I HAVE A JOB!

[barking_iguana]

Finally!

And one I'm very excited about, though also somewhat scared of.

I'll be teaching math to Newark students who have been removed from the general classroom and are considered at risk for dropping out. Class size is about 15.

I know a lot of people will think it's crazy, but I'd rather teach in smaller classes and to kids who really need a competent, caring adult than to kids who are in almost as much need in a classroom that resembles a run-down factory.

I don't know whether I'll actually end up enjoying it, but I'm excited about giving it an immersive try and knowing from experience whether that's the population I want to work with.

It also pays more than other first-year jobs (everywhere in Newark does) and has the unusual hours of 11:00-7:00 or something like that.

I do have some safety concerns, of course. I hope that when I'm leaving in the evening, I'm leaving from a parking lot that the general public does not have access to.

I'm having alternating waves of relief and anxiety. The relief is huge. I was really feeling like an invalid human being.

The anxiety is a combination of what if something goes wrong (so far all I have is a phone call saying that I'll receive a formal offer within a week or so) or that it's so unsafe I'll have to quit. Much less anxiety that I'll be lousy, though that's there, too.

Comments

[shirleym.livejournal.com]

Hey, congratulations! I heard you talking about this job the other weekend, and I respect you for wanting to do it.

[polydad.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Yes, congratulations!

I'd rather teach in smaller classes and to kids who really need a competent, caring adult...

OK, "competent" is something every student needs. Will they really need "caring," though, as opposed to someone who will beat the bejesus out of them (metaphorically speaking, of course) until they shape up?

(OK, maybe I have a bad attitude. When I was in high school, the nation's most popular principal was an ex-Marine drill sergeant who carried a baseball bat. I guess it all rubbed off on me.)

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

According to the woman who interviewed me, school is often the only place these kids encounter anyone who deos care about them. People who would beat them up, on the other hand, are probably in much greater supply. Though there are some kids who needed exactly what that niscreant was offering, as a general rule, Joe Clark can kiss my ass.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Well Joe Clark lost his job a long time ago (IIRC he had a strip show in the school auditorium). I'm just concerned that they'll walk all over you unless you show you're tougher than they are. Some of them may need a caring adult, but others are probably beyond help, and the best you may be able to do is keep them in their seats, with their mouths shut, while you work with the others. I'm not asking you to turn your classroom into Abu Graib (that's the way schools used to be run; my grandmother's school would lock kids in the basement with wild dogs); I just hope you can keep everything under control.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Tough but fair comes first. Caring gets demonstrated quickly after that.

[chemoelectric.livejournal.com]

The main thing I decided from my many painful years as a student is that, first of all, a good teacher must maximize predictability for the student. To teach means to physically reshape the brain and nerves. (Notice how it takes sleep and waiting for improvement to follow a lesson). An unpredictable environment is disruptive to nervous tissue. Look at the effect on yourself of not knowing whether or when you would find your job.

Other than that, and a little experience as a TA at Rutgers, I don't know much about teaching. You might want to use your Google to look up a Reuven Feuerstein. That's just a name I can drop, I don't know too much about it. I get the name from Myron Tribus, whom you also might wish to look up. Tribus is a contributor to a mailing list I'm on, not directly related to teaching.

Congratulations!

[onecrazymother.livejournal.com]

I'm very excited for you, and proud to know you. Good luck!

[unclejam.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I probably am going to end up a teacher, myself. I think it's in the blood.

(also, this is Thomas, finally posting in your LJ. My own LJ is mostly me complaining about my INTERNET FRIENDS and also how school is hard whine whine, though.)