LicenSURE Fun

Well Tuesday's fortune cookie did not prove to be prophetic after all. Really it just turned out to be a note wrapped around a stale cookie. I heard from the vice principle of the school that I interviewed on Thursday. He was really good and kept in contact with me throughout the week. But I was passed on because I did not hold an Ohio teaching license. I sensed some lament in his voice probably because I was a superior candidate but I just did not have the credentials to teach at that time.

A note about licensure, many states have interstate agreements with other states to uphold a valid teacher licenses from other states. The idea of this is so that teachers may move more freely from state to state. Originally I became a teacher in 1999 out of pure luck.

After I graduated from Case Western Reserve University I had originally intended to move to Virginia because Ahmie wanted to go to Gallaudet University in Washington DC to pursue graduate studies relating to Advocacy for the Deaf community. I had originally wanted to pursue research positions at the NIH in Bethesda Maryland. However I had landed on the wrong side of the river and too far from both DC and Bethesda. Ahmie was temping at the time and I was working at a company called Mediatech. I was working in the manual labor filling cell growing fluids in sterile conditions, and other warehouse work. Ahmie heard from a coworker that the school systems around Northern Virginia were desperate for teachers. So I gave it a go. I did not get much of a chance to finish my application until early mid August of 99. However I was interview right away and was hired to teach at Douglass School a week before school started. I was given a provisional license and then I had 3 years to get the education coursework to lead up to a full license. Suffice to say I did that.

Anyway...

Two weeks earlier I had received a letter from the state saying that I could not qualify for a teaching license because I did not have Student Teaching experience. I talked to the teaching licensure rep about the fact that I had 5 years of successful teaching experience. She said sorry, but you need teaching experience and that they don't waive that requirement.

That knocked me out of loop for a week. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO GET STUDENT TEACHING EXPERIENCE WHEN I WAS A REAL TEACHER FOR 5 YEARS AT THE SAME SCHOOL AND I GOT TENURE TOO. I resigned to myself that I would not be able to teach this year as a full time teacher. Because I was sure that I could be licensed somehow, and that this rejection for student teaching was a mistake. Then the following week I had the Interview. So on last Friday I took a day off work to call the state and heard in more detail that I was still not qualified to get a full teaching license because I did not have student teaching experience. I was however able to convince them to give me the name of a supervisor. So this mooring I called.

All weekend long I was dreading making this phone call.

So this morning I called the Center of Certification/Licensure
And spoke with a supervisor and she reassured me that I could possibly get a teaching license as long as my education course work was sufficient. That since I have taught under a full license the student teaching requirement should be waived. She told me to resend the licensee application attention to her, and she said that she would evaluate the application.

I was somewhat relived because it would have been impossible to be a student teacher and work with Northeast Care Center in my current capacity. Because student teaching was basically 5 months of unpaid teaching. All that time I would be at school for most of the work day and cannot work. If I need to take a few education classes to shore up my knowledge to align to Ohio's standards then that would be possible because I can take a few classes and still work full time. But of course the ideal circumstance is that I get my full license.

Let's hope for the best.