So, this week I have been substituting in a classroom where the teacher has the students reading "Where the Red Fern Grows". In all my schooling, I was never required to read (or remember reading) this story even though it was written before I was born.
To summarize the meat of the story, it is about a boy who is desperate to own some hunting hounds and it consumes his life. When he finally gets the dogs and they begin to hunt, it's like a dream come true.
That's as far as I really got before the assignment ended and now I will have to check it out from the library. My point is this: I can understand his consuming desire to obtain his dream. This is exactly how I feel about teaching. Yeah, it's hard. The first night the character went to hunt, they did get a raccoon up in a tree and it took the kid 2 days or more to chop it down and kill the coon. All the while, every muscle in his body ached and both hands were covered with blisters. Sounds like the first year of teaching to me. :D
Anyway, I know the story ends tragically for the animals and I don't want that to happen to me or my students, but I have confidence that I can do it. In fact, I am in the process of applying to a school that has 2 openings for the remainder of this school year. Both in social studies. One part-time and one full-time. I can just taste it. I want one of these jobs. I HAVE to be in the classroom. It's where I belong. Just like the main character in "Where the Red Fern Grows" needs those hounds and to be out hunting I NEED to be teaching. Sometimes it's just who you are.
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