day 22

Topic 22 - it's been raining all day

I woke up to rain.

There weren't any sub jobs today. I kind of figured there wouldn't be any because it was a 2 hour early release day. Parent-teacher conferences are today, tomorrow, and Friday. So I get a nice long unpaid weekend.

This morning I got to talk to one of my college professors from Tennessee Temple University, Dr. Connie Pearson. She's now the dean of Liberty University's online program and she was kind of walking me through what my options would be if I decided to jump through the hoops the state of Washington has laid before me.

Basically, I have two options in the online master's program. The first would be a master's of arts in teaching. This is essentially the program they have for people who have a bachelor's degree in something other than education and want to get certified to teach. It's 36 credit hours. Going this route would require me to retake statistics (do you know how much I hated that class?) and do my student teaching all over again. It also has what are called three intensives, three classes, each a week long, that I would have to take on campus in Virginia. Ugh.

The second option would be getting a master's of education. This is geared for people who already have teaching certification and are going for something more specific. From what I can tell from their website, this option does not have intensives. It's a 36 credit hour program plus a 3 hour practicum.

I'd obviously rather go for the second option, but I have no idea what the powers that be in Olympia are going to say. . . if they'll even let me just go for a master's.

When I asked about transferring credits from TTU to get a second bachelor's degree, she didn't think that was going to work because it's been too long since I've graduated. That is not going to be good if OSPI says I have to actually get a second bachelor's instead of a master's.

To be honest, I got off the phone feeling like a sinking ship.

I have questions to ask OSPI. And I'm dreading making that phone call. It's all so ridiculous. I've taken and passed the National Teacher's Exam, the Praxis II exam, the WEST-B exam, and I have almost 15 years of teaching experience with good reviews and tons of recommendations and references. Pray that they'll be ok with option 2. I need some good news.

In case you were wondering, it's still raining.