Application Submitted

I typed out my letter and had a couple friends proofread it for me, I made a few changes here and there, and I showed it to my current principal today to see what she thought. My concern was that I had not written a properly professional "cover letter" but a somewhat more casual sales pitch (from lack of a better word).  As I think I said yesterday, I know this principal to some extent and he knows me; so we aren't strangers, and I decided to approach him somewhat more as if I were selling him something he needed (i.e. me) than as if this were a cold call to determine interest.

Anyhow, my current principal told me she thought it was perfect, so I went back to my classroom and fixed a small typo that I had seen and then sent it to him via email.

 And now I wait...

Seeking a New Position

For some reason known only to the administration, I am teaching remedial reading this year. This is after three very successful years of teaching English II Honors. Now I'm a company man and I believe they had a reason for asking me to do this, but to tell you the truth this just is not a good mix. One of the reasons I'm such an effective teacher that I can serve as a model for my students. In my honors classes, this was because I was a college teacher and could give them advice for going to college as well as improving their English skills. It didn't matter that I was in a wheelchair or that I was overweight – in fact, I was able to use those negative characteristics as positive traits, the fact that I was as successful as I was despite my hindrances. But in a reading class, I don't project any sort of success – "Hey, kids, I'm a great reader. See my wheelchair and my extra weight? That's because I read so much!"  It just doesn't have any effect.

So at the beginning of this year, I decided that I would try to get a teaching position at the performing arts school which is connected to the high school at which I teach. The person who was the principal for the past three years had left (I never really got a good feeling about him), and I knew that they had built a Creative Writing lab a couple years ago but that they had not staffed the position. My understanding is that they were not allocated the funds to open that unit. But I figured, nothing ventured, nothing gained – I would wait until November or so and then contact the new principal to ask what needed to be done to get that program underway.I have not yet done anything about that – it still only October – but yesterday my beloved principal told us that she had applied for a county position and might be leaving us.I went by her office after school today, told her my intentions, and asked if she would give the principal at that school a glowing recommendation of me. She said that she certainly was, and she informed me that the SAC meeting the previous week the arts school had been given the opportunity to open that unit in creative writing. So the stars are aligning and the time is right.

I am writing a letter to him right now, indicating my interest in this position and trying to convince them that I am the right person for this job. I am at a bit of a crossroads, however.  This is essentially a cover letter for a resume, so my natural instinct tells me to be very formal. But this is an arts school, so my other instincts are telling me to be creative. I also know the principal – not close and personal, but we have talked before and he knows my name - so I just don't know which way to go.

NaNoWriMo 2013

Ha!
Wow, that was incredibly successful.
So here it is two years and ten months later.  Did I get published in 2011?  No.  2012?  No.  2013?  Not yet.  Have I tried to get published in 2013?  No.  Am I therefore going to get published in 2013?  No.
Well done, Stanton.
So what am I even doing here?
Well, see, there's the story.
I wanted to start a writing blog.  Again.  I wanted to start a writing blog again.  Like I did here, 34 months ago.  But it's just about NaNoWriMo time, and I thought I might go ahead and get serious about my writing.  First step (I thought), a blog.
I wanted to use WordPress, but at the beginning of last school year I set up a wordpress site for my teaching that the students could subscribe to and get updates on ... and since I want to be a serious writer who can say cuss words and write sex scenes and stuff, I can't use that address -- and that is the address with my name in the address. 
My, that was confusing.
Anyhow, I thought about which other blogging software there was. I have a LiveJournal that I've kept for about thirteen years, but I didn't want to use that address and I didn't want to start a new LiveJournal. I don't think anybody uses LiveJournal anymore. So I thought I'd try out Blogger, which I've used before for college and which I totally forgot I had.  So when I got here, it signed me in automatically, and here I am, ready to try again.

I was going to skip NaNoWriMo this year. I tried last year and added on 20,000 words to my previously started novel and then got to a point where I didn't know how it was going to end. I don't think there is an end to this novel, not one that doesn't end in an arrest. And that's not how this novel is supposed to end. I don't think I did NaNoWriMo the year before; maybe I did. I can't remember. I know I didn't win – I have not yet finished a NaNoWriMo.

So I was going to quit, or at least take a break this year from it. I don't have a writing class; in fact, I don't have an honors level English classes. I'm teaching remedial reading, and it's not as if I'm going to inspire any of those children to write a 50,000-word novel. They could, if they wanted to. But they won't put forth the effort. Maybe I'm negative about this, but I think I know my population pretty well.

And then a new teacher to the school – the new yearbook teacher – put out an email to the school about NaNoWriMo.  I sent her an email back expressing my surprise that we had never met as we were obviously both writers. We talked on email back and forth a bit (I can't get to her classroom because she's upstairs) and we decided that she would promote NaNoWriMo in her classes and that I would hold support sessions on Friday after school. I think the chance to sit down with other writers going through this experience might help those who are trying to write their novels. So I'm going to invite people after school on Fridays for about an hour to talk about what's going on, to get some encouragement and support, and hear what other people are going through so that we know we are not alone. I've actually tried this before the past, but I've never had more than three people at any one time. We'll see what happens.

As for myself, I have a new program called Dragon dictation that I got for my birthday that lets me talk instead of type. I am a very good talker. Much better than I am a typer – my fingers get cramped and tired. So the plan is, either before Diana gets home or after she had gone to bed, I'm going to try to talk 2000 words a day into my computer. We'll see how that goes.