Taking The CBest – Transitioning from Volunteer to Substitute

I’ve been a little scatter brained lately, having too much on my plate, not knowing when to say no. I’ve even been having a little trouble with my memory, which is scoop for another post that I’ll get into later. But the reason I haven’t been regular with my posting lately – I’ve been studying for the CBest exam with the hopes of becoming a substitute teacher.

Before I had kids, I thought I was going to be a working mom. At the time, I worked a solid 40+ hour work week, and couldn’t imagine that I’d be happy staying at home. I was the type of person that was always on the go, from one job to the next (at times I had 2 jobs to pay off credit card debts) and from one get together with friends to family time. I just didn’t even fathom that I’d wind up a stay at home mom – until I got pregnant with my son, and it all changed.

While I was pregnant, my husband and I had talks about me working or staying home. Really, it was up to me to do whatever I wanted to do. I kept going back and forth between working and staying home, ultimately giving in to what I truly wanted – to stay home and raise my kids. I really wanted the opportunity to watch them grow up. I also realized that I wanted to join play groups, get the kids involved in activities, when they started school, volunteer in the classroom and even be a part of the PTA. I wanted that stay at home mom, totally engulfed in my kids lifestyle.

So now that I have it, and have become a blogger now for 5+ years, I’m absolutely loving my life. My husband thinks I’m rather scattered because I’m forgetting things, running ragged and always tired. He feels that if I’m volunteering in the classroom, that I should be making money that I can go out and get my weekly manicures with, and be able to buy anything that my little heart desires, without having to consult our budget. We both agreed that becoming a substitute teacher would be perfect – I could work at my kids’ school, and local schools in the area while our kids were in class. So, to my surprise, he signed me up for the CBest exam and told me I had 6 weeks to study.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite ready to take the plunge yet, as I wasn’t prepared to dive into books and cram. Since I graduated Cal State Fullerton back in 2000, I haven’t cracked a book or even looked at math equations and statistics in 15 years. I was a little freaked out!

So I decided to get started, attack the task at hand by researching practice tests. Apparently at this website: https://www.ctcexams.nesinc.com/ you have all you need to get you started. I managed to complete a practice exam and figure out that I was a little more prepared than I thought, however I did need a little review, so I ran to Barnes and Noble and picked up a CBest Testing Review book that had 3 practice tests and review sheets to refresh my escaping memory.

So over the weekend, I took the CBest Exam, and am eagerly awaiting my scores. Let me tell you, it was a little nerve racking for me as I ended up taking the full 4 hours to complete the exam. I tried to take my time and logically go through each question, which seemed like a great idea until I realized that after 3 hours, I only had 1 hour left to complete 2 essays. Naturally everyone says I’m a natural – heck, I’m a blogger. In all actuality, it really isn’t. You need time to prepare, set up your supporting statements and structure. The 30 minutes I had left for each essay really wasn’t enough time for me, but I powered through.

After sharing my experience with a few friends, I realized that there are other people out there, many of them moms in the same situation as I am. Many who LOVE to help out at their kids school and as a substitute, it’s a great opportunity to do so and make a little money on the side. As I look at it, even if I pass 1 section of this 3 part exam, I’m one step closer to becoming a substitute, and if I want to keep going further, I can become an elementary school teacher I always thought I was destined to be.

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