Year one..Let the GREAT EXPERIMENT BEGIN! *random Arrested Development quote

Four years ago I started out on a journey that I wasn't sure would really end anywhere! I thought for sure that there would be a horrible world wide disaster before I graduated college. But, nay, I have made it through school and everything is going my way...except for that one little thing that is hindering me...

I do not have a job. That is because I have entered my field at the worst possible time. The economy has gone down the drain and people are being laid off right and left. The news says that the only fields not effected by the recession are medical care and education...I'm fairly certain that is the fattest lie that the media has ever told. You see, I am a teacher, check that, correct that, I am an unemployed teacher, which makes me capable of being a teacher, sort of!

When I pictured myself as a teacher ohh so many years ago, the furthest thing from my mind was being a substitute. Of course, when I joined the Marines, the furthest thing from my mind was running around the barracks with a mattress on my head, but that didn't stop it from happening. Four months ago I came to the startling conclusion that I may have to be a substitute. Immediately, images of a fat bearded teacher reject entered my mind. I didn't want to be the weird guy that went from classroom to classroom showing videos or playing heads up seven up because I couldn't cut it as a REAL teacher. I had thoughts of children laughing at me as I fumbled through notes from the REAL teacher, trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing!!! Not me...that can't be me...I am BETTER than that...silence...

After 6 interviews and 5 principals telling me that I didn't have enough experience to trump the 300 teachers that are currently out of work I realized that this was my destiny. I had failed. I had not done what I set out to do so many months ago. Wasted are the many resume pages I printed. Wasted are the multiple dry cleaner runs for my suit. Wasted are the countless hours of butt kissing and menial tasks for undeserving principals and teachers. Wasted are the hours spent on the internet applying for position after position. What was the point...why did I do this only to be thrown in to the pit of reject college grads that stand no chance of getting a job. I am 34 years old. I do not have time for this CRAP...I was angry...

Now before the teachers I have worked with become angry, themselves, because of my slanderous talk I must come to my point quickly. I have worked with and become friends with some of the best people in the world through my experience thus far in education. I have two teachers specifically that have become real mentors to me.

My first year in the EOU program I was an Educational Assistant at Mill Park Elementary in the David Douglas School district. I worked for a first grade teacher that literally became a model of who I want to be as a teacher. Our personalities are so similar and her philosophies so alined with mine that it was a match made in heaven. She selflessly mentored me through the first year of my professional development. She was tough on me at times. I felt really uncomfortable at times, but she was gracious to me the entire way and I came out the other end a better teacher because of the experience.

My second year I was an EA at the same school, but I was placed with a different teacher. This teacher was also a first grade teacher, but she had taught kindergarten for the five years previous. The first thing that I noticed was that her philosophies didn't seem to aline with mine. Our personalities were very different. I did not see that I was going to get much out of this experience...poor naive Wayne! There is so much I want to tell you! This teacher not only dedicated herself to making me a better teacher, she showed me that there are several approaches to teaching in a classroom. This teacher went on to be the teacher that I did my student teaching with as well as the teacher that gave me my long-term sub position, but that is for another time. She also coached me almost completely through my application process this last summer, which, although fruitless in appearance, ended up being an amazing journey, but that is also for another time. Thank you to my two mentors that are completely different, but have had an equal impact on me as an educator and professional.

I now return to the scene of the crime...I don't have a job. Four years, and $50,000 later, I am unemployed. I'm going to have to be a substitute. This is where it gets interesting...much like all facets of Wayne's life, things do not always go as planned and much hilarity, coincidence and heartache ensues, usually all in the same moment. But that is all part of what makes me so fun to watch. Stick around and you may get a chance to take a spin in my clown shoes!