May is bookended on one side by Mother’s Day and on the other by my wife, Jodie’s, birthday. Throw in Memorial Day, busy kiddos, and a new job and I was surprised to get this comic done. Well, almost done – I’m posting it now ’cause I didn’t have time to color it when I gave it to her on Sunday!
The New Job
I guess it’s probably time to make an official announcement. Before I started working as an “Artist in Residence” at Rancho Bernardo High School (RBHS) I had applied for a Programmer Analyst position with Poway Unified School District – and was subsequently turned down. Well, about two months into assisting in art class I got a call from the district office to see if I was still interested in the programming position.
Honestly, I had to think about it. The art position I held was part-time, without benefits, and had very little chance of being renewed for the next school year. Compared to a full-time position with benefits at a much higher pay the decision should have been easy, but it wasn’t. The problem? I really liked teaching art and working with the kids. It was very fulfilling.
I ended up taking the programming position, but made it clear that long-term I’d want to be back in the classroom. My new supervisor seemed to be on board. She’s the executive director for Poway’s CTAAE Department, a mouthful of an acronym that translates to : “Career Technical Adult Alternative Education”. If you live in Poway and Rancho Bernardo and get the “Adult School” booklet in the mail, that’s one of the things my department does. My department is also in charge of CTE, or “Career Technical Education”, which spearheads a lot of the “alternate” classes that I used to like so much when I was in high school so long ago. My daughter, Ashley, for example, took a Computer Graphics course last semester at RBHS which was sponsored by CTE, and loved it!
It’s only been a few weeks, but I feel like I made a good decision. I like the work, the people are great, and for the first time in a long while I feel like I can make a difference. And who knows? Someday I might get to teach one of those CTE classes myself!
On a more personal note, I’ve yet to have the any of the anxiety attacks that used to plague me while working as an Application Development Manager at my last job. I’m beginning to realize just how unhealthy that place, and my manager, really were.
Take care.
Stay healthy.
Live life.
– Scott
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