Teacher relocating to Dallas/Austin or SA from Chicago (Houston: home sales, find a job)

[getmeoutofhere]

All the articles and ads that talk about a teacher shortage are full of it.

The only thing there is a shortage of is high school math and science, the same things there always are. Everything else is either just at staffed or overstaffed.

There are tons of fully certified teachers in Texas, so alt-cert people have it very difficult.

[getmeoutofhere]

Originally Posted by sweethearttx

I really want to teach English Language Arts/Reading or Spanish

Good luck, districts are getting literally hundreds of applications for every open ELAR job. Fully-certified, experienced teachers, too.

Best of luck to you.

[sweethearttx]

Originally Posted by getmeoutofhere

Good luck, districts are getting literally hundreds of applications for every open ELAR job. Fully-certified, experienced teachers, too.

Best of luck to you.

Why do you have to be so negative? In all of your posts? I said English OR Spanish. I also said Bilingual. I also said secondary school, not elementary.

There are still plenty of jobs open in Spanish and Bilingual. And I've also seen job openings in English, in several districts. Mostly at the secondary level.

[sweethearttx]

And by the way, there was a story on the news just last week about the teacher shortage in Dallas ISD, and how desperately they need more teachers. I don't know where you are getting your info from, but maybe you need to double-check it. No, DISD wouldn't be the ideal setting to work...but there are jobs. And anyway, judging from your location (calling Dallas "Purgatory") I would venture to guess your attitude in general is sour anyway.

[getmeoutofhere]

Originally Posted by sweethearttx

Why do you have to be so negative? In all of your posts? I said English OR Spanish. I also said Bilingual. I also said secondary school, not elementary.

There are still plenty of jobs open in Spanish and Bilingual. And I've also seen job openings in English, in several districts. Mostly at the secondary level.

I'm referring to secondary education. I'm not being negative, I'm simply being direct. The alt-cert programs love to feed people a line about how easy teaching is and it's a guaranteed job...it's not and it's not.

Spanish you might have a little more luck with, but being able to teach and speak Spanish is not exactly a rare commodity in Texas.

Of course there are openings, but you will be competing with anywhere from 200 or 300 to 700+ people for each opening, and the majority of them will be traditionally-certified (which carries much more weight than alt-cert), and often will have experience.


I'm sorry if you don't like hearing how the real world is, but I can't change it. It's entirely possible you may luck into a position, but I wouldn't count on it.

Originally Posted by sweethearttx

And by the way, there was a story on the news just last week about the teacher shortage in Dallas ISD, and how desperately they need more teachers. I don't know where you are getting your info from, but maybe you need to double-check it. No, DISD wouldn't be the ideal setting to work...but there are jobs. And anyway, judging from your location (calling Dallas "Purgatory") I would venture to guess your attitude in general is sour anyway.

Of course there is a shortage. Of math and science teachers. There always is.

English, History, Social Studies...not so much.

And DISD has more shortages because they are a terrible district to work for, and because they fired a bunch of teachers after screwing up their budget.

My personal opinion of Texas and D/FW has nothing to do with the fact that there are a large number of colleges that turn out a lot of fully-qualified teachers here, and the market is supersaturated, particularly on the Language Arts side of secondary education. Combine that with a lot of people who are trying to teach because of layoffs, and someone with alt-cert and no teaching experience will have a very difficult time trying to get a job, unless you are willing to work in the slum. If you are, more power to you.



Again, sorry if reality might intrude on your dreams.

But my wish of good luck was sincere.

[Bostonian08]

Nobody has mentioned to the OP that DISD laid off 200 teachers last year. Obviously when the big district downsizes, the ripple effect is felt across the area.

In good economic times teacher jobs are plentiful cuz no one wants to do then when they can make 75$K in the corporate world. That's when you can walk into those alt-cert jobs no prob. But that's just not the case now. In sour times, the schools are the first government jobs to get cut back. Sad but true.

Cherry picking choice teaching jobs is definitely not happening in DFW. I don't know about AUS or SA, you should check, but I do know teaching opportunities are slim nationwide. I browsed Miami, NYC, and BOS and it's the same thing in all those places.

[sweethearttx]

Originally Posted by Bostonian08

Nobody has mentioned to the OP that DISD laid off 200 teachers last year. Obviously when the big district downsizes, the ripple effect is felt across the area.

Yes this is true, I remember that. Big budget issue in DISD. I think they also tried to call a lot of those teachers back once they did it, didn't they? Either way...it seems like almost every industry is suffering in this economy, except maybe healthcare. Jobs are scarce everywhere. Tough times.

[TurtleCreek80]

My friend teaches in Plano and said the district hired only 200 new teachers this year vs the usual 1,000. Her principal said that it was statistically easier to get into Harvard's freshman class this year than to get one of those 200 positions.

So yes, there may still be some open positions to fill in the holes in the DFW schools, but you'll be competing with thousands of people who diddn't get jobs in Plano, Richardson, etc this summer.

[loves2read]

good for you--hope you are very happy in Houston and make a career there

[JS1]

Originally Posted by getmeoutofhere

I'm referring to secondary education. I'm not being negative, I'm simply being direct. The alt-cert programs love to feed people a line about how easy teaching is and it's a guaranteed job...it's not and it's not.

Spanish you might have a little more luck with, but being able to teach and speak Spanish is not exactly a rare commodity in Texas.

Of course there are openings, but you will be competing with anywhere from 200 or 300 to 700+ people for each opening, and the majority of them will be traditionally-certified (which carries much more weight than alt-cert), and often will have experience.


I'm sorry if you don't like hearing how the real world is, but I can't change it. It's entirely possible you may luck into a position, but I wouldn't count on it.






Of course there is a shortage. Of math and science teachers. There always is.

English, History, Social Studies...not so much.

And DISD has more shortages because they are a terrible district to work for, and because they fired a bunch of teachers after screwing up their budget.

My personal opinion of Texas and D/FW has nothing to do with the fact that there are a large number of colleges that turn out a lot of fully-qualified teachers here, and the market is supersaturated, particularly on the Language Arts side of secondary education. Combine that with a lot of people who are trying to teach because of layoffs, and someone with alt-cert and no teaching experience will have a very difficult time trying to get a job, unless you are willing to work in the slum. If you are, more power to you.



Again, sorry if reality might intrude on your dreams.

But my wish of good luck was sincere.

not any more