The Bird in My Hand

I had Lucy today when I stopped by Treat's school to pick something up. "We're going to take a walk around the neighborhood," I said, "any interest?"

He was game, so the three of us set out from the upper parking lot onto a paved trail winding through the woods. "I had no idea this was here!" I said.

"Neither did I," Treat said. "We got a strongly worded email last week reminding us that we must never take the students out of the building during instructional time," he added, shrugging. "So I haven't spent much time out here."

The trail meandered above the school and then turned up the hill toward the elementary school. Soon, we found ourselves in their parking lot. "It's been years since I've been over here," I told Treat, "but my very first classroom was here."

I recounted the tale of how, after getting my teaching degree and license and subbing for six months, I still had no offers by June. "I wasn't even in the candidate pool," I sighed. Then, a woman who worked at the ed center and had become an unofficial mentor to me offered me a summer school position teaching kindergarteners at that school. "I jumped at the chance!" I laughed, recalling how I told my little class of 12 that they were not in kindergarten anymore-- this was the first day of first grade! Back in those days, there was no curriculum, so I used all the strategies and activities I had learned during my student teaching in first grade to plan my program. The kids wrote every day, I read to them, and we sang and danced and walked out in the field (which was currently occupied by four trailers) looking for inspiration. 

It was great, and the five weeks flew by. Lots of teachers stopped by to ask me where I taught during the year, but every time they did, my face fell. "Nowhere," I answered. On the last day of summer school, I still didn't have a job, and no one from HR had even come to see me teach. I cried as I loaded my boxes in the car and drove home.

A few days later, the same lady intervened again. "Write me a thank-you note," she suggested. "Not because I want one, but I'll forward it to HR and tell them what a great job you did."

The next day the phone rang and the director of personnel herself was on the line. "I read your gracious note," she drawled, "and if there's one thing we want in our teachers? It's good manners." 

That is how I got into the candidate pool. Once I was eligible to be hired, I had a job teaching sixth-grade English the next day. 

And you can bet I kept it.