Well, after 5 days of not being on my laptop nor on electronics except for my phone, I feel like I should explain something. I have realized some of you who have wonderful intentions because you care about me and others so much, do not really understand what is going on with me employment-wise. So I will try here to explain it a little better. This might get a little long. Apologies in advance. :) As many of you know, I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from Purdue University. Many might not know that while in college, I believe God called me to be a teacher, but I kept ignoring Him. My dream back then was to be a foreign ambassador for Spain or work for the FBI. Lol. (I was also a hard-core feminist in college). Anyway, I ignored His calling on my life back then, as it was a time when I was backslidden and wanting what *I* wanted and not what God wanted. I pursued and obtained my degree, and was even blessed to study for a year during that time in Madrid, Spain, which of course helped me gain my Spanish fluency. Through the years, I have worked various jobs, most of them secretarial, clerical or receptionist positions. Other jobs have included being an Assistant Manager at Family Christian Stores, and homeschooling my children for 10 years. I also taught Spanish to homeschooled students K-12 off and on for those same 10 years. I even worked as an Export Customer Service Specialist once, serving clients in South America. While unemployed for 15 months, I did a couple of temporary and part time jobs, working for an insurance company as a policy processor and working at Dairy Queen trying to train to be an Assistant Manager. That job I ended up having to quit because of my physical issues - the only job I have ever quit in my life without moving on to another job position. About 3-4 years ago, I was working as a Receptionist/Secretary at a government-funded preschool, when I realized again God was calling me to be a teacher. I told my boss at the time. She was very supportive. Except the only problem back then was that I could not work full time and begin the college course called Transition to Teaching that I would need to convert my degree into a teaching licensure, because the job hours would conflict with the course hours. Plus, as a single Mom I needed the full time pay and insurance to support my family - namely, my two sons and me. So, I did not pursue it any further at the time. Through a long shift of circumstances, completely unorchestrated by me and which I totally did not understand at the time, God opened all the doors for me to start pursuing this licensure. I kept praying for His will in my life, and this is what started happening. I simply sat back most of the time and watched Him work. At this point, I do not remember which happened first, but I was hired by contract to work for a year at a private Christian school; and I was accepted into the IWU Transition to Teaching online program. I was also blessed with financial aid as a single mom to afford and attend this program. During my year of teaching full time this past academic year at LPCS, I was also studying in what is considered a full time college graduate level course. I worked extremely hard at both. Normally, students going through this program are prohibited from working full time jobs. However, since I had a teaching contract, they made an exception for me. I was one of I believe 2 students in my class for whom they made this exception. The other student was also a Spanish teacher, in another Indiana city. While I absolutely loved teaching this year, and I loved my college program, it was honestly challenging to do both simultaneously. It did not help that, in the midst of all this, my closest sibling, my sister, Tammy, died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 37 in January. However, God gave me a lot of grace to get through everything, and an extremely godly and supportive, encouraging boss, and I ended up with 3 As, an A-, and a B- in my college courses so far this year. That last B- was a real struggle, because that was the course where my sisters death finally hit me. I had had a 54% in the class, which is of course, an F. I worked really, super hard, both at my job and at college, and the Lord enabled me to boost my grade all the way up to an 88%. You see, in IWU grad courses, anything below a B- is considered failing...I barely made it, but thanks be to God, I did. The week I had a 54%, I had shut down for college for the week, and had done nothing but focus on work, on my teaching job. Rarely did I take breaks during the year. Finally one day my boss told me I needed to relax, take a break and take some time off, before I got burnt out. So I listened...and that started helping a lot. God reminded me that even He rested on the 7th day, after the creation of the world. Although I loved teaching this year, I missed a lot of my sons senior year. And I was not able to attend games that many of my students had asked me to come and watch. I did watch a few basketball and a few baseball games. I was able to attend a few of my sons senior events, but nowhere near like I was present when we homeschooled, of course. So to the point, finally: The Lord, through the IWU program, has placed me in my fourth and final Field Experience (this is very similar to a clinical experience for a nursing program, if you are familiar with those, but for teaching), and my Student Teaching requirement, at Snider High School this Fall. This is a mandatory, unpaid, full time part of my college graduate level course and program. Snider has accepted my placement, and I am most grateful and very excited. The teacher with whom they have placed me is a teacher for whom I had substitute taught last year. She teaches, unless they have changed it, Spanish 3, Spanish 4, and AP (Advanced Placement) Spanish. I am very excited about this to learn and grow under a much more advanced Spanish teacher. Her advanced teaching seems like a stepping stone where God has placed me in my next step to progress. Therefore, while I appreciate all of you sending me links to try to help me apply for teaching jobs - you are so very sweet and I love you all for it - I am not ALLOWED to work full time, just yet. As for the summer, I have prayed quite a bit and so far, I believe God has told me to take the summer off to rest and gear up to get ready to do it all over again this Fall. However, I will not be alone; I will have a teacher over me, supervising me and leading and teaching me. Also, my sons will both be at college, one at IU and one at Ball State. Which brings up another point: I believe God has told me to enjoy my last summer with my sons. :) I am looking forward to it, and have been enjoying it so far. For those of you who have asked me about financial concerns, so far God has really blessed me. Truly, our awesome Father God has orchestrated all of this according to His will. I literally just prayed, sat back and watched Him work all this out for me. It was awesome, amazing, and faith-inspiring! He has blessed me with enough money that it should cover all of my living expenses through December, barring any emergencies. I had discovered, through the wonderful lady at IWU who places us, that I had not used all my college financial aid money, so I was allowed to allocate that to my savings and use it for my living expenses. Who knew, but that is one of the things for which you are allowed to use it. My only prayer is a, that it lasts and nothing happens to use it all up before then; and b, that the Lord places me in a full time teaching position in January so that I can start earning the money to pay it all back. It has to be paid back, or started to be paid back, I cant remember which, within 6 months of graduating this program. I am slated to graduate in February. However, one, I have watched God work out all of this and have full confidence in Him to work out all the rest; and two, the lady who places us at IWU has told me that because of the amazing recommendation of my boss at Lakewood, the need for Spanish teachers, and a couple of other things, she thinks I will be placed right away. So again, God has it all under control. We might even be able to take a small road trip this summer to go see my best friend...He (God) is so very good!! I hope this alleviates some of your concerns and questions about me and my sons. Although I have many friends here on Facebook, all but maybe 10 are people whom I know in person from one of Gods walks of my life so far, whether its church, homeschooling, teaching, college, or different jobs. About a year ago, I went through and weeded out those who were not encouraging or beneficial to me nor I to them. So I know in my heart this will be well received by all. And if you all want to start sending me job postings for the Spring of 2015, I wont argue! LOL. Love you all and God bless. And as those of you who know me quite well, you know I am always praying for you, cyber stalking you and watching your posts about your lives and prayer requests. Have a very blessed day with our Father God and with His Son, our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Remember to be salt and light today.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 15:09:59 +0000
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