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First year out is really tough, I gather from my friends.
When you say you have nobody to talk to, you mean about teaching, I take it???
That's tough...do you keep up with anyone you studied with? I know my teacher friends got kind of isolated from the rest of us in their first couple of years out, because we couldn't really understand the stresses of their job and weren't wanting to babble about it with them as much as they needed to babble about it. (I was lucky when I graduated because my in first job I very quickly made friends with a group of people who were great fun as friends, but also we were able to babble about the job as much as we wanted.)
The money + uncertainty thing is very toxic for you. I do hope a job comes through fast.
diploma = awesome!
the rest of the stuff will fall into place. just hang in there. yaddi yaddi.
elementary school teachers are the most important adults in the world - didja know?
might be - according to my beliefs - that you don't have a job yet because someone else still has the one you are meant for.
i hope they break both their legs.
(this is a joke)
completing a master's degree is awesome. i'm impressed.
It takes time, K. I was a sub for a year and a half before I got a permanent teaching gig. You'll find your niche.
I doing better today, Izzie, thanks.
Dlowan - I don't have anyone to talk to about the stress. I had a dream the other night that the kid knocked me out by hitting me on the back of the head with a broom handle and no one in the school did anything about it. Stress. Someone to talk about what normal is and isn't would be nice too, I loose track once in a while.
Swimpy - I have nothing against taking a long-term sub position, and openings for two in 5th grade just came out today.
Hey! I just checked the mass dept of ed and I have a license number!!! Woohoo!
This is as official as it gets, Ms Teacher. Guess your thread needs a new title now.
Congratulations...you DO be a teecher!
Swimpy, thanks for adding that you subbed for a year before landing your job. I'm hitting the pavement in January. Already lined up to sub in two districts. (Gwinnett pays $30 more a day to sub than Athens-Clarke.)
LilK. I have downturns occasionally. It's really hard to pull out of them, so I have Plans for depression (like Enhanced Situational Depression 3500--not the scary kind) now. I'll do something incredibly indulgent (give myself a day on the couch vegetating, watching old movies or a really huge smoothy), and then the next day, I attack the gym like a barbarian...like proving to myself that I can dominate the depression. It's suited for me. Maybe you can formulate a plan for when you dip in depression. Maybe get five people who understand what's going on, and indulge yourself in a nice long call to one of them (rotate them) and talk it out. Sometimes, even if they can't offer solutions, they can listen and care..and you won't feel so isolated in all the sturm and drang.
I'll be one of them.
Good luck, Lash. I think it's rare to land a full time teaching gig straight out of school. Most principals want to see you in action first.
Thanks Lash, good tips. I'm already coming out of it. I have a week until I have some extra money again. I did indulge by buying a six pack of beer with some tutoring money (both the money and the beer are gone now).
My usual fix for depression is to go hiking which requires gas money and a diabetic cat who is a little better regulated. All in due time.
Hiking sounds like a great idea. It's crappy when you can't work your plan, though. Best wishes for kitty's full recovery!
btw, beer is a notable plan...haha. I have a bottle of Chianti awaiting my next debacle.
Could someone kindly remind me why I thought teaching would be a good vocation? I thought I'd be a good fit, but the system is chaffing.
Alas, just about every bureaucracy applies itself like a pair of tight wet undies
to those who are trying to get the real work done.
Corragio!
littlek wrote:Could someone kindly remind me why I thought teaching would be a good vocation? I thought I'd be a good fit, but the system is chaffing.
Teacher is a good vocation for you because you love children, and you rock at mentoring and inspiring them. It is also a good vocation for you because you're a people person, and there's a lot of people involved in school, grown up or not. And about your frustrations with the system: I can't argue with you about this one, except to say that you're dealing with it much better than I would. I wouldn't have survived it for a month. So you rock on this one too, at least in relative terms.
[size=7]Did that work at all?[/size]
Grrrr. Cat. erased. the. friggin. post.
deep breath
I have rarely been so overwhelmingly frustrated.
No one has called me for an interview. I have no job next year - and right now, no prospects for a job. People (classroom teachers, parents, other colleagues) spew and heap praise at and on me, but they won't be doing the hiring. Even the principals have been quite vocal about their praise.
The summer program has been organized, apparently, by toads. I was hired on as a teaching assistant in grade 2. The boy I 1:1 with will be in the grade 3 classroom with a sped teacher he doesn't know and a 1:1 he doesn't know. His sped teacher is actually teaching at the summer program, but in a different 3 grade classroom. I am TAing with another 1:1 from my school who will be teaching in the classroom with the child she 1:1 with, but she won't be her 1:1 = someone else will be. For this class of maybe 8-10 students, there will be 6 adults running smack dab into each other. In another class, there will be 10 students with one teacher and several kids with special needs. I don't even know if she has a TA at all. Someone with limited experience and from outside the district is head teacher in a room while I am TAing.
And, while people assured me that things would be resolved at this initial meeting (I would be moved to 1:1 with my guy), they weren't. The budget has been met before the program has started. No one can move positions because that would entail pay changes. So. Even though the parent of my guy, the behaviorist, the whole IEP team wanted me to be with him this summer to maximize his experience, it's not going to happen. And the other kids won't have their 1:1s with them. Even though some of them will be back with the same next year.
At first I thought this was intentional - a break for child and aid. But, it's not. Students and their aids from the school out of which this program is run are together. They just never bothered to check into who should be with whom.
And. Argh! And, the vice superintendent wants the teachers to have a weekly meeting AFTER school one day a week. The coordinators couldn't tell us when or for how long. And, it's outside of the regular scheduled hours, but for no extra pay. The V super did this "to ensure that this would be the best summer program around".
Back at the ranch (current school) this morning, there was nothing but griping for the ineptitude of the toads who planned this - whoever they are. I'd quit to do another job, but that would be shooting myself in the foot.
Ack!
Stupid toads.
I think this is about the worst of it, though. This was about when I dropped out. I had my master's degree but just wasn't finding teaching jobs. I went in another direction (advocacy/ counseling) and that ended up being good and I've definitely used my degree/education and plan to use it again.
That's not to be discouraging, since I know a lot of people who got through this phase and went on to long and enjoyable careers in education. That's just to say that I've been there and done that and understand the deep frustration involved.
I don't know what to say. "That sucks" comes to mind, but it's such a clicheé. So sorry you have to go through this.
$%%#@@@ (&^%^ ^&^$$%!!!!!!!!!!
Crap on a cracker, LilK.
I'll bang my head for ya...
RH
