Keeping busy...

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted! Time sure flies when you're ...starting new jobs and settling into a new town. The rundown:

I interviewed at Sylvan rather quickly, and began working almost immediately - the other teachers seemed relieved to find out that someone would be taking over some of the math tutoring, and all of the upper level maths. I got some good training and practice in during my first week, but since then school has started, so enrollment really dropped off. I'm working only on Tuesdays after school, at least until the Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II classes start getting hard and progress reports come out. For now I'm teaching "Math Essentials" which is pretty basic math facts from arithmetic to fractions and equations, though they assign mostly older kids to me. I'm happier that way; I just don't know if I have the patience to teach addition! Last week one of my students was a senior in high school and though she was there for Math Essentials we used the second hour to do some of her Algebra II homework, so I got a little taste and I'm definitely excited!

A bit about how Sylvan works: Each tutor has a maximum of three students at a time, although think so far I've only ever had two at once. Most students stay for two hours, though a few split that between reading and math, so I only have them for an hour. Sylvan has a very standardized curriculum, and two of the more full-time teachers have the job of going through each student's notebook, analyzing his or her progress, and assigning the necessary work. My job is to go through the notebook, teaching new lessons when appropriate and supervising a lot of practice. However, when I start getting students in Algebra and beyond, my boss will have me doing most of the assignment choosing since I will be the primary tutor in those subjects.

Until then I'm enjoying the structure, which lets me practice teaching without having the pressure of developing curricula and having ten or fifteen times the number of students. So not really teaching at all, but I'm getting a taste! I enjoy my time there immensely, which is showing me further that teaching on some level is definitely a career path I want to take.

That realization is good, because the rest of my job hunt didn't pan out as well as it seemed it might after that first day. I did have an interview at the one law firm that contacted me for a position as an office assistant. Not only did I not "click" with any of the three partners, but I left the interview thinking that perhaps my sudden interest in the law had not come from any actual desire of mine, but rather from my friends'. I can easily name six of my friends who are attending law school this year, including my best friend Elizabeth. Whether it was a desire to "keep up" with them or simply a desire to go back to some sort of school I don't exactly know, but as I've had time to actually think about it, I can't actually see myself as a lawyer in the day-to-day sense of the word. I think I just got caught up in thinking of all the things I could be. And of course I know I could be a lawyer; I think I could get through law school and pass the Bar. But in the end, it's not what I want.

It's a good thing too, since the law firm turned me down.

I got a couple of more calls from other places I'd handed my resume letting me know that they didn't have any positions open, but no more calls for interviews.

However, one of the first things I did upon my arrival in Grand Forks was to turn in a resume at the local Michael's. (Giant crafting chain. I'm sure you've heard of it, and can imagine how much money I've spent there over the years.) I figured it would be as good a place as any to earn some cash if it came to that. And since I love my job at Sylvan, despite my current lack of hours, it's necessary for me to have a wacky availability for any other job - which precludes most regular office jobs like I thought I might get.

So I interviewed with Michael's. I really liked the managers there, a big plus in my personal decision-making process. Also, they wanted to hire me into a Front End Supervisor position, putting me above the minimum wage scale, and were able to accommodate my schedule. After about a week of indecision (I was also waiting to hear back from the law firm), I decided that I would take the Michael's job if they officially offered it to me. A day or so later, they did, and the rest is history. I'm now a part-time F.E.S. at Michael's, which basically means that I'm in charge of the front counters - I'm the one who deals with returns and exchanges, and I get the special keys that unlock all the change drawers. Unfortunately it also means that I spend a lot of time just standing behind the counter while my coworkers are on the floor putting away and organizing merchandise, and of course I'm all about the organizing. But the hours I work tend to be slow ones for the store, so I get to do my share of organizing up front too.

My return to retail set me on a huge introspective journey. Not only was I beginning a job that is more or less a dead end for me (my future is most decidedly not in retail), but everyone around me was going back to school, and I realized how much I missed it. I had a lot of thinking to do, and that's one reason why I haven't updated in a while. It's taken some time to come to terms with my two part-time job school-less existence, but I've become more resolved to go back to school next year. I got my Grand Forks Library card a couple weeks ago and am all set to check out their GRE test prep books and all that jazz. And I've decided to try and do more reading in the mean time.

I think that's enough of an update for now. Thanks again for all your comments, and hopefully my next entry will be in much sooner than another month!