Not much new to report right now but I thought I'd do a post anyway.  I'm still waiting to hear back from Lee's Summit.  I'm starting to wonder if the guy that I've been talking with went on vacation because he's usually pretty prompt to respond.  

I started a new class yesterday and so far it's pretty interesting.  Today we talked about labeling people.  This has been a big issue for me since I was diagnosed with AD/HD.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone says "She's ADD."  Umm...no, I'm Krystal.  I have AD/HD, but it does not completely define me.  It's a part of who I am, and I've learned to cope with it.  In fact, I think that if I did not have AD/HD, I would be a totally different person.  I'll never forget not long after I was diagnosed with AD/HD, I forgot to do something.  My mom said "Oh she's ADD.  That's why she did that."  Before having AD/HD, she would have had the opposite reaction.  Nothing about me changed...just the label, which changed my mom's expectations of me.  

Are labels always bad?  Not at all.  Some kids need those labels to get the services they need.  

Okay, enough of my soapbox.

The Waiting Game

I was informed a few weeks ago that I needed to start a blog on here, so here it is.  I'm warning you all though, I'm not so great at updating these things.  Haven't even checked Xanga in months, but I don't think anyone else does either.

Right now I'm taking classes to finish up my master's this summer.  I'm taking 7 hours and just finished a class at Meremac for teacher certification.  After the summer I have 16 hours left to go before I can be fully certified.  Which brings me to my waiting game...

Two weeks ago I got a call from the special services department at the Lee's Summit School District, wanting to know more about my certification status and to set up an interview.  I happened to be going to KC the next week anyway, so I went ahead and accepted the interview, thinking "Hey, they know I'm not certified, but still want to interview me, that could be a good sign."  The interview went really well, and he said that if I didn't qualify for temporary authorization, that I could possibly be hired on a substitute contract if they decided to offer me the position.  The next morning, he called me back saying that they were very impressed and would like to offer me the position...but of course it couldn't be that easy.  He had to call DESE, talk to my advisor at Fontbonne to find out my student teaching requirements, and talk to human resources to find out if things would actually work out.  After talking with DESE and human resources, he informed me that I have to have less than 12 hours left of certification coursework, and that a substitute could only work 90 days in a school year so he couldn't offer me a substitute contract.  Crap.  I have 16 hours left.  So he said to double check with my advisor and DESE to see what can be worked out and to make sure that was how many hours I had left.  Then I had an idea!  I emailed him and asked if it was possible to be on a substitute contract for the first semester, and then on a teacher contract the second semester since I would then be eligible for temporary authorization (or maybe even a full certificate).  He said that he'd be open to looking into that option.  Dr. Lenihan (my advisor) and I talked about a few student teaching options and things are starting to look up again towards being able to take the position.  Now I'm just waiting to hear back to see what he's found out about that.

I know if it's not meant to be it won't happen, but I really would like to be able to take the position.  Keep me in your thoughts and prayers that everything works out.