Icing on the Cake

04/15/2006

Well, just a couple of days after winning Teacher or the Year, I was told that I need to get another credential to be able to have English language learners in my classroom. The one I got in Minnesota doesn’t count for beans. I need a new one and they could suspend my pay if I don’t get it. Because this nice flashy new one (that covers all the same stuff my MN credential does) helps support the communist regime known as higher education in California and why shouldn’t I get it when it’s for the children… the CHILDREN!?! I digress…
I knew I needed this certificate and had worked out with the higher powers that be for me to get it after my masters was completed in Spring 2007. But, apparently they’ve changed their minds. I now need it as close to now as I can get. So, I’m currently enrolled in 18 units of classes while teaching full time. And, for the first time in my life, I’ve taken on the “C is for cookie mentality” in my education. Here are some thoughts I’ve had to classwork in the past week, “What? The required paper length is 12 pages? I’ll give you 8. That assignment is only worth 10 points? Hmmm… not gonna do it. Excuse me, teacher, what would a C paper look like?” And so on. So much for bettering myself, I’m on survival mode baby.
Granted, I do as well as I can. And I’ll probably still get A’s in most of my classes. I just need the certificate and don’t care as much about grades as I used to. See, now there are more important things in life like, I don’t know, God, family, volleyball, WoW. In that order. So, if doing half of the assignment for a C means Josh and I get to invade a mine filled with bandits and knuckledusters, then so be it.
Best part is, some of the classes I’m taking are online. I’ve spent all day doing a tutorial on how to use e-mail, the Internet, and learning about netiquette. Did you know that you can send attachments in your e-mail and that the word netiquette comes from the words network etiquette? I did. But now I know again. I just finished a quiz on online learning preparedness and found out that I am prepared to use online learning because, by gum, I know how to plug in my computer. I wish that I could have just told them that my husband is an Engineer and I know a lot about computers for the good of my family. That should have been enough to waive this way-too-long tutorial.
Oh, and I heard a rumor that the Teacher of the Year wins a year of free pasta. Mmmm… pasta. If only pasta were money… that would be sweet.