My contributions to our blog have been quite scarce recently. Thankfully it is because I have been busy with a new job. As many of your know I had been searching for a full time teaching job, since graduating with my Master's in Teaching from Concordia University in the Spring of 2010. Previously, I had worked as a Store Manager for Ross Dress for Less.
Working for Ross had its ups and downs, it was a very good job and I learned a whole lot about managing people and running a business. It certainly was challenging staffing a store of 60 employees, and all the issues that are involved with that. However, despite working in retail for 11 years, I always knew that I did not want to work retail for my entire life. As I often say about Ross, I didn't want to sell $10 t-shirts for the rest of my life. Despite knowing Ross was not my long-term future, it was still a difficult decision to quit my job at Ross. After all, the job paid pretty well, (much better than that of a first year teacher) I was good at it, I was in charge, and most of the time I enjoyed it.
While I knew quitting in the midst of the worst job market in a generation would be difficult, I wasn't quite prepared for how hard it would be on me mentally. While I feel I weathered the ups and downs of unemployment quite well, (it helped being distracted by Erin's pregnancy) there were times of great frustration. Going into the 2010-2011 school year, I was not very optimistic that I would get a teaching job. I knew the job market was tough and was prepared to be a substitute teacher for the year. But, I was not prepared for just how difficult it was. After filling out 50 or so applications for every teaching Social Studies and Language Arts Middle School or High School job with in 2 hours of Portland, I had exactly one interview. And it was actually in Eugene, Oregon, not exactly commuting distance. The job market for teachers was just that rough.
Unfortunately, my plans to sub most of the year also got off to a rough start. In my focus on finding a full time job, I failed to pay much attention to what I needed to do to be a substitute and missed many deadlines. On top of that Multnomah County Educational District, the county we live and the ESD that staffs subs for most of the local districts already had too many subs due to layoffs and the job market so they did not even take any applications for substitutes for the entire year.
So I was mostly stuck working a part time job at Fred Meyer that I had picked up in the summer just so I had something. While not what I wanted to do, Fred Meyer was flexible with my schedule and more or less tolerable. It was very hard going from working a retail job with four-wall responsibility to just being a cashier in a large retailer that from my perspective could very easily improve their customer service and management by taking some common sense easy steps with their staff. But, I did my best to just come and do what I was asked to the best of my ability.
While stuck working at Fred Meyer, I knew I couldn't just stop gaining educational experience. So I began searching for any opportunities to continue to be involved in helping students succeed. I was able to find two opportunities that despite taking a while to develop turned out to very enjoyable and worthwhile.
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| Harvey Scott |
The first was weekly volunteering at Harvey Scott School in Portland Public Schools. The church we attend Mosaic, has a long term and ongoing partnership with Harvey Scott, we look to support students and staff in anyway possible. Cleaning the grounds through a workday happens quarterly, staff appreciation is done, school improvements where possible, and of course classroom volunteers. I was able to volunteer for a couple hours a week in a SS/La missed 7th grade classroom. Not only was I able to help students, but I also saw some great teaching strategies happening in a very challenging teaching environment.
My second opportunity to get in a classroom was an opportunity I initially turned down. Erin teaches an AVID class at her school, part of the curriculum involves outside tutors coming in twice a week to help direct the students in a tutorial session. The tutors really just manage the process, and ask lots of questions while attempting to help the students find the answers through student collaboration. Erin, had suggest I be an Avid tutor early in the year, but of course thinking I was too good for that, and that after all I was a teacher not a tutor I turned her down. After half a year with little classroom time, I finally decided to take her up on her offer.
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| Some fun for spirit week while teaching Erin's Classes. |
Being an Avid tutor was actually quite fun. I ended up tutoring for 4 classes at Hudson's Bay High School and two classes at Jason Lee Middle School twice a week. It was a great way to make contacts, with other teachers, develop some good relationships with students and just to be in the classroom on a regular basis again. Unfortunately, or fortunately I did not get to tutor for very long.
As we have written about before on this blog, Erin was pregnant at the time and just one day after Vancouver Public Schools opened their sub pool and I got hired again, Erin had to go on bed rest. I soon took over her classroom full-time and had to stop my tutoring. However, that short experience allowed me to learn many new strategies, see multiple teaching styles and made me much more familiar with the Avid curriculum that would come in handy when teaching Erin's classes.
Once I completed the year in Erin's class, the reality of finding a job quickly set in. I once again applied for every possible LA and SS job within a 90 minute commute, and once again I received very little interest. Towards the middle of August I did have an interview that I was really excited for, it was at Frontier Middle School, the school I had done my practicum in, and was for a .6 Avid job. I was pumped! I love teaching Avid, had experience as both a tutor and a teacher and on top of that had been in the school previously. It sounded perfect. However, it was not to be. I am sure it was not solely my terrible interview, but also some very highly qualified competition.
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| Mom, Dad and Nathan all off to our first day of school. |
I was quite bummed after seemingly bombing my one and only interview of the summer. However, every time I'd talk to someone else from my graduating cohort, and heard a very similar experience I'd feel ever so slightly better. It was hard to see Erin gearing up for the year while I was still slogging away at Fred Meyer, and preparing to sub for the year. The good news was, I was starting to schedule quite a few sub jobs. After working in Erin's building I had even more contacts with teachers than ever before. I had a teacher who was doing an internship and had 30 days spread throughout the year in her class scheduled, and many others who had said they'd use me whenever they needed a sub. I even ended up working the first three days of school in Erin's building. It was quite fun as I actually planned much of the lessons and for the first time kinda got a feel for what the beginning of the year felt like.
Pressure was starting to mount, after all we had decided to put Nathan in daycare and I had to work at least 12 days a month to pay for the very expensive childcare, and after my initial three days of work, I ran into a lull in sub jobs.
Then I got a phone call. .. . .
stay tuned for Part II of The Job Search.
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