My First US Paycheck in 19 Years

My last paycheck I received just before I took off for a 19 year journey that would bring me full circle and back to the States last year was from a US employer. The Year was 1989. I worked for CTI Messengers in downtown NYC delivering small packages via the subway and my bike. I owned the streets of Manhattan, knew how to time my three-subway ride in twenty minutes from Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan to East forty second. Boy, I was a pro.


The image you see in front of your (and my) very own eyes is the paycheck I received from CCAC Allegheny Community College a few days ago - a grand total of $432.00 and some pocket change for teaching an ESL written composition class for two days a week, an hour and a half each time. I am loving it! My students are from East and West Africa, Pakistan, various provinces of India. The feedback has been positive and students are affable and earnest and motivated. It is a definitely refreshing break from twelve years of the Israeli classroom. As I noted recently to a friend, I keep expecting that an Israeli student will step into the classroom, raise his/her hand as in salute, cry out my name, do something to disturb the classroom deliberately so that I can't teach. In my mind, they inevitably speak back to me as they are VERY direct and verbal. It is no wonder that they have the appellation "chutzpanim" (im relating to plural of students) But none of those scenarios I've built in my head in fact happens, leaving me to conclude that my cultural reality in the US is not completely real.

So back to the paycheck issue - I am now a US taxpayer of Uncle Sam - all over again. I don't mind so long as I am learning and growing. Even in today's crazy economy, I must not be afraid. I WILL NOT succumb to fear. It is paralyzing. It's hard though not to. But the media does a damn good job of relating to it as such.

And a few updates:1.I just joined Suzanne Lieurance's Build Your Business Write. I participated in her Working Writer's summer boot camp, and it just boosted my confidence to take my writing to a completely different level. You can hear my testimony about on the left side link of my new teacher's blog blog. Just scroll down a bit.

2.I've got a newteacherresourcecenter over at blogspot and I've just purchased six months worth of my own domain name - newteacherresourcecenter.com Yay! I'll have my own domain name which I'll be setting up probably tomorrow when I'll choose a new template "face" for the website. My baby.

3. I'm also very excited with my marketing efforts until now. It has been a satisfying experience and I'm learning not to be intimidated from the technical issues that have been popping up as a result of the process. So far I've been able to successfully:

1. establish two of my own informational products including a FREE bimonthly ezine and ebook
2. post three times to my blog.
3. send already a FREE ezine to my 65 new and seasoned teachers on my mailing
4. establish a mailing list
5. network with teachers all over the world
6. submit articles to the EZine article directories thus increasing traffic to my blog


Anyhow, I've celebrated the Jewish New Year with the birth of my blog. Let's hope the New Year rings in business!