what's up with me

[a snippit from an email to a brother of mine]

i don't know if you know, but i've been working at a public school since october. dennis works there and i got the job because they were looking for someone to paint a mural in the school hallway with the kids. so dennis told the principal about me, i went in for an interview and everything was set. it was a contract thing, so i got paid a set amount to get the job done. it was really cool..to be in a school setting and doing art with grade 5's. there was one day when the "supernintendo" came to visit the school. apparently he comes max once a year, if at all, and the day he came i just so happened to be there working. so susan, the principal, introduced us and told him what i've been doing with the kids. he saw the mural and everything and thanked me for the difference i was making in the school. he said that i was very talented and i could make a career of it. the next week, susan came by when i was working to see how i was doing and she told me that supernintendo trevor has been talking about me to other schools and stuff and i was just like...wow. haha. i don't exactly want to spend my life painting murals in schools, but i had such a sense of peace after that. that month had been very stressful because my petition to remove the fails from first year had fell through and i was pretty much stuck...it was pretty stressful dealing with administration and of course what happened first year always comes back to bite me. but when i heard that, i got all warm and fuzzy inside..haha...like...just a great sense of peace. it was like God saying, look, i'm going to take care of you.

anyway, so before the mural was done susan asked me if i was interested in doing this tutors in the classroom program. basically, it's something for university/college students to work in a school for a total of 100 hrs for $10/hr. and you can take however long you need to complete the 100 hrs. i've actually done it with the york region board before when i was working in the library at the school anthea taught at in my first year. the good thing about the program is that you get paid through the school board, so you're permanently on their record and it counts for a lot in teacher's college apps. so of course, i applied and took the job. at that time, the school was preparing for their first school play and asked me to paint backdrops for it. so when the mural was done near the end of dec, i spent the beginning of january getting those done. that took up almost half of the hours i needed for the tutors in the classroom thing. at first i was a little concerned that i wouldn't have anything else to do to fill up the rest of my hours. but cecile, the gr5 teacher i was working with/under, asked me to teach her art lessons so i thought that was great. i've been doing that ever since. it's been really good experience, planning the lessons, teaching the kids, working more closely with them. i moved from the hallway to the classroom. hehe. i've been getting good feedback on that...it's been really encouraging and i've been learning a lot about what it takes to teach. apparently i'm a natural. haha...i think i just have the "show no fear" attitude...cuz it can be darn nerve-racking sometimes. i only have about 10 hrs left to do, but i told susan that i would stick around just for the experience and i'm really enjoying it. the school has this author's appreciation thing coming up in may where each kid in the school will have something published..a story, or just an illustration for jk/sks...to display. susan asked if i could teach each class a little art lesson to improve their drawing skills. that would be awesome cuz then i would have had experience teaching jk-gr5 instead of just focusing on the grade 5's. so i agreed to do that and apparently teachers have already been asking for me.

(wow, this is a long story...almost comes close to syd's "how i got into chiropody" story...and i'm not done. you may take 5 if needed. hehe..)

so for the past while, i've been thinking about summer plans. i can't work at daycamp this year because of summer school that ends july 9th, so that's and odd date too. i was thinking of urban promise because i miss it, but i was worried about the logistics of it becuase i wouldn't have the time to lead a team, and i would like to make some money in the summer so i can take care of myself for next year. i thought about the paid position at the scott mission camp thing in caledon, but i found out that i'd have to stay overnight and i don't want to do that becuase of my softball commitment too. so i was thinking about that a lot cuz i don't want to waste my summer.

2 weeks ago, susan told me about a "learning through the arts program" where students/artists are hired by different school through the program for a few days a year. for those days they work closely with the teacher to use the arts to directly teach curriculum material. so using art to teach social studies, dance to teach math, music to teach english...it's pretty cool. so she gave me information on how i can maybe be one of those students who can be called on to teach visual art. once you're in the program, you can be hired again and again. it's kind of like being an on-call. but anyway, that's an aside thing. she also gave me 4 application forms for helping out with summer schools through the tdsb. they're all paying jobs, half a day, for the month of july. i told her that i probably wouldn't be able to do them because summer school ends late for me, but she gave them to me anyway.

i put the package away for a few days. out of the blue i checked the schedules for the summer classes i want to take and it just so happens that my last summer school class starts at 5:30 and the summer school positions were for the morning. so that quickly prompted me to look throug the applications again. one of them was an office clerk/secretary, one was for a classroom assistant, one for a hall monitor, and one for a literacy camp. so turns out that i can be availabe to do this. only the first week of the jobs would over lap with my summer school schedule, but not really cuz the work day would be over and i'd have time to go to my own class afterwards. all the positions pay $15.25/hr so that's not bad at all...except for the hall monitor one that's $16.25 but cecile told me to run away from that because it's a terrible thing to do for a full month..haha...dealing with punks who don't want to go to class. anyway, so i read more into the literacy camp one, and not only do they help kids learn to read better, but they also do art, drama, and sports. that's the only one that's for the entire day too. ends at 3..and i'd still be able to make it to my class ok. that one was like...WHOA. TOTALLY fits me. so i applied for that and the classroom assistant one. incidentally, the day that i picked up the package again was the day before the applications were due so i had just enough time to get them done and send them in. for the applications, it came with a list of tdsb schools that had the summer school programs so i got to choose which top 3 locations i would like to be at. becuase all of them start at 8:30, transportation would be an issue because it would be so early in the morning and they're not york region schools. but i talked to my mom about it and there were schools on the list that were on the way to my dad and mom's work places so they would be able to drop me off. so that's awesome.

now, when i step back to think of everything, every little piece that's been fitting together, i'm so amazed. the past couple of months God's really been telling me that he's taking care of my future. i don't have to worry because he has a plan for me and i can set my mind at east about that. my first year at york was rough and i got rejected from the con ed program because of it. i'm still dealing with the consequences of that, but in the midst of everything, it's like God is telling me that everything is under control. i just need to focus on my tasks now and do my best in school like he's called me to. i'm so blessed because i've never actually had to job search. everything has been given to me..landed right in my lap. i've been asked for to work...even with daycamp. i've never had to struggle to work at all. and i'm the one who's in this "useless" visual art program. it's so encouraging because i know that the unique talents God has given me are being put to use. i know i'm meant to do this and i'm proud of how God made me, an artist.