are you experienced?

well apparently, it doesn't really matter.

when i applied for my teaching license in washington, d.c., i sent in all the necessary paperwork to make my license reciprocal. i did not send in the FBI clearance paperwork as I never have had to do that in my life and the district just did a clearance on me. otherwise i would not have been given a contract to sign, and would not be allowed in my classroom.

the entire packet was sent back to me and my old address in colorado as that is where i was living before moving to dc for this wonderful job.

it took almost four months to get the packet back.

yesterday i arrived home to find a letter stating that i am not highly qualified to teach because i do not yet have my teaching license. the irony of it all is that i am more than highly qualified. i would think eleven years in diverse districts in a state that is much farther along in education reform than dc would enable me to obtain a license. but, like everything else in this district, it is the paperwork.


so my parents of the students i teach will be getting a letter saying i am not highly qualified to teach their students. are you serious?
do i need parents thinking this about me?
after all that i have worked for to get here? all the classes i have taken? all of the classroom time i have done?
seriously...one would think in this day and age we would have a more unified system throughout the country to license professionals. well, that is what we thought we were. but are we treated as such?

what profession continually bashes people who are so unrelenting and commited to each individual person they serve?
you guessed it!!

what a shame for society, our kids, and our teachers...

and to think i wondered why people in the main office were wearing slippers!!