tweenteacher.com » employment

Teaching Secrets: Finding a Job That You Love

heather — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:33:00 +0000

Know a teacher who got a pink slip? Maybe my newest post at Teacher Magazine can help. Click here for the article.

It’s Step 1 of my Top Secret New Teacher Handbook. Hope it creates some shortcuts, a machete even, through the education jungle.

-Tweenteacher

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Am I So Past My Prime?

heather — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:02:28 +0000

Somehow, and maybe I’m reading into it here, I feel a little written off already. Education Week is reporting that some districts are pondering the possibility of “front-loading” new teacher salaries, increasing their compensation earlier in their career to aid in recruiting “higher-calibur talent.” But, um, what about me?

I’m a little frustrated at the message this sends to those of use who have invested in this career. I mean, I know that we need to recruit new teachers, but a talented person with great ability in their field does not necessarily a good teacher make. Remember, teaching is about two skills that must be mastered: that of content and that of communication.(...)
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Post tags: alternative credetials, credential, Ed Tech, ELA, employment, free, fundraising, Language Arts, learning, life long learners, merit pay, middle school, performance pay, teaching, TLN, Writers Project, writing

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Second-Career Teachers…Aren’t we All?

heather — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 06:03:11 +0000

The Illinois News-Gazette recently reported an increase in second career teachers. But, really, aren’t we all second-career teachers? I mean, unless we bopped from high school to a BA to an education program and landed directly into the teaching field, surely we “were” something else in our lives before teaching…and surely this past civilian life contributed to who we are now in the classroom.(...)
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Post tags: alternative credetials, blog, differentiation, education policy, employment, k-12, k12, Language Arts, life long learners, middle school, second-career, writing

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Should a free education be unconditional?

heather — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:25:19 +0000

So you know when you get your group of kids on the first day, there are those who immediately set off your alarms? Well, that definitely happened to me on my first day.

I have a student who clearly needs help. His peers are weary of him already and his confrontational style seems not as intentional as inherent. The startling comments and “seething anger”, as his last year’s teacher put it only three weeks into the school year, seem uncontrollable. This same teacher recorded that he asked if her windows were bullet proof. I wasn’t, of course, given this information up front. I had to seek it out.

His first quickwrite of this year centered on cussing out his last teachers and cranking them nightly on the phone. His pride in his violent video games is apparent.

Like children with Asperger’s (of which he has not been tested to date), he seems unaware of cues or the goings on around him: calling out with inappropriate comments, walking in front of me while I talk to the class, handing me items while I’m in the middle of instruction. Annoying, yes, but harmless.

He also will not make eye contact (could be cultural, but this seems different than others of his ethnicity and nationality) and walks robotically, stiffly, without movement in his shoulders. Strangely enough, and I’m clearly not a diagnostician (though I play one on TV), the few students in my career who have had symptoms like this seem to also come with apparent sinus problems. His eyes are puffy with nasal issues, he is sniffy, and I can’t help but wonder if there is a connection.

So I approached the counselors who know me as a real student advocate and as a teacher with a somewhat effective antenna. I don’t send kids to the office. I handle my own discipline issues, which are few. So when I come in, they listen. The afternoon after the first day of school I walked in and said, “So, what’s up with X?” They pretty much flopped the file onto the desk, a file the size of our Language of Literature book.(...)
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Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, achievement gap, aspergers, blog, collaboration, Curriculum, differentiation, Ed Tech, education, education policy, ELA, employment, free, fundraising, Joanne Jacobs, k-12, k12, learning, metacognition, performance pay, special ed, teaching, technology, test, Title I

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Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a’comin…

heather — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:12:38 +0000

So, in a move reminiscent of a 12-year old girl caught up in the riot mentality of rumors, I believed the whisper I heard about not getting my Whiteboard for 2 months. But I tell you now: it was false, dear readers! Yes, not only have I heard that the boards have shipped, but the company even came after hours this week and brought me a borrowed board to use in the meantime. Props for service and courtesy.

So I write to you today as a contrite tweenteacher. Lesson learned. Don’t listen to the gossip in the teacher’s lounge.

So, in an attempt to bring this post around to some actual advice for all you educators out there, I want to reiterate that point: do not waste one minute of your time this year in a toxic teacher environment. This is different than a Toxic Teaching Environment which can be defined as anything that gets in the way of you doing your job: under-funding, lack of school wide discipline, fractured classrooms, etc…

No, I’m talking about a specific breed of pollution that is meant to choke the enthusiasm out of you: the Toxic Teacher Environment. (...)
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Post tags: 2008, blog, carnival of education, Character Education, collaboration, computers, credential, critical thinking, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, digital immigrants, Ed Tech, ELA, employment, equity, game shows, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, k-12, k12, middle school, new teachers, professional development, teaching, tenure, Title I, UCI, websites

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The Carnival of Education is in Town!

heather — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:48:10 +0000

Welcome to the Carnival of Education #177 hosted this week by Where’s the Sun? The theme was empowerment so my entry covers the first step in teacher empowerment, “How to Find a Job in Education that you Love.” You may not need this entry now, but you never know when a How To list like this one comes in handy. We all know teachers there who are looking for work, but are they looking smartly? Check out my article for some tips on how to search, who to contact, and tips during the interviewing process.

Enjoy Le Carnival!

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How To Get a Job in Education That You Love

heather — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:37:08 +0000

The Pre-First Step in How to Take Control of Your Teaching is actively seeking out the right school for you.

GOAL: To love where you work and enjoy what you are doing

Too many teachers are miserable. Some of that can be attributed to the difficulty of the job, but a lot can be blamed on the fact that many teachers take what they can get because they are so grateful to have a job. That’s no way to be happy, and that’s the teacher’s fault.

OK, kiddos, it’s not too early to start the process of looking for a job. Whether you are unhappy in your current position or you are a newbie looking at the world of education with wide-eyes and bushy tails, you are entitled to work in a place that “gets” you, and wants what you have to offer.

In fact, the springtime is perfect for those who are looking for the best positions out there. So if you’re interested in being the one in control of the interviewing situation, start now. Looking for a job in education in the spring signals to a potential employer that you are NOT the bottom of the barrel. Yes, there are great teachers out there who get hired two days before the start of the fall semester, but if you want choice yourself, get going now.

Here’s a step-by-step guide in how to get a job in education: (Note, this is not for the faint of heart or for those who need to follow the system set up by the districts. This guide is only for those maverick job-hunters out there.)

(...)
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Post tags: 2008, achievement gap, blog, btsa, budget, Careers, Character Education, competition, computers, credential, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, Ed Tech, education, employment, firing, interviewing, jobs, teaching

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This Totally Beats the “#1 Teacher” Mug

heather — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:45:43 +0000

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get a student who gives you a mug at the end of the school year. Sometimes, you even get a letter of thanks on a Teacher Appreciation Day. And then there are the times (maybe) that you get an idea of the influence that you had on someone. And then there is an email such as the one that I want to share with you today.(...)
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Post tags: credential, education, ELA, employment, essay, k-12, Language Arts, learning, life long learners, merit pay, middle school, PI, teaching, Title I

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Credential Programs: Give us your money and we’ll give you a classroom

heather — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:30:53 +0000

In Education Week’s article, “Busywork 101,” Jay Solomon writes that the credential programs of today are a “seemingly endless journey through the abstract and the ridiculous.” He also claims that these programs aren’t a conspiracy of arbitrary tedium. I beg to differ.(...)
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Post tags: assessments, audit, budget, collaboration, credential, Curriculum, Dave Saba, Ed Tech, education, education policy, ELA, embezzlement, employment, induction, jobs, k-12, k12, Language Arts, merit pay, middle school, school accountability, school funding, teaching, technology, test, Title I

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An Honors Student Does Not a Critical-Thinker Necessarily Make

heather — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:06:08 +0000

So my colleague who currently teaches 8th grade Language Arts tripped on a cord, flew to the corner of a table and was momentarily knocked unconscious behind her desk today. It was during her Honors class.(...)
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Post tags: budget, character, critical thinking, education, education policy, ELA, employment, equity, firing, honors, jobs, k-12, k12, learning, life long learners, performance pay, teaching

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Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse

heather — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:45:56 +0000

The Washington Post reported that the Washington Teachers’ Union is “proposing a three year contract…that would eliminate seniority.” This would allow administrators to retain newer but more effective teachers while relocating more veteran teachers to positions seemingly more suitable for the needs of the district as a whole. .

Now, while I would be totally devastated if I had to uproot and move my middle school life into another school in the district, the fact is that the union needs to have some flexibility here in giving administrators a modicum of power over their staff positions, even those with tenure.(...)
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Post tags: 2008, achievement gap, competition, credential, differentiation, education policy, ELA, employment, learning, Math, middle school, performance pay, school accountability, school funding, standardized testing, teaching, tenure, Title I, Washington Post

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Teacher Observations: Principals vs. the Union

heather — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:40:03 +0000

Teacher Magazine has an article today about Idaho’s progress in developing a standardized teacher evaluation that could be a stepping stone for developing an acceptable pay-for-performance legislature. The article didn’t get me thinking so must about the concept of a standardized teacher evaluation that might be more effective then our current process. I mean, let’s face it, what’s the controversy? We all know it should be a better process.

But it did get me thinking about an incident that happened last year at my school where the union was brought in to protect a teacher from being observed beyond the allowed contracted hours after complaints had been waged against the teacher. (...)
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Post tags: credential, cta, data, education, employment, firing, k-12, k12, merit pay, new teachers, performance pay, reform, tenure, union

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Don’t Knock the Less Experienced Teacher

heather — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:41:59 +0000

Look, we all know the statistics. Many of the hardest-to-teach classes are being taught by the least experienced teachers. According to Education Week, a study was recently conducted in Philadeliphia evaluating 9th graders, “the make-or-break year for many students on the path to dropping out of school” which found that “students are more likely than their upper-grade peers to be taught by inexperienced, uncertified teachers.”

While I understand the argument, I also know that these young teachers have an advantage that I will not have years down the line: energy.

When I was in my early years of teaching in my mid-twenties, I was hired to teach at an inner city school. It was, in fact, the under-funded alternative school for those students kicked out of the other schools. We had broken glass in the halls, police tape from the weekend still strewn over the kindergarten yard come Monday, and no textbooks. A classic Michelle Pfieffer/Hilary Swank/Morgan Freeman movie in the making.

I actually jumped into the deep end of the pool, and there wasn’t any filter, so there was moss on the top and calcium deposits coming from the cracks in the bottom, but it was there that I learned to swim. (...)
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Post tags: 100% accountability, 2008, achievement gap, ASCD Brief, ascd community, btsa, budget, Careers, character, collaboration, credential, curriculum development, education, employment, failing, firing, free, induction, integration, jobs, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, life long learners, merit pay, middle school, NCLB, new teachers, peer teaching, performance pay, PI, Proficiency, reform, school accountability, school funding, student safe, Title I

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