It has been far too long since my last post, and I am not going to bother trying to fill in all the blanks.  I am feeling a high level of frsutration with the whole situation here.

My advisor at UMB told me that I would be fine with a Gen Science MTEL and license for graduating from the program.  Turns out, that was wrong.  He told me that I would never get a job teaching high school chemistry without a chemistry degree.  Several other people have told me he's wrong.  Unfortunately, I can't take another MTEL right now.  Unfortunately, I only have the Chem 8-12 license to fall back on now.

So, I'm in the wrong place, with a bunch of 12 year old kids that would like nothing more than for me to go, waiting to hear back from my one hope for the resolution of this mess: Karen Woods and Somerville High School.  Each time I open up my email, I fell like a little boy under the Christmas tree, wishing-hoping-praying that the package I truly want is there.

I do not know how to translate my success in coaching crew to this environment at DMC.  There are some good kids here.. some of them being held back by the 3-5 kids in every class who are disruptive, bratty, and aggressively opposed to doing anything that would further their education.  The challenge I am facing is that the constant disrespect is wearing thin.

At Somerville, the kids respect me and honor me.  It is the relationships forged through practices that are such a benefit.  Of course, there are going to be difficult cases - heavy hitters as they are known at DMC - and there are going to be disrespectful students at Somerville.  I do believe though, that having the support of a group of students will help earn the support and respect from most of the students.  Right now, I'm just struggling to even build relationships with students at McCormack.  In the end, it turns out I'm more than a little glad that my advisor was wrong.  But it would have been nice to find out about this sooner, and before I ever accepted this position at DMC.  I'm ready to go, but it is going to let down a lot of good poeple.

Will I hear back today?  Time for this is getting short.  Something needs to happen quick.