Blog #1

    Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by other languages.  I guess that's how I knew at an early age that I would study foreign languages.  I especially loved Spanish because the culture is so fun and spicy.  I didn't plan on becoming a teacher and some might say, I fought the idea.  I didn't get a teaching certification with my Spanish degree in 2000 when I graduated from Appalachian State University.   I did get a certification to teach ESL as a minor but didn't realize that I would be unable to land a certified position with only that endorsement at the time.  But immediately, I began working in schools.  I served a short internship that lead to a part-time contracted pay ESL position in Boone, NC.  The next year,in 2001, I moved back home to Asheville, NC and immediately landed a full time job teaching middle and high school ESL in Buncombe County with 0 credentials and no real classroom experience.  I was lost.  I had no support and no respect.  I was put in a cafeteria and given 1 book and 5 students, whom hardly spoke a word of English.  I spoke some Spanish.  In 3 months, my 5 students had turned to 14 and I was getting increasingly tired of being thrown out of the cafeteria every time there was a rewards ceremony or morning activity.  The administration would say, "We don't care where you take them, you just can't stay here."  One day, I snapped. I stormed in to the office of that stoic, statuesque, old fixture of a principal who had been there since before the school had been built and told her, "I refuse to teach another day in that cafeteria.  My kids deserve a classroom and I want it today before the day is over."  She didn't say a word, but I was given a classroom out in a trailer before the day was over.  The kids began learning much better after that. I made a few friends with some counselors who really helped me out and did quite a bit of translating for social workers that year.  My Spanish got exponentially better but I knew I hadn't succeeded academically with the students the way I should have.  I decided not to continue teaching the following year and took the next 7 years off from teaching.  I thought I never wanted to teach again.  I spent many years waiting tables and bartending and later moved up in the ranks of restaurant management, banquet captaining, and event coordinating until I was virtually sick of it.  I had done it all.  I thought in the summer of 2008 that I might throw around a few resumes for teaching ESL since I now had two years experience doing it.  I received a few bites from the same county that I had taught at in Boone before but this time they wanted a teacher's certification or a praxis score. Neither of which, did I have.  Then there was Avery County; beautiful Avery county nestled at the base of Grandfather Mountain and I was living on the backside of Sugar Mountain Ski Resort in the middle of a Christmas tree farm.  They hired me on a lateral entry basis to teach middle and high school ESL and I loved every second of it.  I had support from the word go and an amazing ESL coordinator, Lee Hardin.  I took the ESL praxis that year.  My husband took a job in the summer after my first year teaching there so we had to move here to Tennessee and I was heartbroken.  I loved my mountain paradise, huge garden, private country road, and big snowy winters.  I begged not to leave there but it will always remain the most amazing experience that made me want to teach ESL for-ever. It took me over a year to land another teaching job in Tennessee without licensure but after serving a six week interim in April of 2010 teaching ESL at Smyrna High School, I was hired by Bedford County in August.  I am excited to return to the same school for the first time ever to teach and know now that I didn't choose teaching, it chose me.  I'm finally in the process of getting my teaching licensure.  At least I won't have to student teach now.