Abundantly Blessed (Part I)

For the past school three years, I’ve been working as a substitute teacher in the Granite and Salt Lake school districts. I’ve taught at no fewer than five high schools and six junior high schools. I’ve taught subjects as diverse as English, Utah History, Physics, Math (lots and lots of Math), Engineering, Shop, Medical Terminology, Anatomy and Physiology, Dental Assisting, Food Service, and Keyboarding. I’ve even taught Dance on one occasion (there’s a mental picture for ya!). But I’ve never actually taught the subject I want to teach as a full-time teacher, the subject in which I have a Bachelor’s degree: Chemistry.

Until now.

A couple of months ago, I got a phone call from a teacher at one of the local high schools—the third closest high school to where I live, in fact. She was a Chemistry teacher, and she was headed out for six weeks of maternity leave. She had called the district office, and the Substitute Teaching coordinator had recommended me. We talked for a few minutes, exchanged contact information, and she said she’d call me again when she had a better idea of exactly when she’d be needing my services. That was pretty much the extent of the conversation. I didn’t think much of it after that.

There are two main reasons why I’ve done so much substitute teaching. First, it has provided income to supplement—and in some cases, supplant—what I make at the call center (more on which in another post). Second, it’s helped me to gain classroom experience as I work on my Master’s degree and teaching certification. Among the many hoops to jump through important steps on the way to certification is the Praxis II content area exam. It’s a rigorous standardized test designed to determine whether a teaching candidate actually knows enough about a subject to teach it in school. It takes two hours, consists of a hundred multiple choice questions, and costs $80 to take, plus a once-per-year $50 registration fee. (“That’s only a little more than a dollar a question,” someone pointed out to me. That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.)

When we got our tax refund back, we used part of it to register me for the Praxis. I signed up to take it at the earliest opportunity, which was Saturday, April 25th. The closest testing center, at the University of Utah, had no more seats available for that day, so I was left to choose between driving to Orem to take it and driving to Ogden to take it. I lived in Ogden for several years and still know my way around the Weber State campus pretty well, so I scheduled the test for Ogden.

I got back in contact with the aforementioned Chemistry teacher a couple of weeks after that and finalized arrangements for covering her classes. After an initial false start, I started my long-term substitute assignment right on schedule. I’ve been teaching Honors Chemistry and AP Chemistry since March 23rd. My assignment is nearly complete now; the regular teacher returns to her duties on Monday, May 4th.

Anyway, I took the Praxis II last Saturday. And I did well. I won’t know exactly how well for approximately four weeks, but I felt very confident about the outcome when I left the test room. And I have to say, I cannot tell you how many times I looked at one of those hundred questions and said to myself, “Right, we covered this in AP two weeks ago” or “We just talked about this in Honors Chem”. Teaching these classes for the past month or so was the best test preparation I could ever have hoped for.

To conclude: After almost three years of substituting without teaching a single Chemistry class, I finally got an assignment in my own content area at the time I needed it most.

You may call this coincidence if you wish.

I call it a blessing. I see in this a sign that Someone up there likes me—not just likes me, but knows me, is aware of my needs, and provides opportunities for me to be successful.

Thank You.


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Author’s Note — On the subject of coincidence, I’ve always liked this comment from Elim Garak:

"I believe in coincidence. Coincidences happen every day. But I don't trust coincidence."