The New Job

And again, the theme of my move to Vermont appears to be "Thing Happen For a Reason."

A little background:

Back in March, I applied for a job as a "Counseling Teacher" with a school here in Vermont that works with high needs kids. I followed up with the application and resume, and never heard anything back, so shrugged it off and moved on the with the job search, applying to a lot of admin assistant jobs, a few periphery school-type jobs (not teaching, since my license is non-transferable), etc.

After the whole Catholic School job fiasco, I noticed that the same job I had applied for re-appeared on schoolspring.com, the website where teaching jobs are often posted. I was kind of miffed, so I e-mailed the person in the job posting, asking if they had ever received my application. He said he hadn't, and asked me to send it again.

So I did, and got an interview (on the phone). Then I got another interview (also on the phone). Then I set up an in-face interview for after I arrived last week, and voila -- a job offer materializes the day after I meet the director of the programs.

I was lamenting to Andy that "If only they had gotten back to me in March, this would have been a lot easier," to which he pointed out, "Right, but then you wouldn't have come up for the Catholic School interview and then we wouldn't have found the apartment." "Huh," I replied.

So, like all good novels, things have come back full-circle and I am employed at this school that provides both academic instruction and therapeutic contact for kids who have behavioral and emotional problems. Some of the details are still a little unclear (like what, for example, I'm teaching!), but I love the people I interviewed with, and the "orientation" that is taking place over the next two weeks includes a lot of autonomous time for us to plan, and events such as "Self-care day: Hiking," in which the staff can join a leader who is taking everyone to his favorite spot to hike for the entire morning. Not shabby.

The other cool thing is that the teaching itself sounds really flexible, and the place really focuses on kids' interests and strengths, as opposed to straightforward academics. So if the kids want to build a half-pipe to skateboard on, that's cool -- as long as they research the plans and materials, buy them, and do their own construction. Pretty sweet, huh?