Job. Check.

About two weeks ago, my department chair asked to meet with me and out of the blue (to me) offered me a full-time faculty position in my department as a Clinical Instructor. An explanation- (if you really don't want the details skip to the next paragraph).... The position is to teach and be the coordinator for the ESOL certification we have just begun to offer the students in the undergraduate program in my department. This consists of 4 optional classes in addition to their regular bachelors degree. Eventually, the goal is to integrate these courses into all the required literacy courses they take since it's a fact that all teachers will have these students in their classrooms soon. A Clinical Instructor is a position that is not tenure track and may or may not be held by someone with a PhD....basically, it means you are expected to teach a lot more than do research. So...I'll be teaching 3-4 classes a semester and coordinating the program.

Whew! Bored yet? So....this was honestly an amazing offer and I felt so honored that I was asked. She was interviewing a couple of people, but said if I wanted the job it was mine. Wow! I felt like turning around and saying- Are you talking to me, are you sure about that? It's a wonderful opportunity- more money, benefits, incredible new teaching opportunities that will look great when I graduate and apply for a job, and I get to park in the faculty deck (I may be the most excited about that). But, it definitely means that I won't have as much time to work on my prospectus (dissertation proposal) and then conduct my research in schools, so it meant that I needed to think about this for a bit. Plus, I am teaching 3 brand new classes....lots of planning there. Did I mention these classes start mid-August? Ah....

After sitting down with my adviser and planning out how it should be possible to only push my graduation back a semester to a year later (hopefully!), I decided to accept the job! Although the position is considered temporary and is on a year to year contract, there's a good chance it would continue each year based on our projected enrollment.

Friday morning, I found out that the Dean had officially approved me for the position- yay! So...if you don't hear from me much this year, you know why now! Now, I need to go plan 3 syllabi:)