A New Chapter Begins...

Soo... as of yesterday I was officially hired a teaching job in NYC!! I have been looking for jobs since I got home from the DR (July 1st) and i'm not going to lie, it's been pretty ridiculous. Here's what I did... well a long long time ago (like last October) I applied on the NYC Department of Eduction website to teach in NYC. After I finally received my NYS teaching license (long story) I was able to start calling schools to ask if I could fax my resume and come in for an interview. Well... I found a list of all the schools in NYC through insideschools.org... (check it out, there are hundreds of schools)... then, went through the list and called each individual school. It was horrible, I'm not going to lie. I devoted hours and hours to calling these schools saying the same: "Goodmorning/afternoon, my name is Sarah Brown. I am dually certified for childhood and special education and speak Spanish fluently. I am wondering if you have any open positions at your school for the 2007 - 2008 School Year". (Eventually, I dropped the last line and went straight for the kill: "I would like to speak with the principal.") As result of doing this, I got a number of "fax me your resume's" a couple on the spot phone interviews, and about two or three "come in and let me give you an interview". So I did. This week, mom and I drove to the Big Apple, stayed at some Comfort Inn in Brooklyn and went to these interviews... in addition to a job fair in Brooklyn, which I attended after a few morning interviews this past Tuesday. Now about this fair... I was wasn't originally invited to it... BUt was able to squeeze my way into it by sending a suck-up email to the Director of Recruitment, Mr. Samuel Cheung, also a Houghton Alumn!!!... who was able to personally walk me past the guards into the fair so I could go "get a job!" ha! Now about this fair... wow, what a ridiculous mess!!! People were being offered jobs on the spot without ever even seeing the school that they would devote the next year of their life to... I was so overwhelmed and discouraged. Anyway... ended up doing all that with little success... but DID receive a second interview the next morning... Weeeell, on my way to that second interview... we got stuck... for about and hour and a half in stand still traffic- gotta love NYC rush hour traffic! Needless to say, I didn't make that interview. So, randomly I called two schools in Spanish Harlem that a girl I had met recommended and ended up re-routing our trip to pass by these schools to drop off my resume and HOPE for an on the spot interview. First school, no luck... but the second schooool........ four hours later... I got the JOB!!! Now altho this job wasn't exactly what I had wanted... it is a "tough group of 5th graders that will do everything they know how to eat me alive" (yes, I am quoting the principal). But it was a job, and I felt up for the task. Well... shortly after being hired, I got a call from the principal... apparently when she went to register me in the NYC system... I was already in... hired by another school! Let me tell you about THIS school... it was wonderful... a school in the Bronx in a nice little neighborhood. The principal was wonderful and I could tell right away that he was the type of man I would love to work with and learn from. Sooo... to make an even longer story a bit shorter... I ended up taking the OTHER job in the Bronx... which I will be a Special Education Teacher Co-teaching with a second year male teacher in a third grade inclusive class. I'm so excited about this and I know it is the Lord's work to make all this happen!
Please be praying for me over the next few weeks as I prepare to move (by August 27th... when I start!) and begin to adjust living in the city.

Expect more posts to come... as my life just got interesting again :)