Friday, March 11, 2011

When one door closes...

It's just like the old saying goes, when one door closes another one opens.  The door has closed on one position, but a new and familiar door is open.  Upon getting "fired" last night I sent a text to a friend of mine, the teacher I used to work with, and asked her if I could have my old job back (knowing that they hadn't yet filled the position).  She told me that she would do what she could for me today at work.

Today I took the badge back to the school and signed my time card.*  On my way out to the west side and after I finished doing the deed she was in contact with me... apparently there were a few different options.  On my way home my friend called me and told me that the principal had asked her that morning during first period if there was a way to get me back.  He had no idea what my situation was, for all he knew I was perfectly happy at the other school and didn't want to come back, but he knew he wanted me.  My friend gave him the edited low down on my situation and said there was a pretty good chance I would go back.  I can start ASAP as the aide in ISS (In School Suspension) until another position becomes available in the SpEd department.  Both of those positions are 29 hours a week which is just fine for me.

Tomorrow I return to Evergreen Jr. High and hopefully will be able to start working.  We aren't sure if I can start tomorrow because of paperwork (which has already been started), but I'm going in to prove that I want this and am committed to working there.  I'm so excited to be able to go back to a school that wants me and will appreciate me for who I am and what I do.  This has been one of the best working experiences I have had (and I've had a lot!) and cannot wait to be part of the team again.  Not to mention I'll be back at work with a great friend of mine.  There are so many perks about working at this school it makes me wonder why I left at all.

*My only reason for taking the other position was for the pay.  The new school doubled my hours and offered a higher pay rate, and I need money.  The unfortunate part is that since I missed those few days of work I never made it to my full 30 hours a week.  (The first week, although I didn't miss a work day, had a holiday that I forgot about in the last post.)  I think that with the 15 from Evergreen and the hours I've worked at the other school I barely reached my 60 hours for the month which is what I was doing before.  That means my check may be a few dollars more.  And the worst part about it all?  If I had just stayed at Evergreen I could have gotten my full 15 hours a week and I would have gotten an extra 10 hours worth of pay because of the book report thing the staff was doing.  I read the book, Nobody Don't Love Nobody, all I had left to do was write the one page paper about it and be at the meeting.  But no, I missed that.

I suppose it's also true what people say; everything happens for a reason.  There must be some reason that I went to that school for the short two and a half weeks that I was there.  One of my friends said that it was so that people at Evergreen could realize how much they missed me and wanted me to be there, that they won't take me for granted because they now know that I could leave again.  Who knows what is really true?  It doesn't matter though, it's in the past.  It happened, it happened for a reason, now I just need to learn from it and move on.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

So much for the new one...

**This post has been edited**

So a couple of posts ago I told whomever it is that reads my blog that I had a job offer at a new school.  I spent the $40 to take the required test (which I rocked!) and started about three weeks ago.  This now may be my shortest lived position.  That's right, I no longer work there.

Two weeks ago my grandma died.  She is the first of my four grandparents to go so I went with some of my family to California for the funeral.  Well, that being on a Monday afternoon I missed work on Monday and Tuesday, along with Wednesday because a lot of unexpected things happened on the trip that tuckered me out and the teacher I work with told me before I left that I could take Wednesday if I needed to.  So I missed three days of work for that.  One more day than I probably should have taken, but when your sister ends up in the hospital a thousand miles from her home and husband leaving you and your brother to take care of her two children (baby and toddler) while your parents run back and forth from hospital, hotel, pharmacy, and their hotel, you get a little burned out.

Today I woke up around 4:30 am feeling sicker than a dog and looking a very unnatural human color.  Without going in to too many details, let's just say I thought it was in my best interest for me to stay home instead of being around 13 or 14 elementary aged kids.  I sent a text to the teacher at least an hour before school telling her that I wouldn't be there today and explained a little of how I was feeling.  I know I should have called but frankly with the way I was feeling and the tiny conversation I had with my sister it wasn't the best form of communication for me at that point.

Any way, after a few text messages were exchanged between the both of us, we decided that it would be better if I take a different position, possibly back at Evergreen.  I was a little upset that it was so short lived, but I'm grateful I had the time there.

So here's all I have to say about the situation:  Good luck finding an aide, maybe it won't be too hard, but I hope you find a male because that day that the student peed his pants and I had to sit with him in the nurses room until his mom got there with clean pants wasn't a very comfortable situation for either of us with him in his skivvies and a t-shirt.  Thank you for giving me an opportunity to learn, no matter how short lived it was...