Vacation to a Close, School to Open

As much as I have enjoyed my vacation between training and the school year, I do think I am ready for some academic activity. Although, I also think I should be careful what I ask for.

SAN FRANCISCO
Last week I returned from my 6-day vacation to San Francisco, CA. It was definitely one of the best vacations I've had in a while. What a beautiful city too! If you're interested in seeing pics, go here. My vacation also got me thinking about a few different things. I love NYC, but I tend to forget how nice other cities can be also. This spurred me to google SF's teacher salaries. Unfortunately they do not quite commensurate with those of NYC. While I understand the cost of living may be slightly lower there (although not quite the price of real estate), I would not to be able to build capital as quickly as I would here. So that got me thinking about what I could do with my two months off in the summer - go to SF of course! Really this is just some fantastical brainstorming at this point, but it's good to know what's available.


CERTIFICATION
I have been putting off my certification for a number of reasons, none of which are good. At the end of training, our group/class had to somewhat finagle our own workshop on getting certified (of course, NYCTF or CCNY didn't do that for us, even though it is essential to our positions). So a "certification officer" (whatever that means) from CCNY led us through the NYS Education Department's website. Most of us went through it until we came to the part where we were asked to enter our credit card information to pay the $50 fee. We were told we could go home and return to this site, all of our information saved, and pay the fee on our personal computer.

Later I came home to do just that and found that I could not add my certification and pay the fee because I already added an identical certification at school. I figured I'd call the state ed dept and figure it out later. So after a few attempts to solve the problem myself, I gave them a call - busy. So I randomly clicked around a bit and under some counterintuitive link found the solution to my problem. For the most part, this has alleviated my anxiety.

However, we have been told multiple times that we will be certified for either grades 5-9 or 7-12. I am determined to have my certification for the higher grades as that is where I've acquired my job and I really have no desire to teach middle school (high schoolers here are probably like middle schoolers elsewhere anyway - unfortunately). Hopefully the state won't reject my application for the higher grades because that would mean I wouldn't have certification during my first month or so of teaching (depending on how long it takes them to process certification applications). While this is a formality, it is one on which my salary disbursement depends and therefore essential for my livelihood. Needless to say, I really hope they grant me the certification. (If they don't, I have to reapply, including another $50 fee, and the state would presumable grant me the 5-9 certification.)

I Can't Believe this is Happening
It feels pretty surreal to think that in about a week, I will be in front of a classroom full of 30 students or so beginning teaching biology. I am looking forward to it, though I do expect it to be a considerable challenge. I am more concerned about establishing good classroom management practices. Content won't be an issue. Tomorrow some other teacher in my department and I are meeting for lunch to socialize and discuss this upcoming year. From what I can tell, it seems my immediate coworkers are very helpful and cordial. I certainly look forward to working with them. Hopefully after tomorrow, I'll have a better sense of what to do/expect for the upcoming year.