I've got the job hunting blues....

So as some of you know, my lastest and greatest adventure in England has been trying to find a job. I really want to teach, since it's kind of my favorite thing to do, but I haven't had any luck with the school system on base. It is extremely competitive and very rarely are there any openings. All along Everett has been asking me why I'm not looking into the British school system, and every time I tell him that I'm not qualified and have no idea how to get qualified...

Well.. last week I was bored so I thought.. hmm... maybe I should find out how to get qualified to teach over here.. my chances of getting a job would probably increase.. I thought why not.... So how does one find this information?! I couldn't think of anything so I just googled it.... and to my delighted surprise all the websites were telling me that I was qualified to teach in England as long as I had a license from another country! Awesome right??!!

Straight away (as they say here) I began looking for a website that listed vacancies. Their school systems work a lot differently here, there is no "unified school district".. it's each to their own run by a board of governors... at least that's what I've gathered so far... I finally found a website that listed all the vacancies in our county and to my even more delighted surprise, there was an opening for a Year 4 (or 3rd grade) teacher at the school that is less than half a mile from our house! I couldn't believe it! I had to go pick up the application at the school, so I did that the very next day...

After learning more about the school, I got really excited about the job... I liked what the school stood for, and it seemed like it would mesh well with my own teaching philosophies.. so I began to fill out the application when I ran into my first problem.. it kept asking me to list all of these random numbers that I had no clue what they were. I emailed the secretary of the school and asked her what they were, and if I could just put my license number from the States there (thinking it was the UK version of a license number)... well she emails me back and explains that if I do not have these numbers already, then I am not registered as a teacher here in the UK and that I must do that before I can be considered for a position.... oh...... so maybe there WERE a few more hoops that I had to jump through before I can teach here... thanks google for letting me down....

The secretary gave me a website to find out how to register and all that good stuff... then a friend of mine who worked in England asked if I had my National Insurance (NI) number yet... that I had to have one of those too before I could be hired to work here.. of course I don't have one of those...

So for the last week I have been trying to get all of that stuff done.. I have to have an NI number before I can register as a teacher, but I have to go to an interview before I can get an NI number.. so my interview is on the 29th, and my registration will be sent in that day.. takes about a month to process... so I should be officially a registered UK teacher by the end of April! Woohoo!!! The one thing I think is funny about registering as a teacher is that they only require to see your passport/visa... they don't even ask to see your license! So I guess any Joe Schmoe could say he has a license from somewhere else and he can register as a teacher! Oh... only in the UK....

So me being me.. I still submitted my application to the school after explaining my situation, and I had a meeting with the head teacher (principal) and the other applicants today to get a tour of the school. It was very eye opening to witness the differences between this school and our schools in America... And I shall try to explain as follows:

• They do all year school here.. there are 3 terms each lasting approximately 3 months, with a month break in between terms and a week off for half term (like a spring break). 
• The primary schools are VERY small.. each only having one classroom per grade level with approximately 30 students in a classroom. (This could be different in other areas in the country.. but that's how it is here..) Each classroom also has a full time teachers aide for just that classroom which is a huge plus!
• The classroom teacher is in charge of ALL subjects.. including, but not limited to Art, Music, PE, Non-denominational religion, Technology, Sex Education (even in primary....), Health, and British History, along with all of your typical subjects.
• They have an hour off for lunch, in which parents may pick up their students to take them home for the hour... 
• The school day begins at 9:15 and ends at 3:30
• Since you are in charge of your own specials, you may be wondering when the teacher gets plan time, well that would be when the principal takes over your class for you.......
• The interview process is an all day affair, first you have a formal interview with the board of governors, then they take you on a tour of the school, you have a buffet lunch, and then you are handed an envelope with a lesson that you must present to a group of students with the board of governors watching.... with no prep time at all..... (That part terrifies me.. not because I'm not good at coming up with stuff last minute... I consider myself a pro at that one... it's the fact that I'm terrified I'm going to get a subject that I know nothing about such as.. say.. British history......)

That's about as much as I can remember... I thought it was very interesting that my competition for the job were present for the tour. I'm up against a greasy haired guy about my age who was bragging about knowing Portuguese.. and a new teacher who was extremely enthusiastic about EVERYTHING.. it should be interesting... I'm not going to be surprised if I don't get called for an interview considering I'm not even qualified to teach here yet..  But I was glad to at least have an insight at what I will have the pleasure (if I get hired somewhere) to deal with.. She said that most schools begin hiring in late April when the 3rd term begins. So by then I will have been registered and can seriously apply for jobs.

So with that, all I ask is for some prayers that I find the right school for me, because I really do miss teaching!!

What?! The British actually TRUST their people????!!!!!

So I've decided to do a take a new approach to this blog... Since I talk to most of you enough for you to know all of the big events taking place, I have decided to not only include those large events in this blog, but the small and every day ones as well... I have finally come to realize that it's not all those adventures I get to go on BECAUSE I live in England that make this time exciting.. Just living abroad is an adventure all on it's own! Heck.. I still have to remind myself about every other day that I really am living in England and not some place in the States that just happens to be heavily populated with British people!

I'm only going to assume that most of my dear readers have never lived abroad, so I'm going to let you in on what life is like... As with everything.. there are pros and cons to it all.. I'm not going to do this as one long post, just whenever I come to realize a difference.. I'll let you in on it!

But before I can begin that.. we have one event I want to talk about... Everett's Birthday!!!! Since March 1st has come and gone, I hope you guys got the chance to wish him a happy birthday in the various forms available... and if not, then I can tell him for you! From what I can tell it was a good birthday for him.. he certainly was busy!! He of course had to work, which was a bummer, but he picked me up on his lunch break so that I could get some things done on base during the second half of the day.. One which included actually buying him a birthday present... I'm terrible at keeping secrets from him so it's safer to have little amount of time between the purchase of a gift and the giving of a gift! As soon as I picked him up from the class he had to teach, we zipped over to RAF Lakenheath (where I got to watch a few F-15s take off which is always a good time) to go to the grocery store to pick up some essentials I didn't have to make his "cake". Then it was time to go home where I prepared some Chicken Parmesan (he is on a chicken and salad only diet until his PT test later this month..) and a cherry cheesecake. He had to quickly eat dinner before running off to his basketball game, which they lost : ( By the time he got home, all we had time to do was blow out the candles, open presents, and eat cheesecake before going to bed! He refused to allow me to put 27 candles into his cheesecake, so I made him compromise with a 2 and 7 candle.. which of course didn't actually stay in the cake.. So he had to hold them up while holding the cake up for the picture... Fire hazard?? Nah.... I made sure to give him as many spankings as I could get in for the day.. but I believe my count was only up to about 12... Overall a good but busy day!!

Ok... back to life in England...

I reserved a copy of the 7th Harry Potter book at the Newmarket Library.. and have been waiting a few days to go get it since I have been without a car.. I decided that through hell and high water I was going to get this book today because I have been so excited to read it, so I made the 3 mile roundtrip journey to downtown Newmarket and back to get it. This 45 minute walk gave me WAAAAYYYYY too much thinking time, so now I get to share with you what I thought about/experienced..

When borrowing books from a library in the states, it always requires a short visit with a librarian in order to check out books especially if you have reserved one. So, when walking into a library in England, who do I head straight for? Yes.. you guessed correct... the librarian... well... I guess that was my first mistake...

While waiting in line for the librarian to become available, I noticed a sign that said "Checkpoint for reservations" over two computers... Right as I noticed the sign, the librarian asked me what I needed, so I confirmed that I was supposed to be over by the sign... she said yes.... that all reservations were on the shelf in order by surname... STILL thinking I had to have some sort of permission to get my book off a reservation shelf, I go to the computer, scan my library card, and sure enough... It tells me my reservation is there.. to go pick it up... I hesitantly walked over to the shelf, feeling extremely guilty for getting into the reservation shelf, grab my book, then wonder what the heck I do next!! So I sit there and watch a man who just grabbed a book as well to see what he did. He walked up to those computers, scanned his card, scanned his book, and walked out the door... So.. I gave it a try.. scanned my card, scanned my book, printed out a receipt for good measure.. then looked around for someone to give me an OK that I could go... After a few seconds, I realized this wasn't going to happen, so I sneakily left... still uncertain about whether or not I had just stolen a library book...

Now most of you are probably thinking "Cool! A 'self checkout' at the library.. sounds convenient!!" But that's not what I thought.... I was thinking... Why would they do that at the library?? People could steal books and they would never know!! But then I have to take a step back and realize... this is England.. where people are held accountable for their own actions, and 95% are responsible for themselves.... Let's think about America... is there probably a reason why we don't have a self checkout at the library?? Could it be because most Americans aren't even responsible enough to borrow from the library and actually return their books?! Not to go on a rant against Americans.. I just think it's sad that we aren't raised to be more responsible! Although I'm sure everyone reading this does not apply.... : )

And this isn't the only time I have witnessed how the British allow their citizens to be held accountable for their actions, or just trust each other.. Here are a few other examples:

• While waiting in the long line for the librarian, the young man in front of me who was probably my age or a few years younger was returning a late book. He told the lady that he knew it was late, but didn't have any money on him to pay the fee. Would there be any way he could come back tomorrow with the money? She said of course, and he was off without any other questions... Come to find out he only owed 12 pence which isn't even a quarter, and if I had change on me I would have paid it for him! But the fact that she had no problem letting him leave, no condescending look or rude tone of voice... I just thought it was nice!
• On the roads here they have speed cameras placed randomly. Instead of having cops hid out on the road to speed trap people, they use these. The cameras measure how fast you are going based on the time it takes you to cross these little lines in the road. If you are going too fast, it takes a picture of your license plate and you get a ticket in the mail... Much similar to the Running a Red Light cameras they have been putting up in the States. The best part about these speed cameras, is that there are SIGNS telling you when you are about to get to one... They give you all the warning in the world to slow down! So, if you don't, it really is your fault and you do deserve the ticket! I just think it's such a nicer thing that sneaky cops wanting to catch you doing bad... Once again.. they are giving their citizen's a chance to be held accountable for their own actions..

Really I could go on all day with this, but I don't really want to bore you! My point is... It's nice to live in a place where you are trusted to do the right thing... I just wish America could be more like that... instead of having all those people who are out to cheat the system or take advantage of anything...

Well.. Before I get onto something else, I guess I better get off this!! Until next time!!