It sounds as though the school hired you with a provisional
certificate. As one who used to serve on her district's professional
growth committee, it doesn't seem the district should dictate to you
when to take a course. HOWEVER, if you want to be in the running for
the position next fall, and they have a choice between
provisionally-certified you and fully-certified someone else, they may
be forced to choose the other person, even if they preferred to have you
back. In my former district, if they liked someone who was only
provisionally certified, they would accomodate the person as much as
they could, in the hopes they would get certified by the following
school year. Unfortunately, by law they had to advertise the position,
and occasionally a fully certified person would get the job. Those are
the things you have to weigh.
We are fortunate in AZ to have the University of Phoenix (a national
chain, I believe) offering quick-and-dirty weekend classes for teachers
in various cities and also online. You attend class Friday afternoon
and all day Saturday and Sunday, then write a paper and turn it in two
weeks later. These credits are acceptable to the state dept. You seem
to want more than that, though, and are looking for something that would
be of real use to you. I'm just throwing out the U of P program in case
you have to make haste and take something--ANYTHING-- to get it over with.
Good luck,
Maggie
Amy Broady wrote:
> License renewal classes.
>
> <snip>. Human resources did not like this and said I had to take
> something in the spring in order to be certified by fall, if I wanted
> to teach again next year.
>
> I called the state Department of Ed, and was told that it would be
> fine to take my credit over the course of the summer, and that I
> should be fine to teach next year, as long as I complete my coursework
> by August.
>
> So, who should I believe? The district that has hired me, or the state
> that will renew my certificate?
> Do any of you have any internet credit programs that you can
> recommend? I am most interested digital design and/or topics I can
> apply in the classroom, of course. I am not that interested in general
> education classes. I want some excitement! Not that excitement can't
> be found in general ed classes, but I want to keep my focus on ART.
