The results are in...

For those of you not familiar for what it take to be a teacher in MN I'll try to explain.  After at least 4 years of learning how to be a teacher, one is clearly not qualified enough.  So, even after you take all the classes, do the studying, and walk across that platform to receive a fake degree, you cannot get your license. See there once were these people on very high pedestals that said obviously we need to make future teachers take and pass many many many tests before they are able to receive their licence.  Since future teachers spend all 4 years learning why testing students is not always a good idea and therefore should find alternate ways to assess, you might see why it is so difficult for these tests to make sense to us.  How does a test prove I'm a good teacher...feel free to explain this to me in a comment.  Oh well...I'll take part in their little game and try to kick some butt doing it! So, for me to get my K-8 with math specialty licence I would have to pass 7 tests.  To get my K-6 licence I would have to pass 5.  Are you still with me?

In February I took the first two tests that had to do with teaching philosophies. I just found out today that I passed both!!!  Since I need the 5 minimum to teach, I have 2 out of those 5 done!!  I'm signed up to take the other 3 of those 5 the first week of April.  I want to just work on 5 right now to get some type of licence.

Here's the other kicker.  You may be thinking, but Amanda you are probably going to end up in Chicago and therefore will need a IL licence.  Well to get my licence in IL, I first have to have my licence in the state where I got my teaching degree...MN. Then I get to do all the stuff for an IL licence (which doesn't look quite as bad thankfully). I have no choice but to get this MN licence to even have a chance at teaching in any other state.

Do I lay in bed at night and wonder why teachers get paid so little to work so hard and also have the most difficult position upon graduation because we can't even use our degree till we run around bushes to get a licence? Yes!  Between my brother and I, I have experienced some pretty bad teachers.  I don't have any idea where their motivation comes from.  This licence that I'm working so hard to get is not even good for very long.  In a few short years (if even more than 1) I'll have to run around some more bushes to keep what I work so hard to get in the first place. 

My point: please send up a quick prayer and thank God for the teachers you had, for your friends and family that are teachers, for the teachers your kids have had, and maybe even those of your grandchildren...especially the good ones.  I'm thankful that God made such special people with a gift and love for teaching, and I'm thankful for the energy He gives us.  It takes a lot not just to keep little ones going all day, but also to run around so many bushes to prove we know what we're doing.