There are some good ideas here, but whatever you do, don't give up.

I was one of those frustrating students that just didn't seem to care. Cruised through highschool not paying attention to teachers and managing C's and a few D's with the occasional B thrown in. Almost never did homework or a complete assignment. I don't have ADHD or attention problems, I was just bored. Older brother was Mr. Perfect, class valedictarian, 4.0, the whole thing. I was constantly compared to him: Why can't you be like your brother? In a small school where everyone knows everyone, this can be really annoying. Whatever you do, don't compare siblings or classmates for motivation.

I'm still amazed at what I learned in school. It just seems to have stuck somehow, although I can't tell you how. My older brother graduated with an accounting degree from USC and has worked nothing but minimum wage jobs ever since. I focused on sports, played a few years in minor league baseball, and went into business with a passion. I made my first $million before thirty, my older brother is a great guy, but he still works for minimum wage.

Some of those students are listening and learning, but you just don't know it yet. Don't give up.

I wouldn't go back if you even semi like where your at. You won't be a 1st year teacher anymore if they do decide on RIFs. Although if you turn them down again they probably won't be calling you anymore.

My position, which I have developed over the last year of sitting on my ass thinking, is that the school districts like most companies out there don't give a crap about their employees so you need to look out for yourself first. I made the mistake of believing that just because I was a good teacher who put my job and students first that it would matter to the school district and I would be safe. Naive? Perhaps, but that's what I wanted to believe. Parents were mad when they heard I was being RIFd and not some of bad teachers in the building and in the end it didn't make a world of difference.

At the time I had hoped that it was just my school district that was this way, but I've had contact with more districts and administrators than I can count right now and its sad to say that only 1 of them have gone against the grain.

Personally after being a bystander for this school year to everything I now more than ever want to become a principal or superintendent. There are way too many bad teachers in the classroom and nobody does anything about it. Even thinking about that just gets me mad because almost every educator is there for the students, yet when they see someone who isn't in the best interest of the students they shy away from the problem. I don't want to get into the politics of it all since I would be typing all night and I need to work on my dissertation, but there are so many issues and if the people in education don't want to fix them then the people in Washington are going to fix them for us and we know that isn't going to be good for anybody.

Sorry that turned into more of a rant than intended....

jz, it's a good rant, though. I actually feel similar to you pretty often. I have no idea what the ins and outs of being in administration are. However, I've had two REALLY good admins and the rest were pretty meh. This includes ones I hear about from friends who teach.

I basically think that I should try being a principal simply because of how bad some of them are at it.

I'd be happy to have you as my principal, I think. So I say go for it and then get a job above me.

Right back at ya

I talked a little with my principal today about it actually. Just randomly it kind of came up.

He said that he thought I should consider it sometime. So I guess that's a small endorsement, which is nice since he's only known me a year. haha

want to second this sentiment. alot of the stuff that students will learn from you won't even be realized for a few years, either. i can remember some of the lectures and things my teachers taught me (not specific nuggets of information but HOW to think). i remember in school i was like ??? 'i don't give a ****, who cares?' and years later reflecting on some of the stuff in those classes and thinking 'oh, yeah...that's how xxxx described it' or what have you.

even though i did poorly in some of those classes back then, i gained a ton of knowledge; mainly in the way i developed arguments/etc.

Update: Just had my first job interview in over 6 months at a private Catholic school and was offered the job on the spot. I should be thrilled by this I suppose, but I'm having mixed feelings for a couple of reasons.

1) I'd take a 40-50% pay cut from what I was making in the public schools. It's obviously better than being unemployed, but it is still a MAJOR decrease. Plus my wife already works in a different private schools and makes close to nothing so that would now make two of us. I think we would just be able to swing all of the bills + my last year of doc. school payments, but nothing else. No vacations/no saving for a bigger house/no kids. This right now is the biggest hang up for me.

2) I taught general elementary education before and this position is for Pre K-8 general music. I would be working with over 500+ students a week instead of the 20-25. I would also have to play at the mass each work + have a spring musical + have a x-mas concert.

The biggest plus of the job is that the music position is only 4 days a week. I was offered full time work by picking up the 5th day by being the RTI (Response to Interventions) coordinator for the building. RTI is basically monitoring the bottom 20% of the student population's academic performance and providing different solutions to bring them on level with the other 80% (This is a very very basic explanation of it). I already have knowledge of the software and of the interventions that they would use along with hands on experience from being a classroom teacher and seeing different results. I eventually want to get into administration and this would look great on the resume when I want to make the transition.

If I was offered this job in the middle/end of July than it would be a no brainer to take it. Right now though I have no friggin clue. I have until Monday morning to make a decision.

I sent in my acceptance letter today after thinking about a lot over the last couple of days. I think it will be a lot of fun teaching music instead of gen. ed. for a year and will get exposure to students over all ages. This would take many years in a gen. ed. class. The school also made some additional offers for more stipend positions that would give me some more money as well which showed that they really wanted me there. After my last experience and being let go in the manner I was that counts for a lot. So I'll be able to start posting updates again

Congrats! Glad to hear that you've found yourself in teaching work again. Very good.

I have a new plan, but it involves getting a job in n area that might be rough to get into. Certainly rough by next year...but it's a 1-2 year plan. I'm just happy to have a plan.

bump for NC discussion

it's like all the tldr mods have life changing events going on

Hopefully they merge it in here, but I won't be too upset if that doesn't happen.

With the year coming up, I'm sure I'll be posting some updates soon.

Why would you get paid less at Private than public. rural teachers(first 3-5years) at public school make only around 40k

For me I have a masters degree plus 46 hours above that so my base salary was significantly higher because I was getting paid several brackets above base. Not to mention my old district gave you a raise for every 8 hours of graduate credit, most are 15. Private schools around here start between 25k and 30k with my school being on the low end. Unfortunately higher ed. Credits top off at MA+15 so any additional grad. Hours won't give me a raise unlike public schools. I also have 2 half year credits that were counted as a full year in the public school that I'm not getting credit for now which is another 1k. Not much of a difference but every little bit helps.

Gonna have to threadjack this occasionally since my first day in the classroom is tomorrow. Kinda nervous, but overall not quite as bad as my very first day with my own Latin class back when I was in grad school.

Did I mention that I'm teaching at an all-girls school? With only two other male teachers? Each of whom is 30+ years my senior? Gonna be interesting.

I'm guessing that at a lot of schools teachers are setting up fantasy football leagues. But at my school, one of the secretaries just sent out an e-mail to the faculty about the biggest loser pool. $20 buy-in plus penalties for people who gain weight or skip weigh-ins. Too bad I'm 5'10" and 130. On the plus side, if they like this sort of gambling maybe there's a poker night where I can take all their monies.

Please contribute.

I've been working a fair amount on refining my freshmen curriculum. It's looking pretty sharp. My test prep stuff is pretty solid. A friend did the legwork, and I'm just going to be implementing it. I hope to see some good measurable gains. I already like what I do that isn't measured so quantitatively, so hopefully this completes me.

Senior curriculum is still very whatever. I'm set to get through week one though!

Back in work mode as well. Spent the last two days in new teacher meetings. Not a lot of fun learning about lesson plans, not touching children and Jesus. Am going to spend the next few days getting my room ready before official teacher institute days. We start on Monday the 22.

I have no new classes until late October...don't know what to do with my nights now....oh wait, yes I do: poker and sex.

Haven't checked out the thread in a while but had to mention this brag: taking over the calculus class this year which means a class of 5 excellent students, only negative is after teaching 6 years of basic algebra, I actuallynhave to remember/relearn my calc,

They don't let you touch Jesus?

I have two primary goals this school year:

1) Be less stressed. This might lead to me being a slightly less effective teacher, but I think in terms of life happiness, it's a must.

2) Experiment with improving my student's standardized test scores. I'm not fixated on becoming a "teach to the test" teacher, but I do think I can do it in a useful way that will improve their reading and writing skills.

Want to be a sponsor?

As you know, I already am an assistant coach, and that takes up four months of my year. Also, I'm only in year 2 here (3 total), so I'm still trying to improve my curriculum. Plus, I have new curriculum to make for seniors.

So they're trying to push off Student Council on me and another guy. You have to plan homecoming, supervise float building, set up the homecoming parade, set up another dance or two, and do various other tasks throughout the year. The salary is spoilered at the bottom.

So at a faculty meeting with everyone, they start pressuring the other guy to take it over. He clearly wants nothing to do with it, but he's a nice guy, and is in an incredibly awkward situation with all staff and the principal there (principal doesn't push it at all). So anyway, he says he will tentatively consider it. Afterwards, I offer to possibly help him out and split the pay. Everyone thinks this is a great idea when they overhear me tell him.

I thought about it, and beyond financially it being not worth it, I just think it would stress me out way too much. I would love to do it for the kids, help out with creating a more "school spirited" atmosphere, and just get some experience. However, I think it'd be a bad idea to take this on.

So the faculty knows that this guy and I are considering taking it over. That was yesterday. So today, in front of like six teachers, the old sponsor brings out this thick binder and says, "Here you go" to the other guy. Just dumping it off with a giant ****-eating grin on her face. At this point, I find that incredibly tacky and lame, so I'm definitely not wanting to do this now. Ugh.

Such a scummy move, imo. It has also stressed me out a little because now I'm worried they're going to hold him (and me?) to it or something. I think she has taken our good-natured offer and become a tool about it. If I go talk to the principal tomorrow and he says we don't have to do it, then I won't be as upset...but I still think she was a tool to be so crappy about this. She was just enjoying it so much. **** her.

Salary:

i think the correct answer is to not do it and to seton fire in front of them...

"After seeing (ex-sponsor) so happy to get rid of the job, I've decided to concentrate on coaching"
-SoloAJ to principal

Brilliant!

Wow, Nut, that's a good line. I plan to use a light-hearted version of it when I talk to him tomorrow.

Question: Is this one of those things where I am okay to bail on the other guy? Like, I've made it clear to him that I don't want to do it. If he's too nice to say no, I don't have to feel bad, right?

I imagine I will stop feeling bad in about a day. haha