Kvetch

It's a chilly and dreary day here. Alone, not quite enough to put me in a sour mood--I'm happy about the temperature drop since I prefer cool weather and, this year in particular, have been looking forward to switching to my fall/winter wardrobe since nearly all of my maternity clothing fits into that category.

But I've spent the morning being reminded of why I've held off so long on getting my teacher certification. (Which, by the way, I've decided to get my teacher certification and enrolled in an online alternative licensure program.) The information available on my course so far does nothing to correct my long-standing perspective that most education courses are fairly simple, but make sure you'll put in time by creating busywork. I have a worksheet to do this week.

I've also been trying to track down and clear up the problem that has led to my acceptance papers showing the wrong endorsement. I'm working on my secondary license, requiring me to pick a subject. Given the state's requirements and my own personal preference, I of course indicated Latin. Except the paperwork came back to me with Language Arts (i.e., English). I've already received several different, sometimes contradictory answers about why this happened--all from the same person. And while I most likely will get a second endorsement in Language Arts (especially if it looks like I'll be pursuing high-school teaching as a full-time gig), I do not have enough credit hours to qualify for it as a first endorsement.

The most recent email informed me that there is no Latin endorsement. So I've sent back an explanation of where its definition appears in the education department's regulations (there's a general Languages endorsement with more specific information in the subsections) and am hoping we can get this cleared up.

Then I'm also dealing with some pregnancy-related anxiety. I had already decided that I wouldn't get the H1N1 vaccination when it becomes available, despite the high priority given to pregnant women. But it looks like that will be a moot point anyway, as there's a decent chance it is currently working its way through our school system. There's a chance it's regular flu, and we won't find out test results until the end of the week, but the speed and severity with which it has hit our middle school sure makes it sound like H1N1. I expect to see it hit the other schools within a few days now. So I will probably end up exposed to it well before the vaccine would be available anyway. Of course, this makes me nervous about accepting sub jobs, so I'm trying to keep a close eye on developments in order to balance my health with our checking account. (And counting down to the end of the month when A. is supposed to get paid for the job she started this month--but we've already played one round of "where's my money?" this summer, so we're waiting to see how this goes.)

I see that I have a new email in my inbox. Hopefully it's the positive conclusion to my endorsement issue. And then, having vented here and had a happy resolution, I can return to the paper I've promised my supervisor.