lindsey372

cool idea

Love hearing about your interests. Good luck everyone. Austin is a great location, obv. I think next week will be huge in terms of results.

Thanks

Yes I do that but didn’t know if there should be an extended citation somewhere, showing where I’m getting the quote from.

I quote a few scholars in my SOPs - how are you guys approaching the problem of citations? Are you giving any? It seems weird to include a "works cited" at the end of a document that does not necessarily follow MLA format. But I'm also worried that it will seem unprofessional if I do not cite. Footnote? Good faith? I'm vexed.

Anyone attending in Dallas next month?

Since I, and maybe others who don't live on this forum, have not followed the ponzi scheme thread, reactivating the conversation here, with new perspectives, has been edifying (for me at least) and hopefully worthwhile since secondary teaching is such a common plan B.

I too was a long term sub before I got my certification. As I'm sure you're aware molloy (or maybe you're not) subbing and full time teaching are incredibly different experiences. For instance, I would never, ever sub again. Ever. But I would happily teach HS in a full-time/permanent position for the rest of my career. First, subs receive, what it is now, 10/hr? 12/hr? So basically nothing and no benefits. You get no support from other teachers or admin. The only person that cares about you is the sub coordinator, and they only care about you if you don't show up. Molloy is correct, in that you are just a scab, a temporary body to fill the room while they look for certified candidates. No one cares about subs. No one. And then there's the students.... Coming into someone else's classroom, to try and continue someone else's (or the dept's) plans, with no input at all, with kids who you have not known from day-1. Ugh. I am getting bad feelings just remembering it all. Respect is a constant battle with a sub. Kids of all performance levels will challenge your authority on a daily basis. I can see why Molloy is jaded. As a full time employee, you get.... Salary and benefits, plus a mentor teacher is assigned to you your first year, to personally check up on you and help you figure stuff out. You are in a professional learning community (PLC) with your entire department or with a grade level team where you meet (usually weekly) to plan and discuss, bounce ideas off each other, etc. If you are new to teaching your grade level team or PLC community will be your first support network, and since it is made up of other teachers, lots of whom are veterans, usually they are very eager to help you because they remember what it was like to be new to teaching. Admin usually treats you very well because they do not want to have to deal with all the discipline issues that comes with bringing in a long term sub if you decide to quit. Teachers are valuable and just like any other business, public schools do not do well with high turnover. Once you're there and they see you can do a good job, they want you to stay. Also there is the fact that you get your own classroom with your own lesson plans and with your own students who get to know you from the first day. This part is crucial. No matter how assertive you are as a sub, it will never replace being there from day 1. Kids are loyal to a fault. But most importantly, you get to feel as if you're a part of a team and a community.You feel valued. You never get that with subbing. Its a huge difference in quality of life. This is true. Teaching is still a very demanding job, but I do think that people who have advanced degrees in the humanities are well-suited for it. And if you have an advanced degree, you are not stranger to hard work, I would assume. And, if you're using the skills you learned with those degrees to inform your career as a secondary teacher, they cease to be useless, IMO. Well said. But I would hope doing one's homework would mean getting advice about the profession from people who have actually taught as a full time faculty member. Even then, people can exaggerate the negative and positive aspects of anything. And if anyone loves to complain, its teachers. The only real way to know if the profession is right for you is to try it yourself. It usually takes only a year to get an alternative certification. If you hate it, you hate it. If there are any prospective teachers out there, I would be wary of advice from people with only sub experience (though they are acting in good faith). While applicable in some respects, its a skewed picture overall of the profession.

I agree that the school in Austin it was on the more exceptional side of the spectrum, however now I am in a semi-rural district outside of corpus. I teach an on grade-level (non- Pre-AP) testing grade and it is VERY different but still a positive experience in the long run and stable. I think my current job is closer to the norm and I do still believe that there are a lot of jobs like mine to be had, depending on where you live (hopefully not Chicago). If you are not getting salary and benefits, then yes, teaching ANYWHERE is exploitative. I was unfamiliar with state laws that would allow a full time teaching position to be nonsalaried. Lesson: you should all move to Texas.

Why is giving another experience a refutation of your points? How? I assume readers here are smart enough to know that there are many different experiences one can have.....so why not give mine?

@mollifiedmolloy @rising_star your experiences are not invalidated if I give my own. If my experience differs, it is an alternative, not a refutation all other experiences.

@displayname the quote you use is in reference to teaching high school, not working as a grad student.

@rising_star Good points, teaching can be so different depending on where you do it and what you teach. I can only speak to my experience, but from what I can gather in a measly two years of teaching English is that some districts are better than others, but I would venture that the ratio between the amount of good (by good I mean stable) districts in comparison to less stable districts is not too bad. Of all the teachers I know personally, not one of them has had to move out of town just to get a job, but then again the only towns I've taught in have been Austin and Corpus Christi (moved bc husband is in grad school). Also, not all grades are testing grades, and even within a testing grade, if you teach Pre-AP, testing is not an issue. In TX 11th and 12th grade do not take state tests, so they are entirely off the hook testing wise. And what sort of paperwork is your aunt doing that takes hours everyday? Periodically I fill out forms for ARD or spec ed meetings, but usually I am just planning for class during my conference. I have only been teaching for 2 years, and can only speak to my experience and the experience of a handful of other veteran teachers. This is in no way trying to invalidate your friend's experiences, but simply to offer mine as an alternative.

The way the sentences were structured, I read the 1% gig as a lesser of two evils, but I see the misread. However, I don't think teaching HS is as dire a situation as that post painted it.

I totally agree it's not for everyone, but I would not call it "extremely exploitative." Is it hard work? Yes. Do you get a living wage and full benefits? Yes. Exploitation? No. I disagree with the way of thinking that suggests the only worthwhile gig would be teaching the top 1%. There are AMAZING and I mean AMAZING students in public school systems. I've taught sophomores who were reading David Foster Wallace, Freud, and Derrida for fun. I've witnessed students who never read for fun all of a sudden get into a book and start a ferocious discussion. You have no idea the world of awesomeness that can happen in a public school.