So back in March of this year (2015) I was sitting quietly in my office reflecting on what I needed to do that day when my wife shared with me some information that at the time seemed insignificant and irrelevant to my life, but little did I know that it would change my life and turn it completely upside down.
In order to put this in proper prospective let me go back in time a few months prior to March. In October of 2014 my wife came to me and told me that she was told about a part-time job at the school that my children went to, and she felt that she should apply for it.. She had been volunteering at the school doing essentially the same thing, but this would provide a little extra money for the family. She said that she felt strongly that she needed to do it. So we decided that she should go ahead and apply.
A few weeks later she got a call from another school in the District wanting her to come in for an interview. She went ahead and went to the interview and said that it was almost spiritual in nature. She then interviewed for the school that she originally intended to work for, and the feeling was completely different. There was a rather large contrast between the two schools and positions. The school that my children go to is near our home and in a nice area. The other school was located in the older portion of town with a high population of lower-income families and struggling students. The school is a Title-I school meaning that it receives additional federal funding to help re-mediate the students to help them reach benchmarks in their education. She was offered the job at the other school and needed to make a decision as to what she was going to do. After some thought and prayer she decided to go ahead and take the position. It was more hours than she was expecting or wanting to work, but she felt good about it. Besides I was home pretty much all the time anyway to watch our four year old son.
That was a long back-story to get to March. So my wife came home from work one day and told me that she had heard that a High School in the District was looking for a head baseball coach. We both had a good laugh at the thought of me applying for the job since the school was an hours drive from our home. I love baseball with a passion and that is why she felt it relevant to bring it up to me, but we both knew that I would not travel that far unless I was compensated for it.
After that day I just pushed it out of my mind and went about doing my work. Or, at least I thought that I had. Every once in awhile I would find myself thinking about it. I even got online to the School District's web site and looked up the job posting, during which time I found that there were two High Schools looking for a head coach. The other one was even farther in time and distance than the other one. For a few weeks I kept thinking about it and could not stop. Until one day I succumb and I applied for both positions. I thought to myself that I would at least talk to them if they had me come in and see what they were willing to pay me for my time and expertise in the realm of baseball. Not to mention I had a lot of free-time due to my business anyway, so why not.
A few months passed and I hadn't heard anything until one day as I was checking my email while watching a movie on Netflix in the middle of my work day I got an email from the school that was the farthest from my home. I responded and we were able to schedule a time for me to come in and interview.
The day arrived, and I made the long drive out to the barren waste known as Wendover, Utah. The school was so small that I didn't think that I could possibly be at the right place. The school was small, but the baseball field was huge. I went in and introduced myself, then began what I would call the oddest interview that I ever experienced.
It started out rather normal, talking about baseball and my experience as a player and a coach. Then came the question that changed the tone. I was asked what is it that I actually do that was prompting me to apply for a baseball position that would pay practically nothing. When I heard that it would pay hardly nothing, the interview was over in my mind. So I answered that I owned my own business, and that I was just looking for something to fill some of my free time and since I love baseball and have a lot to offer in that field I thought that I would at least go for it. A few more questions were answered concerning my background in business, and then the Principal blurted out, "You know what? I need a business teacher more than I need a baseball coach!". I was shocked and quickly responded that I was not looking at changing my career. I mean I was perfectly happy with my life, and if I got a job it wasn't going to be as a teacher. I tried to be polite in my decline of the thought, and he kept trying to sell the idea. He told me about the plight of the students, that they were predominately Hispanic (since I am Hispanic he was trying to get me to relate), and that they were struggling.
He went on to tell me that their teachers come and leave within a year leaving the kids without a real mentor to turn to, or someone to look to for an example. He told me that he could see me being the Principal within 5 years if I took the job. I kept giving a little push back and finally succumb and agreed to at least give it some thought and I promised to give him an answer by that Friday.
I left the school dazed and confused at what had just happened. I got on the phone and called my wife to tell her about it. She asked me what I thought about it and I told her that I wasn't really considering it. The prospect of me becoming a teacher was laughable in my mind. I didn't like teenagers to begin with, and I hate school. I mean when I was in school I did everything in my power not to go, as a teacher you have to be there, because it is your job. I kept thinking to myself, "No, not me".
The hour and a half drive home was forever long. There is absolutely nothing between my town and Wendover. My mind was racing, and I just wanted to get back home and be done with it, never to return to Wendover again.
When I finally arrived my wife was waiting for me and we talked a little about it. She had spoken to the people at her school and they all raved about the Principal of Wendover High School. He had been a teacher there before becoming an administrator and they had nothing but good to say about him. The thought of the possibility kept weighing heavily upon my mind that whole day. I was confused as to what it meant. So I did what I normally do when I feel confused and I prayed about it. Well, for someone who didn't want to do it, I should not have prayed about it because I felt that I needed to do it. I tried to deny the feeling and kept pushing it off, but I kept praying about it hoping that I would get another feeling. I hadn't told my wife about how I was feeling when she came to me a few days later and told me that she felt that I needed to do it, and that she felt like it wasn't a job that I was accepting but a mission call from the Lord. That through me for a loop and I sincerely prayed about it after hearing that and I accepted the feeling and made the decision to do it.
When I spoke to the Principal he was elated. He pretty much couldn't control himself. He told me that I would teach just a couple of classes and that I would be the Assistant Baseball Coach rather than the Head Coach since they needed someone right away and my hiring would be delayed due to the fact that I had to get approval from the State of Utah since I wasn't a licensed teacher.
I submitted my information and and waited. In about a month I received a response saying that the State was not going to approve my application to be a teacher. I breathed a sigh of relief and notified the Principal. Within 5 minutes I received a text telling me not to worry, but that he would see if there was something that he could do. Within a couple of hours he texted me to tell me that there was a another route and that everything was good. Well then began the headache of trying to get everything submitted to the District for submission.
Long-story short, after several back and forth communications everything was eventually approved and I was now looking at the reality of what I had done. I was now a High School Teacher. Even now the title gives me the chills. You see I've been an entrepreneur for many years and I've been running my business forever. I enjoyed being home with my family, and being there whenever they needed me. I liked being able to own my schedule and do what I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. I have a Master's degree in Management, and now I was going to be the low man on the totem pole with no chance of advancement in a world that I've never really cared for.
I've always been extremely critical of the public education system and its failures, and now I was going to be a part of the problem. I wasn't elated, but I was optimistic that I was going to have the opportunity to do some real good for the students of Wendover High School.
The time passed and I started preparing myself and my family for the change that was coming. We went on a nice family vacation and spent as much time together as we could. I trained my wife on what she needed to do for me to help keep the company operational and functioning while I was unable to do anything. I tried to do some lesson plans, but every time that I tried I got frustrated and didn't quite do it. The weekend before school started I was scrambling to get it done in order to have at least the first week ready for the start of school.
Then came the first day, D-day. I wasn't nervous or anxious I just wanted to get it done. I am the kind of person that doesn't like ramp up. I want a green-light, now jump scenario. So I was more tired of the crap by this point than anything else. First period came, and things went well. Each class seemed to go well and then the day was over. I went to baseball practice and got home late.
The next day word got back to me that the students that I had on the first-day of school loved my classes and some of the students asked not to be taken out of my classes when they were approached about scheduling conflicts. It was strange. I didn't think that I had done anything special, I had just been myself. The second day went pretty much the same way. I had the administrators coming to me telling me that they were already getting positive feedback on me from the students. As I would walk down the hallway at our little school kids would shout out my name and yell out our classroom word, even those who weren't in my classes.
Then came our first assembly at the end of the first week. I took my seat at the back of the bleachers and intended to settle myself in and bare the spectacle. I hated assemblies as a student and I doubly hate them as an adult. They had all the staff come down to be introduced to the student body, and so I started down when I heard someone call my name from the bleachers. I instinctively yelled out my classroom word of "Hooah!", and the whole student body erupted in reply. The Principal and some others looked at me in disbelief as the student body went absolutely nuts in a frenzied explosion. When they came to me in the introduction, the bleachers erupted yet again. When I was introduced as the Asst. Baseball Coach they erupted again. The cheerleaders stood there with confused looks on their faces because they hadn't been able to get the students that riled up to that point.
At the end of the assembly the Principal and one of the Instructor Coaches approached me in disbelief. They were shocked how after just one week the whole school loved me. I must admit I was pretty shocked myself. Like I said, I was just being myself.
We are now almost two months into the school year, and things are still looking good. I have some problems, but I address them quickly. I've told my students that they do not want to see Military Mr. Ramirez, and for the most part they live their lives trying to avoid it. On a few occasions they have seen partial military me, and they don't like it and they adjust their attitude. Except the 7th graders, they don't seem to get the concept that their behavior fuels the military me and they get the full brutal force of that side of me. I don't apologize, nor do I try and hide the fact that I make my students scared of me to listen and obey.
The purpose of this blog is to give me a medium where I can vent and share my feelings about this adventure and some of the stories that come along the way.
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