Officially Complete

Today I went over to Cal State and handed in the rest of the paperwork and forms so that the State of California will recognize me as an official teacher.

So, once the Credentialing Agency sends me the certificate, I'll be an official holder of a Preliminary Credential. That will probably be in six months, based on their speedy turn around time for my prior credentials.

And, yeah, you read that right. I'm still not fully certified, I'm only Preliminary. I still need to take 5 more classes, plus go through the You-Are-A-New-Teacher-So-We-Are-Going-To-Support-You-Whether-You-Like-It-Or-Not-Program. This whole process will take another two years.

Teaching is the only profession that I know of that is so low paid while at the same time requiring so much certification. Based on what I made before this (Project Management at a software firm) and the amount of work I did - I should be making at least double what I make as a teacher. Plus all of these added required classes are not paid for by the district or the state. Oh no. That all comes out of your pocket.

Eharmony Update

So... Eharmony is a bust but somehow I renewed anyway. So now I'm stuck for another 3 months. *Hitting self in forehead* So far:

5 - billion +1 referrals - "Meet Rod! Your ultimate match!"
10 - people who I managed to get through the whole convoluted "communication" process with.
3 - the actual number of people I met.
2 - the actual number of people that I went out with more than once.
0 - current boyfriend status.

Yeah - been on Eharmony for over 6 months - pretty poor odds if you ask me.

Teacher Orientation - date: 08/2005

This is my second year as a teacher. Last year, I had to go to new Teacher Orientation where we would learn Very Important New Teacher Things. So, I went. And, I did learn a few things, the main one being, it was extremely boring. But, I did get a nice bag out of the deal. My Mom told me, get used to it. Then she showed me her Bag Shelf. Cause, they don't really pay you very much, so to distract you, they give you a nice bag instead.

Teacher: "So, what's the pay scale?"
District: "Hey, want a bag?"

I'm doing the same exact job I did last year, in the same exact district, in the same exact school.

Got that?

So, a couple of weeks ago I'm talking to personnel, and we are discussing how I need to sign the contract and get it back to them by August 29. Then...

District: "Oh, you need to go to New Teacher Orientation."
Me: "But I went last year."
District: "Well, you need to go again, cause now you are an Officially Credentialed Teacher, which starts your Official Employment with the District."

Me: "Ok - I guess." (Thinking - this makes NO sense. At all.)

So, I went. And, I have to say as an Official Teacher vs. last year, when I guess I was really a Phantom Teacher or maybe just a Practice Teacher, it was just as boring as before.

But, I got a nice bag. In fact, it looks suspiciously like the bag I got last year.

Eharmony

So, I've been on Eharmony for a while now trying to find someone to date. This is because, apparently, I cannot seem to find someone by myself and I need help.

What I find really annoying about Eharmony is that they send you about 10 emails a day along the lines of "Meet Jeff - he's looking for you!" or "Barry might be your special match!"

Honestly, I don't want that many emails from Eharmony. In fact, all I want is if someone wants to contact me. I really think that a lot of the profiles they send are from people who are not subscribed. How do I know? Because I've had a LOT of profiles over the past month or so when I wasn't signed on. So... the question is - how many of these people are actually available? The answer? We will never know because certainly Eharmony won't tell you.

On the other hand, I had a date today and the guy is really nice, so - maybe it's worth while after all.

Cleaning House

Why is it so, so hard to keep my place in some sort of order? You know those stories of elves that go around fixing things up and making everything nice?

I have Evil Elves. I swear that my place was only a 5 on the messy scale when I left last Friday. When I got back home, it was a 9. How Did That Happen? Evil Elves. I'm telling you.

Hotels

I went to a math conference this weekend which was very interesting. I learned some new stuff to take back to the classroom, although who knows how effective it will really be - but I had fun and That is What Counts.

The thing that wasn't so hot was the fact that the Hyatt Regency where I stayed (Note: Do Not let other people make your hotel reservations) does not have free internet access. Not only are they charging you $$$ for the room, they then want to extort (and yes, it is extortion since there are no other options) $10 per day for internet access.

Can you say withdrawal? It's spelled N-O-W-I-F-I

Officially going to cross Hyatt Regency off my preferred hotel list, that's for sure.

Experiment: a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc.

I'm currently teaching mathematics at the high school level, but I really am discovering that even though I thought that this would be my Ultimate Dream Career well, it's not.

So, in the last week or so, I've decided to explore something else I've wanted to see if I could make work for a long time. That is, to be a clothing designer/artist. Create shibori dyed fabric, and design clothes and other accessories that people will pay insane amounts of money to have, cause I will be so awesome at it.

As a first step, I ordered **cough** almost $1000 worth of dye and silk from Dharma Trading. This company has just about everything you need. Note that I said just about everything. After MUCH agonizing I decided to go with the French Silk Dupont Dyes. On the information, it says the dyes are concentrated and should be diluted before use. So, got 11 bottles of different colors (which were NOT cheap) and looked in vain for the instructions for use. No instructions. Called up Dharma and said, "What's up?"

In reply I got "Instructions, smuctions - just do what you want!"

This was a little (okay hugely) scary as I really don't want to waste one drop of this dye. It's kinda like watching money wash down the drain. So, been experimenting and what I've found is that the really best color is obtained by using the dye full strength (of course). So, figuring I'm going to order something else next time, cause if I'm just going to use it full strength I should just go with something more economical.