Visitors, ESL & CNA

It's been a long few months out here in Tennessee. We've often felt alone and wondered why we were here. Especially since we haven't been able to get full time, permanent jobs. I, Jason, had believed that I'd get a teaching job eventually and that Coralee would get a job as a receptionist in a Hospital.

My grandpa and Uncle Stan came to visit us last month. We were able to take them to the Smokey Mountain National Park the first day and showed them around the Tennessee river water recreation area that is near our home. This was the first time that we have ever had anyone stay with us since we've been married and it was really a lot of fun.

We also celebrated Coralee's Birthday while they were here!

But after their visit, I especially began to feel the pressure as the school year approached and I had only had one teaching interview. I had also been very hopeful that a few weeks before the school districts began Knox county would call because they had 600 open teaching positions. However, even the week that school was going to start I still had no job.

I finally gave up thinking about teaching the day before the schools out here were supposed to start and decided to begin applying to regular business jobs. After spending about 4 hours filling out an Enterprise Rent a Car application I received a call from Jason Vance, the principal of Loudon Elementary School. He said that he would like to offer me a position to teach ELL, English Language Learners. (Also known as ESL, English as a Second Language.) I started the next day. Here's the school website:
http://www.loudoncounty.org/schools/loudon_es.jsp?rn=9612487

I will be working at a school with a large Hispanic population. Loudon is home to a Monterrey Mushroom, a mushroom farm and packing plant that employees hundreds of mostly Mexicans. Many of the kids in these homes only speak Spanish and need to work on their English skills at school. I will be working with 3 other teachers to train and prepare the students in this elementary school to become proficient in English.

In order to secure my position here as and ELL teacher I have to obtain Tennessee Teacher Licensure. My three other co teachers only had to take four classes to meet this requirement but the laws just changed this month and I now need to take about 10 classes to obtain my licence. I also have the option to get an MA in Teaching in ESL by taking an extra 5 classes on top of that. So all together I believe that I will be taking about 15 graduate classes over the next two years while teaching full time. Here's the school link: http://www.cn.edu/cn.htm

Oh, did I mention that I'm still working at Kroger with Sarcom doing the Wireless Network Installations at night. There have been many nights where I only sleep 2-4 hours. So I've been fairly tired lately. But that job will end in September so I only have about one month left...

My dad also came up for a weekend to visit us. It was really fun having him come up and stay with us. He was going to be touring the largest garage sale in the country that runs hundreds of miles north into Tennessee. So since he was right here we invited him to come stay with us. We always eat super good when we're around my dad. I think we gained about 10 lbs!

Coralee is still working at Khols part time. She has decided to go through CNA training in September. As a CNA, Certified Nursing Assistant, she will be able to work full time and get much better pay than she is getting now.

Her sister Michelle & husband Lyle are serving in Paupa New Guiena as missionary associates with New Tribes. He's working at the main office as an accountant and Michelle's working as a nurse. They have just decided to adopt and have returned to Michigan to be here for the birth and to finalize the process.

So over the next few weeks she plans to visit both here sisters in Ohio and Michigan.