grateful for new challenges!

Thank you, Jordan, for your help and leadership today.
With her, I spent six hours at Savannah Tech College, preparing solutions and collecting materials for two sections of Chem1211 lab and one section of Chem1151 lab for the spring semester.
Why?
Because I will be teaching those labs!
I will also be teaching two lectures in Chem1211 and one lecture in Chem1151!
That's right: I will have a full course load again!
How did this all come to pass?
Well, it began with a chance meeting between Suzy and Jordan, over at Armstrong. Jordan had come over to visit and Suzy had suggested me to teach Jordan's classes in the spring.
Jordan's son is due in mid-January, but you never know with babies just when they'll arrive.
(smile)
On September 24th, I first spoke with Jordan about the possibility of my teaching for her in the spring. Then I sent my curriculum vitae and FSU transcript to the head of the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Department, Becky.
On October 2nd, I was part of the LOL! group for the comedy show at Club One. Whaddaya know? Another teacher was there, too! Wendy taught at Savannah Tech, as it turned out, and knew Jordan, too... and knew I was being considered for the position.
Well, alrighty then!
But, maybe not. There was some concern about an Adjunct Instructor being allowed to teach a full course load.
Time passed.
Then, a week before Thanksgiving, things started moving forward! I spoke with the department head, Becky, and we set up a meeting.
Not for me to give a presentation or anything like that.
Just a meeting, face to face.
On November 24th, I met with both Jordan and Becky at 10:30 AM, for that face-to-face sitdown.
I talked about my style of teaching the material in an order which was more conducive to learning, rather than the order in which chapters appeared in the textbooks.
I talked about the changes I had made in the labs to better correlate with the order in which the students learned the subject matter.
I talked about my use of five tests and Mastering Chemistry and Desire2Learn, so the students had multiple opportunities to make grades and to know those grades.
All of this was integrated with my answers to Becky's questions. Just normal conversation, not an interrogation or a planned speech.
An mere hour later, Jordan took me upstairs to see the lab facilities, then downstairs to Human Resources. There, Beverly gave me the employment application and the background check release forms. I filled out the latter right then and there, had Beverly notarize it, then I took the application home to fill out.
Apparently, I was in!!!
By December 2nd, the background check was done. I was most definitely in!!! I picked up the Employment Packet, with its many, many forms, with a big smile on my face!
I even met with Becky the next day to find out more about MyLabsPlus, their combination from Pearson which allows both generation of homework assignments (like Armstrong's Mastering Chemistry) and the gradebook (like ArmstrongeClassroom). I definitely need to practice with that program before school starts.
The very next day, at the reception for the tree planting at Armstrong, I overheard a bit of talk concerning Savannah Tech at an adjacent table. I missed part of the conversation, as I was talking with the young Marine about his time in Okinawa. However, I clearly heard the young woman tell her two companions: "Becky said, 'After our conversation, I just hired her!'"
Becky? Savannah Tech? Was the young woman talking about me?
Wow...
Honestly, after applying for two positions at Armstrong two years ago, I was familiar with the process there. If selected by the search committee, you meet with several people in the department, maybe go to lunch, then present a mock lecture and be prepared to answer questions. After that, you wait for the search committee to verify the result.
Was the job hiring process so different at Savannah Tech? Or had my decades of teaching experience spoken for me, so that process had been shortened?
However it may have come to pass, I am most grateful for the result.
I am a new hire at a new school and I will be teaching a full course load in the new year.
Hallelujah!