emergency, sexual harrassment, substance abuse, and over 30 minutes on how to access that phone system.

The class ended with a pathetic video of the phone system. I just have to mention this because just about everyone was annoyed with the video. Some people even walked out of the training and left. The video looked like it was made by complete amatuers from the 80's. And each time they introduced something new, they had to take you through every step to get all over again. Yes, we get the idea, you have to call the system, put in your pin and all that other crud to get to this new menu!!! Just get on with it and tell us about this new menu!!! After twenty minutes of the video the instructor finally turned it off stating the system is easy to use if you just listen to the different options when calling. Yes, we figured that out after five minutes into the video.

So now I am "qualified" to substitute a class. Actually, there's more to it than that. To get into the class you have to have a bachelors degree or 60 credit hours, or a teachers certificate, or be a retired teacher. There were a lot of retired teachers there. The school district sent letters to all of the recently retired teachers from that district asking them to become substitutes.

I don't know if I have a chance at getting called to substitute a class. There were over 130 people at the training and they have been holding several training classes over the last three months.

I do have one advantage. I'm not currently working and don't have to work while I am in the masters program.

I hope I get a call sometime soon. I need all the experience I can get!

Talked with my local school district about careers

I called up the school district that I live in, which is also the one I would like to work in. I wanted to make sure that I am making the right decision with attending WGU. I just wanted to make sure that they wouldn't look at my degree differently from those that are graduating from universities such as the U or USU.

The HR rep that I talked with said that they don't care what university you go to as long as it is accredited and you receive a teaching license for the State of Utah.

I also asked what the competition is like for jobs in that district. The kind of laughed at that question. Basically, if I had my teaching certificate right now I would probably get a teaching job there.

The district looks at three major items during the interview process. You have to have a Utah teachers licence, of course. You have to have passed the Praxis Content Test. And they look at your teaching evaluations from your student teaching.

That last item, the student teaching evaluations, is the most important. All of my competition are going to have the licence and will have past the Praxis test. So I will have to make myself stand out during my student teaching. I will have to make sure that I am always happy, smiling, teaching and all of that other stuff that I will be learning.

I also asked if they are looking at out-of-state applicants more, because the elementary school by my house just hired several teachers from other states. The district HR rep said they did that because not enough teachers in Utah are applying at this school district.

The HR rep sounded very excited that I getting a masters degree, teachers certificate, and then looking at their school district for employment. They are having a hard time attracting teachers because they just changed their retirement benefits and health benefits. But almost no company or organization is offering benefits like they used to. I'm not worried about that at all, so it looks like my career has a bright future ahead.

What is WGU?

I remember hearing about WGU when I was attending USU. This was about eight to ten years ago. Well, I forgot all them until two months ago. I was searching theInternet for teacher licensure programs in Utah and WGU popped up in my google search. As soon as I looked at their site I became very excited about this opportunity. So, what is WGU? WGU is a unique online university.

The following is from and email I received from the university:

WGU's online, competency-based approach allows you to:

* Earn your degree on your own flexible schedule
* Accelerate your degree by demonstrating knowledge you've already acquired
* Follow a personalized Academic Action Plan
* Work with a faculty mentor to achieve your goals faster
* Learn from faculty and experts using numerous learning resources

WGU was specifically created by the governors of the Western states for busy adults who need to juggle work, family, and school demands. MostWGU students work full time and find it inconvenient or impossible to commute to a college campus because of geographic or time restrictions. The governors of the Western states who supportWGU insist that we produce highly competent graduates and, at that same time, help them obtain their degrees as quickly and affordably as possible.

So how does their competency program work?

WGU has developed sophisticated assessments that students must pass in order to advance through a degree program. By assessments we are talking about tests, assigned performance tasks that students complete at various stages, and sometimes, cumulative projects.WGU degrees are not credit-hour based. Progress is not determined by accumulating credit hours. Your progress is based upon passing required assessments.

Because WGU degrees are competency-based, not credit-hour based, I can speed up the time it takes to obtain my masters degree by clearing the assessments as quickly as I'm ready. I hope to have my degree finished in 18 months. Currently, I am looking at attendingWGU full time.

Check out WGU's "Who We Are" page at their website for more information.

Why go back to School?

After working as a journalist in northern Utah, moving to Denver, CO to work as a technical writer and web developer, oh, and that short time as a car salesman (I'm trying to block that time from memory), I have decided to go back to school to receive my masters degree.

I started my higher education career at Utah State University (USU) majoring in Nutrition with the intent to go onto dental school. That didn't last very long. I hate the sound of dental drills and I decided that the chemistry and biology classes were not my thing. So I switched to an English teaching degree. This area fit me much better. I was very excited until several poeple kept mentioning that there's no money in teaching. Of course I knew that. You don't become a teacher for the money. But after a while, I switched from English Teaching to English with an emphasis in Technical Writing.

My mother was perfectly correct in telling me that there's no money in teaching. I eventually moved up the ranks in the corporate world and made a lot of money. I even started my own company and did very well with that.

But now that I am successful and reached what I think is the American dream, I found an empty spot in my life. I kept looking back at those years where I almost became a teacher. For the last year, I have had this feeling that teaching is where I belong. Throughout my career I never had that feeling about what I was doing at the time. It seemed that I was just floating through life waiting for the next thing to happen. So now I am grabbing life by the horns and creating a destiny that I feel I was chosen for.

I know that probably sounds sappy, but who cares. I want to be a teacher and Western Governors University is going to get me there.