Storyworth excerpt 2: Central

Here is the second excerpt from my Storyworth accounts. 

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 Central was actually my third school my first year because I did three temporaries in a row. My interview there was weird. Back in those days, principals had a lot more discretion about hiring. Central was offering a grade 3 class with Music instruction for the grade 6 and 7 classes. When I arrived at my interview time, I totally bulldozed over the poor principal with my talking. I was still processing how my last job was ending and blurted everything about it instead of letting this nice principal, D, ask her usual questions.

    I also kind of talked her out of hiring me because a big part of the assignment was Music. I told her I was not a classically trained musician nor was I trained in any kind of method of musical instruction. I just liked to play the guitar. She told me that the position was teaching a grade 3 classroom and that I was going to be teaching guitar to the grade 6 and 7 classes as their teachers’ preparation time. Even though I fire-hosed D with information, she told me after our brief “interview” that she would be recommending me for the job.

    My assignment at Central started in January 1990 after Christmas break. During that break, I went away with some friends to Mexico and caught a bad cold. On the first day back at school, the Tuesday, I dragged my sluggish self into my school to meet my new class. They were angels! Maybe it was because I was new or young or because I looked like I was at death’s door, but they treated me really well.

    Because I was so sick, I ended up not coming to school for the rest of the week, and also because I was so new, I did not know to book a replacement teacher (TTOC in my district) for the rest of the time, so I ended up getting three different people: Rob, Sara, and Don (not their real names). I remember them because I talked to each of them on the phone to see how things went and to talk about the next day.

    An odd thing happened with all three phone conversations; all three of these people asked if I had any special qualifications, especially in music instruction. I told them that I did not, and all three of them admitted nicely that they had applied for my current job, they did have actual music instruction training or experience, and they were wondering what made me stand out enough to get hired. 

    “Enthusiasm?” I might have croaked weakly.

    Feeling guilty about my lack of qualifications, I looked for ways to get trained in musical education. As luck would have it, I noticed on a professional development flyer that the district was offering a free workshop for “people who had to teach music who had no training.” Perfect!

    Well, it was perfect until I showed up for the workshop and the instructors were Rob, Sara, and Don.

    Overall, I think I did a perfectly adequate job at Central. I loved my grade 3 class, and my grade 6 and 7 guitar students seemed to enjoy Music class. Though I did get to stay at Central the next year, D did hire a qualified and experienced Music teacher.