...turned out to be a no go for me. I got the news today. Silly me, I had thought maybe I would get it. Made me feel pretty miserable to lose this opportunity, but life goes on. Yet for a time, it will be ever so much more difficult after this blow. I guess I'll be stuck in my current job about another year or so before I can retire, and that means Monday mornings will continue to stink big time. Oh well, one hope smashed, another yet to be born and worked upon.
All the best,
Glenn B
Showing posts with label NYCTF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NYCTF. Show all posts
Friday, April 6, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Anticipation can be agonizing, but well worth it.
I have had this unfamiliar feeling over the past week and a half ever since I was interviewed for a teaching job in the New York City Teaching Fellowship program. I cannot think of anything in many years that I have faced with so much anticipation, anxiety, hope, and dread since my first few weeks flying as an Air Marshal just after 9/11. This time around the feelings of dread are much less, life will go on if I don’t get the job, because I will still have my current job if I do not get the new one. Whereas, as an Air Marshal, my life sort of depended on me getting the job done right.
Still, though I have been on an emotional roller coaster. If I don’t get the new job, I am stuck at the old one from which I am ready to retire. That’s okay but the job stinks. Heck, I would say that even ¾ of the people who are not yet eligible to retire are ready to retire; that is how messed up the job has become over the last few years. So the thought of not getting the new position gets me down. Then again, the thought of being selected for a teaching spot has me about as happy as one can be. I have not felt so much anticipation ever since waiting for that first kiss, from a very special gal, so many years ago. When I got it, the kiss that is, it was all worth waiting for; and so to I am sure would be a teaching job. I hope I get it, I do, I do.
If I do not get it, I have options. I am eligible to go out on retirement, and to collect my pension. The lure of that Siren’s song is almost too much to bear. I would almost be willing to crash my ship ashore with no hope of getting another, or in other words I am just about ready to retire with no second career job waiting for me, because the allure of retirement is that strong. I have not retired though because I have a family, and I have obligations, and those bill collectors get pretty upset if you don’t pay your bills on time. So even though the retired life calls my name in a sultry voice, I have tied myself to the mast; and I will wait until I get a second career lined up. Like Odysseus, there will be no falling to the lure of the Siren’s song for me; not just yet anyhow.
As for my reasons to keep on working until I can get a second career, no I am not madly in debt. In fact, if I retired now, my debts are pretty minimal, but I do want to continue to lead a comfortable life with my family, and a meaningful one at that, so I figure I’ll keep working. Teaching seems like a way to do something I want to do toward leading a meaningful life after retirement. I want to be able to help guide our nation’s youngsters down the road to becoming contributing members of our society. For the past 27 plus years, I have arrested quite a few of them who did not make it down that road by the time they had met me. Instead they tried to take the short cut down Easy Street, only to wind up on that bumpy back road called Hard Knocks Drive. At first I thought being a counselor would be the way to go, but after thinking about it, then discovering the NYCTF program, I decided that teaching would help me get to more of them, and therefore I could do something on a grander scale than just one on one counseling sessions. Heck I could reach them not only before they were arrested (or after the arrest) but even before they thought of going out to commit a crime. Giving them a better chance would be giving our society a better chance. I kind of like the idea, and I am no air headed idealist, I am a practical guy, and practicality is what has turned me toward teaching as a choice for my second career. The better educated kids our schools turn out, the better off for the USA in the future.
I am still far from my goal of becoming a teacher, they have not offered me a position yet. I am very hopeful that they will. It has sort of been like waiting to see if I would be able to get that first kiss oh so long ago from the gal I married. Hopefully the wait for the teaching fellowship will wind up with a similar result of my wait for that kiss. The result of that kiss was a long lasting, loving relationship, with my first, only, and current wife. It has been a relationship that has taken an awful lot of work to keep it going, and one for which I needed a deep rooted passion to keep alive. Married life has been quite the good thing; and so, it has been well worth the effort. I can only hope - that just like waiting for that first kiss was well every moment of agonizing anxiety filled anticipation that I suffered through - my waiting to hear the results of this job interview will work out in a similar fashion.
All the best,
Glenn B
Still, though I have been on an emotional roller coaster. If I don’t get the new job, I am stuck at the old one from which I am ready to retire. That’s okay but the job stinks. Heck, I would say that even ¾ of the people who are not yet eligible to retire are ready to retire; that is how messed up the job has become over the last few years. So the thought of not getting the new position gets me down. Then again, the thought of being selected for a teaching spot has me about as happy as one can be. I have not felt so much anticipation ever since waiting for that first kiss, from a very special gal, so many years ago. When I got it, the kiss that is, it was all worth waiting for; and so to I am sure would be a teaching job. I hope I get it, I do, I do.
If I do not get it, I have options. I am eligible to go out on retirement, and to collect my pension. The lure of that Siren’s song is almost too much to bear. I would almost be willing to crash my ship ashore with no hope of getting another, or in other words I am just about ready to retire with no second career job waiting for me, because the allure of retirement is that strong. I have not retired though because I have a family, and I have obligations, and those bill collectors get pretty upset if you don’t pay your bills on time. So even though the retired life calls my name in a sultry voice, I have tied myself to the mast; and I will wait until I get a second career lined up. Like Odysseus, there will be no falling to the lure of the Siren’s song for me; not just yet anyhow.
As for my reasons to keep on working until I can get a second career, no I am not madly in debt. In fact, if I retired now, my debts are pretty minimal, but I do want to continue to lead a comfortable life with my family, and a meaningful one at that, so I figure I’ll keep working. Teaching seems like a way to do something I want to do toward leading a meaningful life after retirement. I want to be able to help guide our nation’s youngsters down the road to becoming contributing members of our society. For the past 27 plus years, I have arrested quite a few of them who did not make it down that road by the time they had met me. Instead they tried to take the short cut down Easy Street, only to wind up on that bumpy back road called Hard Knocks Drive. At first I thought being a counselor would be the way to go, but after thinking about it, then discovering the NYCTF program, I decided that teaching would help me get to more of them, and therefore I could do something on a grander scale than just one on one counseling sessions. Heck I could reach them not only before they were arrested (or after the arrest) but even before they thought of going out to commit a crime. Giving them a better chance would be giving our society a better chance. I kind of like the idea, and I am no air headed idealist, I am a practical guy, and practicality is what has turned me toward teaching as a choice for my second career. The better educated kids our schools turn out, the better off for the USA in the future.
I am still far from my goal of becoming a teacher, they have not offered me a position yet. I am very hopeful that they will. It has sort of been like waiting to see if I would be able to get that first kiss oh so long ago from the gal I married. Hopefully the wait for the teaching fellowship will wind up with a similar result of my wait for that kiss. The result of that kiss was a long lasting, loving relationship, with my first, only, and current wife. It has been a relationship that has taken an awful lot of work to keep it going, and one for which I needed a deep rooted passion to keep alive. Married life has been quite the good thing; and so, it has been well worth the effort. I can only hope - that just like waiting for that first kiss was well every moment of agonizing anxiety filled anticipation that I suffered through - my waiting to hear the results of this job interview will work out in a similar fashion.
All the best,
Glenn B
Monday, March 19, 2007
Yesterday I put my best foot forward...
...for my interview with the New York City Teaching Fellows program. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I did well enough to have made the grade; and am also hopeful that I meet their requirements in the first place. You see, they did not ask for my college transcripts until the interview, so they have not confirmed that my achievements in school match their qualifications for the job (although I think they do).
As for my interview, it was more than just an interview. The first thing I had to do was a 5 minute presentation as to a class full of students. The two interviewers and 6 other applicants acted as the students. I ran out of time about a minute or minute and a half before finishing, but I think time was not all that a critical factor - I hope not anyway. The other applicants seemed quite impressed with my presentation, and I hope so too were the interviewers. After I had finished we had a 5 minute break, our only break between 9 and about 1:30 when it ended; and the interviewer who was a science teacher asked me to show off the animals I had brought with me for my presentation. I think in that extra 5 minutes they got the idea I knew my stuff, but I don't think that the extra 5 minutes counted. oh well. As it turned out I did not hand out a homework assignment to my so called "students" because I had run out of time, but when I asked at the end of the day, I was told sure they would take it and consider it as part of my presentation. That was nice of them.
After the presentations, we had a group discussion. I don't know what the interviewer, one per 4 students for that part of the process, thought of my abilities to communicate during a discussion, but later on when she interviewed me individually, she asked me to explain more of my solution to a problem that we had discussed during the group discussion. I figured my solution must have made some impression on her, and she seemed to listen very intently as I described it in more detail, and had a relaxed and sort of pleasant look about her as she did so.
After the group discussion, we each had to write a letter to the parents of the students in our imaginary class. The problem was that students had begun falling behind as the year went on, and it was at least in part due to the teacher, and to some disruptive student s in the class. I wrote a letter expressing partial responsibility as a new teacher; and I promised to depend more upon suggestions from experienced teachers as to how I could improve things. I also expressed that such would be done fairly for each student since a 'parent' had complained about her child being singled out as a trouble maker. Then after explaining my actual plan to improve the students through review, and a mentor program, as well as extra help classes, I asked the parents for positive suggestions that they might have. Hopefully I was contrite enough, while at the same time showing that I was willing to change course to try to make sure everyone would improve, and that I would do so with the help of those more experienced than me, and of the parents too.
Then the actual 20 minute interview. During the interview, I was asked to think of something in my life that I had achieved, and then to discuss how I had done so. I told the interviewer that my best achievement was seeing my children turn out to be good kids, and to see them grow up sharing their good times with me, especially my son who at 17 has a lot of the same interests as me. Then I realized this was a double achievement because by doing so, I had also achieved becoming a better father than my father had been (I will not delve into that deeply, but he was not much of father), and I had seen my children grow up to be better children than I had ever been. I told her I did it through hard work, sticking with my family through tough times, sharing good times, and keeping my kids interested in things I liked to do. Of course it turns out my son was more interested in hiking, shooting, hunting and fishing than my daughter, but each had their interest along the way. My son at 17 still hangs out with me on our trips afield, and that is a good thing. He also shares my interest in animals and wants to become a veterinarian, something I had wanted to become except I could not afford veterinary school. As for my daughter she wants to be a lawyer, and I have been in law enforcement for almost 28 years. No the apples of my eyes did not fall far from the tree, did they!
Oh well, 4 weeks or maybe 5 from now, I should know if I have been selected. If I find out I have made it, I need to write up my retirement papers, and get my rear end out of the door at my current government job. It will in no way, shape, or form be able to hit me in the behind as I make my way out. Still it will be a tough thing to do, 27 1/2 years has been a long time, with lots of memories, and quite a few friends made along the way. Enough about that, I cannot count my chickens until the eggs hatch, so I will just sit back and wait through what will seem like an awfully long 4 weeks or so to hear of the results of my interview.
By the way, my thanks to those of you who sent me well wishes before the interview.
All the best,
Glenn B
As for my interview, it was more than just an interview. The first thing I had to do was a 5 minute presentation as to a class full of students. The two interviewers and 6 other applicants acted as the students. I ran out of time about a minute or minute and a half before finishing, but I think time was not all that a critical factor - I hope not anyway. The other applicants seemed quite impressed with my presentation, and I hope so too were the interviewers. After I had finished we had a 5 minute break, our only break between 9 and about 1:30 when it ended; and the interviewer who was a science teacher asked me to show off the animals I had brought with me for my presentation. I think in that extra 5 minutes they got the idea I knew my stuff, but I don't think that the extra 5 minutes counted. oh well. As it turned out I did not hand out a homework assignment to my so called "students" because I had run out of time, but when I asked at the end of the day, I was told sure they would take it and consider it as part of my presentation. That was nice of them.
After the presentations, we had a group discussion. I don't know what the interviewer, one per 4 students for that part of the process, thought of my abilities to communicate during a discussion, but later on when she interviewed me individually, she asked me to explain more of my solution to a problem that we had discussed during the group discussion. I figured my solution must have made some impression on her, and she seemed to listen very intently as I described it in more detail, and had a relaxed and sort of pleasant look about her as she did so.
After the group discussion, we each had to write a letter to the parents of the students in our imaginary class. The problem was that students had begun falling behind as the year went on, and it was at least in part due to the teacher, and to some disruptive student s in the class. I wrote a letter expressing partial responsibility as a new teacher; and I promised to depend more upon suggestions from experienced teachers as to how I could improve things. I also expressed that such would be done fairly for each student since a 'parent' had complained about her child being singled out as a trouble maker. Then after explaining my actual plan to improve the students through review, and a mentor program, as well as extra help classes, I asked the parents for positive suggestions that they might have. Hopefully I was contrite enough, while at the same time showing that I was willing to change course to try to make sure everyone would improve, and that I would do so with the help of those more experienced than me, and of the parents too.
Then the actual 20 minute interview. During the interview, I was asked to think of something in my life that I had achieved, and then to discuss how I had done so. I told the interviewer that my best achievement was seeing my children turn out to be good kids, and to see them grow up sharing their good times with me, especially my son who at 17 has a lot of the same interests as me. Then I realized this was a double achievement because by doing so, I had also achieved becoming a better father than my father had been (I will not delve into that deeply, but he was not much of father), and I had seen my children grow up to be better children than I had ever been. I told her I did it through hard work, sticking with my family through tough times, sharing good times, and keeping my kids interested in things I liked to do. Of course it turns out my son was more interested in hiking, shooting, hunting and fishing than my daughter, but each had their interest along the way. My son at 17 still hangs out with me on our trips afield, and that is a good thing. He also shares my interest in animals and wants to become a veterinarian, something I had wanted to become except I could not afford veterinary school. As for my daughter she wants to be a lawyer, and I have been in law enforcement for almost 28 years. No the apples of my eyes did not fall far from the tree, did they!
Oh well, 4 weeks or maybe 5 from now, I should know if I have been selected. If I find out I have made it, I need to write up my retirement papers, and get my rear end out of the door at my current government job. It will in no way, shape, or form be able to hit me in the behind as I make my way out. Still it will be a tough thing to do, 27 1/2 years has been a long time, with lots of memories, and quite a few friends made along the way. Enough about that, I cannot count my chickens until the eggs hatch, so I will just sit back and wait through what will seem like an awfully long 4 weeks or so to hear of the results of my interview.
By the way, my thanks to those of you who sent me well wishes before the interview.
All the best,
Glenn B
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