HS3

24May09

there’s been a lotta local news coverage of the teacher lay-offs in response to the $800 million of public-school funding cut by the state. most of the teachers being “RIFed” are young, energetic recent graduates who are excited to be serving in public schools but have nowhere to work. 

carrie and i have been lucky (so far). even though carrie’s only been teaching a couple years, she’ll still have her job this fall. and even though i haven’t even graduated yet, i’ll have a full slate of classes to teach, too. 

i’ll be joining the staff at health sciences & human services high school (HS3), as a general Language Arts teacher and special education teacher. HS3 is part of the coalition of essential schools, a national network of schools marked by their small sizes (high schools have less than 400 students) and favorable teacher-to-student ratios. i had the chance to do some student teaching at another CES school last spring, and was really impressed to see how far fewer students “fall through the cracks” in that kinda learning community. 

needless to say, i’m excited about working at the school because 1) i was not expecting to use my whole degree (english and special ed) right away, 2) the school is doing some  innovative things in the field of education, 3) i hear the staff is fun, and 4) it serves a dynamic, diverse community (white center).

this is exactly the type of situation i hoped to be in, and i’m amazed to find myself actually here in light of everything that’s happening. i hope by this time next year, i’ll have shown myself worthy of being brought on board.

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