This is Mrs. Parker, the newly appointed teacher of English as an Additional Language at the Durham School, comin' at ya this fine, fine English drizzly morning. Your prayers have been answered in such a way that I can honestly say that God orchestrated this from the beginning. He is so good to me! It has been, I feel, such a long road to this post, and I am so glad to share the journey with you. My seemingly life theme of "feast or famine" has been apparent once again. As of this morning, I had three job offers on the table: one from the small business and two from schools! Praise God!
When we moved to England, I was ready for a break from teaching. In fact, I didn't think I would be able to apply for teaching jobs at all, seeing as how it takes so long to jump through all of the appropriate hoops. It turns out that I really needed these last nine months to get every last annoying, bureaucratic paper, stamp, and signature to work at this school. And after a whole school year of wringing my hands and lamenting the ills of supply teaching, I am ready to be in a place I can call my own.
This role includes me working alongside about 25 international boarding students, mostly from China and Hong Kong, in a support role. When I earned my teaching credential in the state of California, I had three magic letters in the title next to Secondary English: ELD. My extra English Language Development hours meant that I was qualified to apply for this position working with international students who are learning English. I will have my own small classroom, but I will not be teaching English in a traditional way. I may be helping them prepare for standardized tests in my room. I may be with them in another classroom setting. I may be working with them one-on-one or in small groups. I will know each one of my kids really, really well, and I love that.
There are so many attractive aspects to this position: 1) I won't have to plan for six or seven preps like I would in any traditional English classroom setting in England, 2) I can walk to this school from where we live, 3) The school encourages teachers to interact with their students on a personal level (e.g. have them over for dinner, hang out with them in the boarding house, etc.), 4) I would be in charge of a half-day Saturday program for the students to see the sights in Britain and go on field trips, which I would want to do on my own time anyway, and 5) They are offering to pay me a little more than I earned in my previous teaching job in America!
The headmaster called me about two hours ago with the offer, and I told him I wanted to talk with Nathan but would call him right back. I flew out of our bedroom and burst into tears, "They offered me the job! I can't believe it! I just can't believe it!" He hugged me, told me he was proud of me, and told me to get my booty back on the phone to accept the job. Even after I called back to confirm my acceptance and we exchanged logistics about the contract, I was still crying and saying, "I can't believe it!" over and over again.
You see, aside from the amazing but imposing fact that the Durham School has a very long (almost 600 years long) and distinguished track record, I was quite intimidated by the other three candidates. One had taught in Durham for 16 years at a very posh private school in town but had gone down to Oxford to teach and wanted to return. Another was a man who had already been at the Durham School for 15 years and wanted to shift his position within the school. Another was a teacher at a very fine school in Newcastle. They were all sharply dressed, whereas I (who thought I was properly dressed for an interview) was given the comment, "Well, don't you look trendy!" when I met the woman in charge of boarders. Gulp... I don't have a suit! Sorry!
The three other candidates and I lobbied for the job yesterday morning with a formal interview, a presentation on the issues facing international boarding students in the UK, an observed lesson with two Chinese boys, and a tour of the school.
I started out with the interview. The assistant head and the head of boarding were really kind, but I felt a little rusty. It wasn't a big deal, but it was just guinea pig jitters I guess. I don't really like going first. I think my Whitefield experience was most helpful for that part of the interview, because I drew a lot from my years there to answer a lot of the questions they asked. Thanks, Whitefield!
I thought the strongest part of my day was my presentation on issues facing international boarders with the headmaster and the head of marketing. It had a natural flow to it, and I felt comfortable in his office. A friend from church, who had been a boarder in the UK from Hong Kong himself, really gave me some really useful insights for this presentation. I didn't have a clue about what to say before his help. Thanks, Enoch!
For the lesson, another friend from church who is getting her Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) here at Durham University dropped everything on Monday to meet me, calm my fears, give me some useful textbooks, e-mail me some sample lesson plans, and tell me all the trendy educational buzzwords to use. Thanks, Robin!
For my tour, I was guided around by the sweetest kid from Hong Kong named Teddy. I thought it was a good reminder from the Lord about how much I loved Teddy Heck. Thanks, Jeff and Hannah!
I'd also like to thank Dave and Sian, the husband and wife team (he'll start a new job at an Oxford boarding school in the fall, and she's employed at Durham High School for Girls) who helped me re-work my CV and covering letter for the English audience. There's absolutely no way I would even have been considered for this role without their help.
Nathan, obviously, deserves a lot of credit for being such an amazing husband through this process. Of all the innumerable ways he encouraged me and kept me going, the most wonderful one is that he continuously "preached the Gospel" to me, meaning he just repeated that God loves us and will take care of us no matter what. I didn't always appreciate it, but he always spoke the truth. And now we will be able to put this mini-chapter of job hunting in England in our book of Examples of God's Faithfulness to Nathan and Nicole Parker.
And, of course, how could I not thank you, yes YOU, my dearest friends and family! Your prayers; your words of encouragement; your kind thoughts, calls, songs, jokes, and Skype dates; your reaching out to me in this time of waiting has had such an impact on me. Because of you, I will be a more compassionate wait-er-alongside-er, if that makes sense. I love you!
God is SO GOOD! It doesn't matter if I am in my pajamas all day and cry because I feel useless or if I am offered a job at an amazing, historic, prestigious school. He is good all the time, and I am loved all the time! The pain of waiting is used for His glory and my good. Take heart!
Here I am on our
daylight savings walk back in the fall, completely oblivious to the fact that I would be offered a job there just this morning! Such a cool God thing...
Here is the school's official website, and
here is the wikipedia site. You can read all about notable alumni, including the man who founded Sierra Leone, the original "Alfred" in the first four Batman movies, and the man who inspired Wilburforce to abolish slavery in England.
Still crying with gratitude,
Nicole
P.S. You can still leave comments, even if it says "0 comments." I turned them off to the public in case you still wanted to try your hand at the loyal readers quiz and qualify to win a prize from London. If you can't figure out how to leave a comment, you can e-mail me. :)
