Two Year Laters: Professional Teaching License, you are mine!!

Here we are in Montana for the summer. First year of teaching done! I was just reading the poem I wrote over two years ago now about looking for a job and here I am on the success side of that with a job in Charlotte waiting for me at the end of the summer and a job offer in Miles City, Montana. Teaching Fellows is in the past. I am recommended for my Professional 1 license! It was one of the hardest years of my life. I didn't take good enough care of Xavier, no sports this year. Not with lateral entry and first year teaching. Some part of me feels like a failure, with getting sick at the end of the year and with my boy not getting my full attention. I didn't take enough care of myself or him. I met some amazing people as part of the program, the best part of my year were the times I spent laughing with those guys, Adam Faircloth, Deondra Gladney, Myoshia, Tone,Josh. They were my safety net. Lots of options: Option 1: Back to Charlotte to Huntingtowne Farms for year two with a very difficult EC team relationship. Rodd put a full out bully in place as CF and that is what I keep thinking about when I think about returning. I miss my kids, but am also grieving and trying to take in what I've learned this year about the world in which my students live. I fought the achievement gap. I saw what poverty and minority status mean in American and particularly in the south. I miss those kids, who are beautiful and are the reward that keeps bringing me back day after day for 13 hour days. Option 2: Tommorrow I hear from Miles City, Montana who have offered me a job pending their board of trustees meeting tomorrow. Montana doesn't have reciprocal licensing and I would have to go back to school if I want to live here. I was thinking it would be good to be done with school for a bit and Miles City is way out there, a city of 9500 people in Eastern Montana. 5 hours from Helena, which is a hell of a lot better than a 5 day drive from Charlotte. But I would have a case load of 13 and my own resource room. There is a Williams kid there too.... :) Option 3: Go back to Charlotte but get all my stuff in for Colorado licensure and pursue jobs there. I had an interview for a job that I didn't get there this summer. Denver was my number one choice for Teaching Fellows and when I got waitlisted and then told there were no more positions there I went ahead to Charlotte. But my heart has been in Denver. It is close enough to Montana but not too close (if you know what I mean). It is cosmopolitan with lots of opportunities for Xavier. Close to the mountains and a healthier lifestyle. Uncle Jim and Aunt Cathy are there too, a big draw for me. Family, I miss my family, and I want Xavier to have strong male role models in his life.