I had two interviews today — well, yesterday, I guess, since it’s after midnight. About one minute into the first, I told myself that if that job were offered to me, I’d run. What was wrong? It was an alternative school, which I already knew and wasn’t happy about. However, the building was ancient and unkempt. It looked like a prison. The principal was wearing a purple shirt and matching purple reptile-skin shoes. I wish I was kidding. I cringed when I heard him explain the expectations he has for his “inscructors.” He answered the phone twice during the interview — one was a cell call from someone who spoke loudly enough that I could tell it was a family member or friend. How rude. During an interview, I give the interviewer my full attention. I expect the same consideration. The capper? It’s a middle school position. Middle school alternative school with a boss who wears purple shoes? No thanks.

The second was at a somewhat flaky, but interesting private school. We’ll see about that one. One other school is desperate to talk to one of my references. She’s a hard person to catch, so I hope they can get hold of her. If they listen to her, I’ll have that job. I have another interview Monday. Now the faculty at the Monday school would be great to work with, but the school is kind of similar to an inner-city school. Still, if you have a great faculty and good support from the administration, you can have good experiences with those types of settings. Or maybe I’m being optimistic. I do need to look at schools realistically. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I really don’t need to be in a place where discipline is a big problem.

I need to go back and get my Master’s degree. It’s going to be hard with the kids being so young and Steve doing opera. Still, my career seems to be stalling, and I think the lack of the Master’s is one reason why. I also need to get serious about seeking National Board Certification. The money that will cost initially is daunting, but I think it would pay back exponentially.

I’m still working on The Rule of Four. I’m thinking I’ll finish it this weekend. I want to reserve my opinions until I’m finished, but I can tell you already the review will be mixed.

I found out this morning I can’t go to some textbook training being offered by my new school system. It conflicts with post-planning in my current system. That bites. But I am familiar with the textbooks we’re using, having used them before in other places.

It looks like I will be teaching British Literature (yay! for the first time), World Literature (which is cool as well, because even if I’m not familiar with most of the selections, I get to teach part of The Niebelungenlied, Chrétien de Troyes, and Marie de France. I had no hope of ever touching that stuff unless I taught college, but my school is offering World Literature to non-collegebound seniors, so lucky me! In the British Lit., it looks like I get to cover Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Macbeth, a Victorian novel (I assume there are several selections there), and James Joyce. The World Lit. includes selections like the ones I mentioned, plus A Doll’s House, The Metamorphosis, and Othello. I’ve got some reading to do this summer. Aside from those two courses, I will be teaching 9th grade, which is familiar turf, as I taught 9th grade every year I taught high school. I will be teaching Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey (for those of you who don’t remember 9th grade), among some other things. I’m not sure what novel selections are available for ninth graders.

I’ve been spending some time downloading lesson ideas. The Folger Shakespeare Library has a ton of good stuff. I added their Shakespeare Set Free series to my Amazon Wish List. I used to own the two that had Romeo and Juliet/A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello in them. I loaned them both to other teachers and never got them back. Sigh.

I also found out (in an oblique fashion) that I will have a laptop provided for my use. My department head said I wouldn’t be able to check it out until pre-planning, which would mean I’d have had to spend the textbook training sessions peeking over someone else’s shoulder. W00t! (As the classy ladies say.) You know how much easier that’s going to make my job? And just so we’re all clear on this — it’s my work computer, so no one’s using it but me.

I finally found the high school. I couldn’t see it very well, because it’s still under construction, so the entrance was gated, but it looked HUGE. And it’s right next to a Kids R Kids, which is the day care chain that Dylan and Maggie already go to. Serendipity! The elementary school Sarah would go to is right down the same road, and so is the middle school. She was very excited about that. She was telling Steve all about it. She said the school was really nice (which it is), and she was very animated as she described the close proximity of all the schools and the day care center.

Colonial House premieres on Monday, May 17 here in Georgia. Find out when you can see it where you live. If it’s anything as good as Frontier House, you don’t want to miss it. In this day when Reality TV is all the rage, why not watch some Reality TV that will teach you something? Living history is incredible. There was a program that did an Anglo-Saxon village, but I don’t know what it was called. I liked it. I’d like to see them do Medieval House; however, despite my interest in the Middle Ages, I would not be volunteering to participate (much as I’d be tempted). I’m too soft to live the way those hardy folks had to live.