An Art Teacher

This semester Jesse has been doing her student teaching at Rider High School in Wichita Falls. She had specifically chosen Rider and the art teacher there because of the professionalism of the teacher. It was a wise choice. Jesse has enjoyed her teacher and learned lots. A little way into the semester, the principal asked Jesse to take over the art history class, because the regular art teacher was out with a serious illness. It was a difficult situation for several reasons. Students who have had a sub all year (allowed to run wild) and lack of curriculum caused Jesse a heavy workload. There were some other problems that I won't go into, but Jesse hung in there. Friday was her last day of student teaching - her last day of college. Yay! She is finished!

Turns out the teacher that Jesse took over his art history class retired a couple of weeks ago. On Monday, Jesse had an official job interview with the principal, the assistant principals, and her art teacher. If you know Jesse, you know she did well in the interview. But on Tuesday, she got an email that said she was not qualified for the job. She had not taken the teacher exams, but was taking the test on Wed. Jesse was not upset, but her art teacher was. She wanted Jesse hired. Turns out the email was sort of a generic email. Anyway, on Wed, she took her big teacher exam. Toby and I were in WF to take his mom to the doctor. When Jes got out of the test, we met her for a beer. She said the test was tough and she was worried that she had not passed ( have to make an 80). Also, a parent had sent an email to the principal to complain that Jesse was making the students do research and not lecturing enough. I blew a gasket on this one and went into a big rant. Apparently Jesse's art teacher did a pretty good rant too (I like this lady).  Anyway, the principal was not concerned. After all, the class had been doing nothing and now they were learning - duh. On Thursday Jesse was called into the principal's office. He asked her to call the central office to give her personal info and become a long term sub until she gets her teacher tests all done (she has an art test in January). This was his way of saying that she had been hired and will sub until she is officially a teacher. On Friday, she found out that she passed her teacher exam. Now I can say that she is a high school art teacher.

Here is a photo taken at the beginning of the year with Jesse and my nephew, Luke, who is a senior at Rider.