Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Days of our Lives

Yesterday I went to a meeting with all of the Richmond County Board of Education's employees. It was long. VERY long.

The featured speaker was quite inspiring, but she had this thing she called "Eye hugs", which was mostly an exaggerated squint. It seemed to be her answer to exasperation, endearment, or anything. "And then, she did a backflip...Eye hugs!"

I did not care for the eye hugs. The rest of her speech was good, though. I met my mentor teacher, who bears a considerable resemblance to George Carlin. He had 13 years in the Army, and served in Vietnam in 1968. Mr. Damon was an NCO that went through OSS and became an officer. He said the Army had lots of L-Ts after 'Nam, so he got out. He's been teaching for over thirty years. I think I did pretty well for a mentor. :-)

After lunch, I went back to Buttress High School, and met the rest of the school team. My heart sank a little when I saw Buttress had a crumbling exterior, but a rebuild is ongoing, so it's not quite as bad as I thought at first glance. The practicum program is going to take a good bit of my time, but at least I have a good mentor.

Speaking of the practicum...I'm going to apply to use the Reserve funds (REAP) I earned when I was deployed to Afghanistan. Despite the immense time requirements of the teaching practicum, it's only worth three credits. Three credits is less than half time, so I'll only be reimbursed for the actual cost of tuition, instead of receiving the monthly stipend I would be illegible for if I took more credits. Applying for a lesser amount now instead of more later seems a better idea for two reasons: first, I really don't want to go any further into debt than I can help; second, I don't know how long I have to use these reserve funds. The VA site says IRR members who don't enter the Selected Reserve after returning for activation don't have 10 years to use the option to use REAP, as other members do. When queried how long these individual do have to use REAP, it repeats that they don't have the 10-yr option to use it. Thanks, big government! Efficient and clear as usual.

1 comment:

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