August is here...and so am I

Hey there everyone, just checking back in quickly here from San Francisco on a foggy, chilly Monday night. I leave for Taiwan on Saturday to resume my job until the end of September.

So...some of you have asked me about New York City and how my interview went, and here's my attempt to answer.

Well, thanks for everyone who was praying for me. I definitely knew people were praying. I arrived in NYC after an eventful day of travel (which of course is always welcomed), and made it to my hotel, where I'd never stayed before, without any problem. After a good night's rest, I got up on Wednesday to a sunny and warm day with several hours to solidify my thoughts on my teaching sample lesson before heading to my interview at 5:00. I was able to meet up with Rebekah Slick, a friend of mine that just moved from SF to NYC about 10 days ago. We hung out for about an hour before I went back to my hotel to change clothes for the evening.

So, I made it to the interview early, and sat in a classroom with 7 other candidates for half an hour before these two teachers came in to interview us. After some introductions, we each had five minutes to do our teaching sample. It was very regimented and felt really false, since we were all trying to teach to a chosen age group, mostly elementary, although we were all adults of course. Anyway, I chose to teach on the present continuous form of the verb "to be". After my intro, I told a story about a mother named "Be" (last name "ing") who had three young children and two older children. My lesson focused on her three young children called "is, am and are". (The older children are called "was and were".) Each of the children have some friends. "Am" is shy so she only has one friend, "I". But, "is" and "are" have three friends each. "He, She and It" are friends with "is" and "You, We and They" are friends with "are". The story made sure to point out that mother "Be" always goes everywhere with her children, so whoever she's with and whatever they're doing, "ing" is also there. For instance, if there's "am" in the sentence, there will also be "I" and you must have "ing" on the end of the verb, like "I am playing". Also, "He is running" or "She is laughing".

I ended my lesson with a game where the students had to unscramble sentences that included the present continuous form of the verb.

I think my lesson went pretty well, all in all, so thanks again for praying.

After we had all done our lessons, we had a short break before returning to the interview for group discussions. Our two interviewers had randomly split us into two groups, where we were asked to take part in a discussion about a real life situation in a public school in New York City. Of course there were some hard to navigate issues in the discussion, but I think it went alright.

We then had to write an essay on the same issues that were addressed in the discussion. We were timed, and I guess I did alright on that too.

Lastly, we had a 25 minute interview one on one with one of the teachers who had been interviewing us. I got to go first, as I was the only one who'd flown in for this event, and she had some mercy on me. There were some tough questions during that part of the evening, but I did my best to be honest, even if I didn't know much about that subject. Since I was first to go through this part, I got out early, and it wasn't even dark outside when I left the building. I got back to my hotel in time to watch "So You Think You Can Dance".

As I was walking back to my hotel that night, I had to take a deep breath and sigh a prayer of relief. I knew I had done all I could do at that point, and that's still how I feel. I will know something within the next three weeks and will certainly keep you posted. It was great to know people were praying for me and that I would be in God's will throughout this process. I would thank you all for continuing to pray for me around this decision as God lays it on your heart.

I've had an awesome vacation, and now I'm gearing up toward teaching in Taiwan for the next several weeks, starting one week from today. I'll keep you posted on that too.

Take care, until next time.
LC from SF (after NYC and OKC! ;)