My local school district (and former employer) finally let the dogs back in the schoolhouse! Big Girl and I are joining some fellow CAREing Paws teams at Lost Mountain Middle School at the end of the month.
I posted this on FB, along with a picture of Sadie and me after our most recent visit to a high school in a neighboring district. Now, Sadie and I have received a flurry of invitations to visit former colleagues at their respective schools. Two of my colleagues at a former school won “mystery reader of their choice” in a school fundraising contest. They asked if I would bring the dog and read stories to their classes. This will definitely be a fun visit next week!
Therapy dog activities are finally picking up. We have visits to two colleges already scheduled for April & May. I have at least 5 visits to schedule to different facilities since receiving invitations from former co-workers. I’m excited. This has been the missing piece in my retirement activity puzzle. I have a strong feeling the school based READ program will move forward in the fall.
What about that reading teacher job? I decided against applying for the part-time position in a neighboring school district. The work’s fine. The expectation is a 5 day workweek, even for part-time. No thanks. Should I ever need to return to work, I’d rather have a full-time salary if I’m going to give up my freedom 5 days per week. After conferring with our financial advisor yesterday, there is no need for either one of us to return to work unless we want to.
I did apply to renew my teaching certificate for another 5 years. The Professional Standards Commission determined that I have to jump through one additional hoop to get my certificate renewed. Let’s see how quickly my former school district can verify my professional development activities from 2018-2022.
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