Yes, you’re saying, “what the…?” Well, in literary terms, it’s a Latin word meaning “in the middle of things”-a story or plot that opens up in the middle of the action-like Milton’s Paradise Lost. However, mine is not a story of epic proportions.

I am half-way through Master’s teaching program here in Georgia and I think this blog will be a benefecial writing/expression forum in which I can take the opportunity to reflect, whine, inspire, share, whatever… thoughts about this teaching adventure I have embarked upon. It has taken some serious time, effort and coordination to get to this place-just months shy of graduating with a master’s in secondary english education and a signed teaching contract in my hand.

Earlier this week, I was so fortunate to find a similar blog on this site about a student-teacher who conveyed aspects of both her student teaching experiences and her preperation to start the 2007 school year as a new, first-year teacher. I believe it is called “The Curious Incident of the Teacher in the Classroom.” ( I love the play on the title of the fantastic novel). Anyway…I read through pages and pages of her (I am assuming a she, but just noted herself as gateacher) blog and found her to have insightful ideas, valuable lessons, incredible drive, and a knack for clear and engaging reflective writing. Needless to say, I connected with her journey, her stories and couldn’t wait to see the end-her success as a new teacher in her own classroom. (No, I didn’t cheat and read the end of her story first)

Yes, this woman did successfully obtain her teaching certificate and a teaching job at a high school-which remains nameless. Her excitement was obvious as she attended new teacher orientations and prepared for the openeing day. Lesson plans, ideas and goals for the year were posted. You can’t imagine how almost devastated I was to find her last post on Aug. 13, 2007, saying “The End.” This brave, motivated and obviously bright teacher QUIT! She made it one week. Talk about anti-climatic!!! The teaching profession lost one of their own-and what would have been a good one!

Her situation immediately had me look at my own views on teaching. Am I strong enough to handle it? Can I be there for the long-haul for my students?? So many questions……I’m merely picking up the page where gateacher left off. I’m interested to see what upcoming experiences will be. I know there are so many of you out there working as hard as I am to become an educator, or you’re thinking about doing it. Maybe someone can eventually find one good nugget of info. on here at some point.

I just took took the GACE content test today. Yes, parts of it were challenging, but most of it pertained to English teacher “stuff.” I should have my results in a month and am keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t have to re-take any portion of it! However, I do know some smart folks out there who, even with their best efforts, have had to re-take the GACE! Comforting news….somehow.

It’s been a long and mentally draining couple of days and am signing out now. I hope to keep this updated a couple times a month so that it really can be useful for something. By the way, there are a couple of upcoming job fairs for teachers in Georgia:

1. American Association for Employment in Education in Savannah, GA on Nov. 11, 2007.

2. Gwinnett County is hosting a job fair next weekend. There’s a score of listing on the Teach Georgia page.

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