Confusion!

Okay, this is an update of my previous update. I had the interview yesterday afternoon and it went pretty well. If I want the job, I basically have it. The problem is, I don't know if I really want it.

Here's the situation:

• Before you can teach at this school, you have to be "certified" by them. This involves a 7 week process of workshops and presentations (that I would have to give and seem to be part of the interview process or something--still confused on that one). The training sessions starting next week are on Friday nights from 6:00-10:00. The best part is that these sessions are all unpaid, or as the guy put it "you don't have to pay for the workshops or anything--they're free!" At my current job, we get paid $25/hr. for all workshops/meetings/training sessions. The idea of 7 unpaid Friday nights really doesn't sit well. This would also mean that I probably wouldn't get to go out to see my sister for homecoming in October.

• All the classes are accelerated classes, meaning that they meet one night a week for 5 weeks. I currently teach in 10 week blocks, and it is hard to fit all the material into that time frame. However, they have standardized curriculum which means that I wouldn't have to write a syllabus or make a ton of handouts. They provide all that for you, but you can also add some stuff of your own/personalize it a bit. I haven't figured out is this is a plus or a minus.

• They do not run on a traditional time table. Every 5 weeks new classes start, and there are classes almost year round (50 weeks). That means that I could take a session off without it being a huge cut in pay.

• Tutoring pays REALLY well. I'm still a bit confused on the process (see a recurring theme??), but from what I understand, you can be an e-tutor which pays $100/week for 10 weeks. On top of that, you can do "on-ground" tutoring with the students for an additional $50/hr. This is definitely where the money is, and tutoring is my passion. I kind of wish that I could just tutor for them, but I didn't ask if this were an option.

• My interviewer is really really excited about my background, esp. my master's in literature. He wants me to teach a comparative literature class which sounds really fun. At my current job, I won't teach a lit. class because we are not a liberal arts school, so the only lit. classes are for education majors, and the teachers with the highest seniority always pick those classes.

• The pay is nothing to brag about. It is slightly higher than what I currently get considering the classes are 5 weeks instead of 10. The main differences are all the unpaid training and the huge increase in tutoring pay. Eventually that will add up in my favor, but I'm having a really hard time swallowing close to 30 unpaid hours upfront, esp. when it doesn't sound like fun at all.

Obviously this is a lot to think and pray about. I came home from the interview so overloaded that I didn't feel up to calling anyone with updates (although I did have Mark call my parents so that they would have a basic idea of the situation). I ended up going to bed at 8:00 because my brain/body had pretty much shut down.

It had been a very busy/draining day since I had to get up early for training for a grading job at my current school (at $35/hour plus lunch!), which was over an hour away, and then the interview in the afternoon with just enough time to fix up my cv/resume and change into even more dressy clothes and head on out. This helps explain why I am up at 2:00 in the morning updating my blog!

So if you could pray about all this, I would really appreciate it. I have to be careful to not overload myself, especially since I am only allowed to work part time due to a medical condition, so I'm just not sure what to do.

One option (at least I think that it's an option) that I think I'm going to explore is holding off until the next training session. I think that it runs from November to October and is on Saturday mornings at the campus where I interviewed (10 mins. away) instead of the one that it is for this round (30+ minutes away). That means I wouldn't be able to teach until January, but it gives me a bit more time to think things over. Plus I think my friend Marie might be doing the training then.

Thank you for your prayers. I really appreciate them!

P.S. I DID apply for the job! I just completely forgot since it was an online thing--it was really pathetic, just a 5 question survey or something.