Anyway, I'm a little nervous. I've spent my elementary teaching career in schools with high English learner populations. I've taught them. I've loved them. And I feel so inadequate to teach others about how to teach these wonderful wonderful students.
Why? Comfort zone. That's the only answer I can come up with. I mean, my masters is in literacy. I've been a reading specialist. I've been a staff developer. I've taught lots of literacy. It's what I'm good at.
If I were to teach these bilingual/ESL classes, I'd be stepping out onto a new branch. An untested branch. I mean, the branch might break and I might come crashing down. Or the branch might hold and lead me to something even better than I've got going on now. Who knows?
And that's why I'm willing to take the leap.
I don't want to be in my 30's and have the ending chapters to my life already written.
A couple weeks ago, as I've been going through the application process, I thought about my beginning teaching. I was certified in Utah, yet moved to California. And that meant jumping through a bazillion hoops--one of which entailed me getting my CLAD certificate (an ESL certification in essence).
Now, I could take the test option or the class option to get this certificate. And I chose the test option. For months, I took review courses. BICS. CALP. Krashen. You name it, I studied it.
Then Test Day arrived. Okay, more like Three Tests Day, since that's how many I had to take.
Then Results Day arrived. And you know what? I passed the first three. Aced the essay portion of the third test (which most people fail) and FAILED the question portion of the last test by a few lousy points. Can you believe it? I certainly couldn't.
Anyway, fast forward a few years. I moved school districts and they required the CLAD certification. Too many years had passed by for my previous tests to count, so I decided to go the class route. I took FOUR painful painful, poke my out with with a fork, video courses. But I have the transcripts to prove that I know that stuff.
And I need those transcripts for the job that I'm applying for.
Interesting, huh?!
I'm not saying I'm fated for this job. I'm just saying that life sometimes presents us with interesting twists and turns.
Viva la life's little disappointments. They someday might be the stepping stone to something greater.
