License to trill

So today I found the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (are they getting paid by the letter? Cuz what was the point of changing it from Department of Education to the deliciously verbose new version?) so I could look for the necessary information on obtaining my teaching license. A very useful website, which is rare for government websites because they're usually extremely difficult to navigate. Anyway, I already knew the 2 main requirements: receive a Bachelor's degree and pass the MTEL (Massachusetts Test for Education Licensure) but I wasn't sure if there was anything else, like if you had to do so many hours of student teaching or whatnot, and of course where to apply for the license.
Well, there's the preliminary license and the initial license. Both are valid for 5 years, but the preliminary is for those who have not yet completed an "approved educator preparation program." With just my Bachelor's degree and my passing scores on the MTEL I can get a preliminary. So then I checked under the initial license requirements and besids the degree and MTEL passing it says "completion of a Massachsetts Music: vocal/instrumental/general all levels approved program" so I clicked on this for the list of approved program and it says Berklee College of Music baccalaureate. I'm like "WTF is baccalaureate? Is that just a fancy Latin word for Bachelor's degree?" Of course I gotta double-check so I go to dictionary.com and sho' nuff, baccalaureate is just another word for Bachelor's degree. And that's what I've been doing at Berklee for the last 6 years, doing Bachelor's degree courses in music education. So I've already completed the so-called approved program, got my degree and passed both halves of the MTEL. So I guess I can get my initial license. I think I might ask my grandmother for some more info, tips and advice since she used to be a teacher. The only snag is she started teaching in the 1960s and retired 5 years ago, rules and requirements have changed, so I don't know how much she's going to know. At the least I could just run through the application process and see what happens. I'm not in too much of a rush, I probably wouldn't get hired until the start of the new school year anyway, I don't think anyone would hire a new teacher with 5 months left in the school year. Also, I already have an in with one of the local schools so I don't need to rush to snag rare teaching openings or things like that. I have to rush a little because I've been overdue to start my career and I got student loans to pay and I'd like to finally move out and get married.
I'm still kind of wary about going straight into a classroom, especially after the negative experience with my proficiency. I know I got the skills, I'm just rusty because I haven't done anything music-ed related in over a year. I still have all my notes and books and the infinite reference of the interwebs to brush up with, but I think I'd be more comfortable if I could get some student teaching hours or start off as a teacher's aide or assistant teacher. If chorus teacher David Seaman stayed on, that's what would've happened. I would've been his aide for a year or two then I would've taken over for him. What happened was he was diagnosed with a neurological disorder a few years ago (I forget which), and was in the hospital for a long time with complete loss of speech and mobility. His speech came back pretty quickly but he never regained full mobility, but came back to teach in a wheelchair for a while then abruptly quit about a year, year and a half ago and nothing the city could say or do would bring him back. It's a shame because he was an awesome teacher, one of my favorites when I was doing observations (how many other teachers are going to listen to Denis Leary with you in his car on his lunch break? LOL).

So I got a lot of good on my side. It looks like I'm all set to apply for my license, I have a school principle who wants to give me a job - especially since he wants to get rid of this cunt-like vocal and general music teacher that no one likes, and I got plenty of resources to brush up and practice my teaching skills with and the support of a former teacher grandmother. Holy shnizz, are things going to finally work out?! WOW!