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Crumb
03-30-2005, 02:25 AM
Well, the Crumbmeister is pretty darn sure that he will not be teaching come next year. I don't know what silly idea lead me to believe that it was a job I could do. :doh: I don't want the responsibility. I don't want the headaches. I don't want the workload. I don't want to deal with the kids and I don't want tp deal with their parents. :eek:

My future employment and livelyhood are very much up in the air. My gf wants me to get a job in Texas, but I doubt there is one there for me. The only reason I would live in Texas is because she is there and she will only be there for another year. I hate to get a job and move out there, but then only stay a year, then have to do it all over again.

I guess I should apply for jobs outside of Oregon though. The job market here is in the toilet. I doubt I could get a teaching job if I wanted one in this state next year. The state government gets more money every year yet can't seem to keep anything fully funded, especially not education. Oh well, that won't be my problem, anymore.

Not sure why I am starting this thread, except that I completely lack the motivation to start a big job search. I don't even know where to start. I haven't had a software job in four years, which leads me to believe that no one will want to hire me in that field. To be honest, I wasn't all that skilled at my best. :sadcheer: Well, I am just bringing myself down here. I'll post it and maybe you guys can cheer me up, or kick me in the butt. :blink:

LadyShea
03-30-2005, 02:49 AM
:buttkick:

You got your teaching degree and certificate and you don't want to teach? Can you do something in the educational realm at least? I dunno...educational software or something?

Crumb
03-30-2005, 03:26 AM
Actually, there is a company here that makes educational software and hardware that it would be really cool to work for. It is sensors and gadgets for science experiments and the software that controls them. Right up my ally with the science and the software, but I have never seen or heard them hiring or anything. I should look into it again though.

BTW, kicking my butt won't help me much if it lands me flat on my face.

The Lone Ranger
03-30-2005, 04:53 AM
I'm with LadyShea: if you don't want to teach, then perhaps something like educational software might be a good approach.

How much teaching experience do you have? Have you considered private schools, where there's considerably more freedom (but higher expectations, too)?

I never expected to get into teaching, but was required to teach as part of my master's education. To my surprise and delight, I discovered that I loved teaching. Yes, it's a tremendous responsibility and there's a great deal of work with little pay, but it can be enormously rewarding too.


On the other hand, please let me make this abundantly clear: there's nothing worse than a "teacher" who doesn't enjoy what (s)he is doing. If you're convinced that teaching isn't for you, then it's probably best to listen to that inner voice. You can't fool students: if a teacher is in it for the money or because they have nothing "better" to do, and not because (s)he truly enjoys teaching, the students will catch on almost instantly -- and they'll have zero respect for that teacher. The teacher will be unhappy, the students will be unhappy -- it's a lose/lose situation all around.

I wish I could offer some real advice.

Best wishes!

Michael

Crumb
03-30-2005, 05:13 AM
there's nothing worse than a "teacher" who doesn't enjoy what (s)he is doing.

Yep, this is true. And this is why I have got to go. Teaching is something I enjoyed at first, but I have learned quickly that a full-time teaching job is too much for me. This is only my first year, so I now know that getting certified and all that was a big waste of money, time, and effort.

I wish I could offer some real advice.

There really isn't much to advise me on. I have never really known what I want to do as a career. I will keep looking though and see what I can find.

viscousmemories
03-30-2005, 06:21 AM
I wouldn't say you wasted your time, effort and money becoming a teacher. The knowledge that you don't want to be a teacher has substantial value. :yup:

I have no leg to stand on when it comes to butt-kickings as I've been mostly unemployed for the last 4 years, and I'll be lucky if I don't fall asleep before this post is over so I can't cheer you up. But good luck. :)

justaman
03-30-2005, 06:21 AM
Wasn't a waste at all. If you hadn't done all that you wouldn't be the person you are today. You'd be some other bozo who would probably be on smack by now and whacking off in front of pensioners for $10 a pop.

I'm looking at majorly changing my profession in a couple of years when I'm allowed to. Basically, I don't think about the perks of the job, I try to think about the work itself and whether or not I would like to spend long periods of time devoted to that type of work.

Thinking like that cuts the options way down :P

godfry n. glad
03-30-2005, 06:57 AM
Crumb:

I, too, am a former teacher wannabe. I got my teaching certificate in secondary social studies in 1990. It's a crowded field anyway. Went on and got my master's, which I finished while substitute teaching and part-time library work. Just when it looked pretty clear that I'd never get a job in my field, the library I worked with part-time temporary had a full-time, permanent position come open and they recruited me. I loved teaching, but you're right. It would have been a hellacious workload and in an environment which became increasingly hostile. I'm comfortable with what I did then and am still doing now.

The thing is, the job is disappearing.

Dingfod
03-30-2005, 01:04 PM
You're young and childless. Enjoy this time in your life. Life is too short to get yourself stuck doing something you don't enjoy. Go forth on a new venture my young friend, get another job, move somewhere interesting (Lubbock interesting?). You have a sheepskin, often that is sufficient to get your foot in the door with an employer. My youngest sister lives in Oregon right now; she has yet, in the twenty some years since college, done anything that would require the Masters Degree in Psychology she earned, but she's always been employed.

Crumb
03-30-2005, 05:05 PM
Thanks for the support guys. I know you are right. I just have to get off my lazy ass. The great thing is that just about any full time job I might get now would probably pay me more that the half-time job I have now and loathe. I am so glad I am not trying to do this full-ime right now. I would be having a flipping break down!

(And no Lubbock is not very interesting. :P) So who knows where or how I might land, but I will start sticking my nose in whereever I can I guess and seeing if I can't find something.

I did hear a rumor that Google was opening an office here. That would be a cool company to work for. They already have an office up in Seattle though, and that is a nice place to live. Taking your advice though Warrenly, I will look even farther afield than that.

Anyway, whatever happens, i will keep you guys posted.

JoeP
03-31-2005, 12:59 PM
BTW, kicking my butt won't help me much if it lands me flat on my face.
Unless you're asleep to start with: :bow4:

I'll go with theloneranger and agree that if you aren't going to enjoy it, you should get out. But have you explored what you hate about it? And whether those things could be fixed?

I can imagine why you don't want to deal with the children. (What ages are you currently teaching?) But what do you find worst about dealing with the parents? Could any of it be solved by blackmail, like planting evidence they are abusing their children? :xhairs: :twisted:

Crumb
03-31-2005, 05:39 PM
7th graders. Most of the parents are ok. It is the willfully powerless and the ones that decide they and their kid don't like me and that is ok that bother me.

I think that what I don't like about it is not the primary reason. But that my personality does not fit the job and I can feel the annoying little buggers turning me into an asshole. I don't want to be an asshole.

godfry n. glad
03-31-2005, 05:48 PM
7th graders. Most of the parents are ok. It is the willfully powerless and the ones that decide they and their kid don't like me and that is ok that bother me.

I think that what I don't like about it is not the primary reason. But that my personality does not fit the job and I can feel the annoying little buggers turning me into an asshole. I don't want to be an asshole.

Arrrrrgh! Middle-schoolers. Are you still sane? Fellow middle-school teacher's definition of middle-school boys: "They run everywhere and when they get there, they hit something"

A parent of grown children, a boy and two girls, suggested that children should be vacuum packed at 12 and broken open about 20. That engendered disagreement over the appropriate years, but not the basic idea.

My condolences.

Crumb
03-31-2005, 05:52 PM
Thanks for understanding. :tired:

Roland98
03-31-2005, 06:03 PM
A friend of mine has a degree in History/Geology, did Teach for America for 2 years, and then ended up working at National Geographic on their educational website for kids for awhile (then decided to actually get some teaching qualifications, so she's at Harvard in their M. Ed. program). I'm sure that's not the only place who has a job like that, and with your qualifications, sounds like that area would be a good fit--especially since, as mentioned, you're young and I presume not tied down to any certain geographical area.

Sauron
04-01-2005, 01:53 AM
If you like teaching, but on a small scale, how about becoming a tutor? Or working for a small, Montessori-type school?

My sister is scheduled to become a teacher. But she's also having the same love/hate relationship with the job. It sounds like you still ike the idea of teaching -- but in small doses only -- so maybe you still have something to give to the idea. But in a venue of your own choosing, and maybe not in public schools.

Crumb
04-01-2005, 02:47 AM
You got it right there Sauron. I think I would love to work one on one or even as much as one on five. I am much better when I don't feel like I have to put on a show and when I don't have the discipline of a few kids taking all my time to work with the others.

If I was going to fo further with teaching it would have to be on a much smaller scale. Tutoring would be the ticket. I looked for tutoring jobs earlier though, and I couldn't seem to find any.