It has taken me a couple weeks to post, but I am thrilled to announce that two of the biggest dreams of my life will both come true next year.
This past school year has been hellish for me. The position was not what I wanted to teach, but even beyond that, the school was fraught with hardships I've never seen in any school. There is a reason two-thirds of the faculty quit by the end of the year- including the assistant principal who walked off the job with only two weeks left. Suffice it to say my year was very difficult career-wise.
My dream job is to teach full-time drama. Most schools in this region have one drama teacher per school. They usually teach a class or two of drama, and something else (like English), then run a program after school with a play and musical each year. That's all I was really hoping for, but I got more. My boss at Imagination Stage, where I work in the summers and had worked after school, recommended me to a friend of his who was leaving to teach abroad. She and I got in touch, I started visiting her school, and now I have received the official job offer.
I will not just be teaching drama after school- I will have a full slate. In an eight period day, I will teach six periods of drama. I have four Drama One classes, one class of Drama Two, and one class of Drama Three. I get to write my own curricula for each of those, something I've already started. During some of those classes I also have a separate "class" of Playwriting/Directing- which I plan to treat as an independent study similar to some of the work I did myself at Oxford.
I've picked our fall musical and have started designing already. They do a student production mid-year, I helped pick the director for that already- and then Drama Three puts on a play in the Spring. They also have a one-act festival (last year did twenty one acts), a group of short skits (many are student written) that they perform in the fall and spring, which they call "pancakes". And they have an awesome Improv team which performs regularly- and I will be coaching. I was at auditions for the Improv team, so know them pretty well. I will run their Thespian Society as well, and may someday start a STEM (science technology engineering and math) Theatre class (in design). The school is technically not an arts school at all, but is a STEM school which just happens to have a fantastic arts program.
So next year I am getting the job of my dreams. I am super-excited.
At the same time, Rachel and I have been busy preparing for the other amazing dream- our wedding! Last weekend we went to Bethany Beach, where the wedding will be held. We had our tasting for the meal, and were surprised when he gave us full amounts of everything. We also had our cake tasting the following day. Both went wonderfully, and we've started shopping for wedding bands.
This past school year was tough, but next school year, two of the biggest dreams of my life are finally happening, proving...
Dreams really do come true. :-)
