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Old 08-26-2009, 01:13 AM
 
1,650 posts, read 3,855,204 times
Reputation: 1133

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Quote:
Originally Posted by JS1 View Post
I am livid. I blew $640 on tuition and TX state exam fees (just the down payment on the total tuition of $4,000) and three weeks of time to get a math teaching certificate.

I was told that schools are desperate for math teachers. If you want to teach history or English or elementary, your chances are slim, but if you are certified to teach math or science, you will get multiple job offers.

That is a bunch of B.S.!

I applied to every school district in Tarrant County TX (Ft. Worth) and got one job interview and no job offer. The idiots couldn't even be bothered to send me a rejection letter, which is really sad after interviewing with them and being told there's only one other candidate. Kudos to Crowley ISD for sending me a rejection letter and thumbs-down to the rest of District 11 for totally ignoring me.

I got a job offer in the business world in July and I am so glad I didn't turn it down hoping for a teaching job.

Today was the first day of school, so that means it's officially over. If a school calls me because the person they hired walked out, I will tell them "you had your chance, now you have to live with it, bu-bye".

From now on, when I am presented with an option to vote for a tax increase for more money for public schools, I am voting NO. These idiots are full of crap and there is no reason for us taxpayers to throw good money after bad.

I was advised that I would have better chances at a job if I applied to a rural school district for $28,000 a year. Yeah, I'm going to move away from my family to earn peanuts teaching a bunch of hicks.

In the business world, I make the same amount of money that first-year math teachers in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex make -- 50 big ones.

Obviously the teacher salaries are too high if they are getting way more applicants than positions. But if the schools cut teacher's pay, the teachers would arrive to school with torches and pitchforks.

If schools were privatized we would not have this problem. As long as schools are government-run, the taxpayers will be taking it in the shorts and the children will suffer because of the schools' ineptitude.

Enough is enough!

P.S. Don't tell me it's because I'm too picky. My mother has a Texas teaching certificate in math and refuses to teach because she doesn't like anyone who isn't white. She would get priority over anyone (like myself) who doesn't have any experience in the classroom. I spent a week at Trimble Tech High School in Ft. Worth, which is something like 90% non-white, a place my witch mother wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. I had a wonderful time and was able to connect with the students and help them learn some Algebra I and Algebra II. I actually shed a tear when the week was over because those students needed me (they said 'please come back next week'), and I desperately wanted to help them avoid dropping out and selling drugs, which is their only realistic choice if they don't graduate.
I agree totally with what you are saying. I was wrongfully terminated from my teaching job along with several other coworkers. We all lost our jobs. Apparently, even though we all got good evaluations and test scores improved, the administrators didn't want us for some stupid reason. Since I was terminated, I have spoken with about six other teachers who were also wrongfully terminated from teaching positions. We do not have unions in AZ. At least I am receiving unemployment.

Being wrongfully terminated is the worst way to lose a job. I am taking online classes and trying to start a new career. When I have kids, I might homeschool.

The teaching job market has never been great. This has been the case long before the recession even began. Schools seem to want to hire someone they know and if you do not brown nose correctly, you get fired. Unfortunately many public school teachers are not evaluated on their teaching ability but are evaluated on their brown nosing ability.
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Old 08-26-2009, 06:37 AM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,414,606 times
Reputation: 14692
Quote:
Originally Posted by JS1 View Post
I am livid. I blew $640 on tuition and TX state exam fees (just the down payment on the total tuition of $4,000) and three weeks of time to get a math teaching certificate.

I was told that schools are desperate for math teachers. If you want to teach history or English or elementary, your chances are slim, but if you are certified to teach math or science, you will get multiple job offers.

That is a bunch of B.S.!

I applied to every school district in Tarrant County TX (Ft. Worth) and got one job interview and no job offer. The idiots couldn't even be bothered to send me a rejection letter, which is really sad after interviewing with them and being told there's only one other candidate. Kudos to Crowley ISD for sending me a rejection letter and thumbs-down to the rest of District 11 for totally ignoring me.

I got a job offer in the business world in July and I am so glad I didn't turn it down hoping for a teaching job.

Today was the first day of school, so that means it's officially over. If a school calls me because the person they hired walked out, I will tell them "you had your chance, now you have to live with it, bu-bye".

From now on, when I am presented with an option to vote for a tax increase for more money for public schools, I am voting NO. These idiots are full of crap and there is no reason for us taxpayers to throw good money after bad.

I was advised that I would have better chances at a job if I applied to a rural school district for $28,000 a year. Yeah, I'm going to move away from my family to earn peanuts teaching a bunch of hicks.

In the business world, I make the same amount of money that first-year math teachers in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex make -- 50 big ones.

Obviously the teacher salaries are too high if they are getting way more applicants than positions. But if the schools cut teacher's pay, the teachers would arrive to school with torches and pitchforks.

If schools were privatized we would not have this problem. As long as schools are government-run, the taxpayers will be taking it in the shorts and the children will suffer because of the schools' ineptitude.

Enough is enough!

P.S. Don't tell me it's because I'm too picky. My mother has a Texas teaching certificate in math and refuses to teach because she doesn't like anyone who isn't white. She would get priority over anyone (like myself) who doesn't have any experience in the classroom. I spent a week at Trimble Tech High School in Ft. Worth, which is something like 90% non-white, a place my witch mother wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. I had a wonderful time and was able to connect with the students and help them learn some Algebra I and Algebra II. I actually shed a tear when the week was over because those students needed me (they said 'please come back next week'), and I desperately wanted to help them avoid dropping out and selling drugs, which is their only realistic choice if they don't graduate.
I hear ya on that shortage of math and science teachers. They've been crying for years that we have one in Michigan but there are more applicants than jobs. That has made the transition from industry to teaching difficult for me. If there really were a shortage, I expect I'd be making a lot more than I am and get a lot more support. When you're a dime a dozen commodity, you're treated like one.

I would advise anyone who wants to teach to have a back up plan and expect it to take several years to work your way into a decent paying position. I wish I'd been given that advice instead of being told over and over how much I'd be in high demand. I made a late job change and I don't have years to work my way into a decent paying position. Fortunately, I have two engineering degrees to fall back on. I'll teach this year, save my sick days and hit the engineering job fairs in the spring.

Don't count on privitizing schools to help. Charter schools pay a lot less than the districts do. Here, no one is making $50K out of the gate. You can expect $35K - $43K to start in a public school depending on your level of eduction and $25K-$35K in a charter school. The charters don't give raises like the public schools do though.
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Old 08-26-2009, 08:21 AM
 
2,195 posts, read 3,628,654 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler View Post
If there really were a shortage, I expect I'd be making a lot more than I am and get a lot more support.
Pay for teachers is based on experience and education, not on field, shortage or no shortage.

Duncan agrees with you, and thinks the teachers in math and science should get more money. The NEA disagrees, observing that 'science teacher' does not equate to 'good science teacher.' (The latter position sounds amazingly like an invitation for us to go to some sort of merit pay system, which I am sure was a mistake on their part.)
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Old 08-26-2009, 09:07 AM
 
3,086 posts, read 7,587,757 times
Reputation: 4469
I live in Tarrant County and have a daughter who just began her second year teaching high school math. She had many interviews last year before getting her job and more than one offer. In her school this year they hired 3 new math teachers.

The trick to getting a job in most of the districts in Tarrant County, outside of FWISD where they offer more weight to job fairs than most, is to start networking in the middle of the school year prior to when you want to teach. It doesn't matter if you are a new graduate, coming from the outside work world, or wanting to switch schools, you have to have some in person contact with the schools and it has to be long before summer arrives.

The principals are the ones making the decisions on hiring, not the HR departments. So if you only made online applications or only met with a district representative at a job fair, then you were searching from the wrong starting point. If you weren't literally knocking on the doors of the actual school and setting up appointments directly with the principals, then you weren't likely seriously considered.

Also, principals begin hiring in April/May for the next year. If one searching for a teaching job didn't have it by May, then they have no choice but to wait until the end of July/first of August for those who have waited until the end of their contracts to give their resignations. (usually those who aren't sure if they want to leave or were waiting on promotions that come at the last minute)

There are at least 20 separate school districts in Tarrant County and probably at least 50 high schools and double that in Junior High/Middle schools. Add to that all the private schools. Then of course you could have considered areas like Weatherford, Granbury, Glenrose, Denton...and so on.
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Old 08-26-2009, 10:16 AM
 
5,938 posts, read 4,674,311 times
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Shortage in the education world is different than a shortage in private industry. There are strict pay scales for school districts. Whereas companies have to pay for your expertise if they can't find many other people to do the job.

Good luck in your job!
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Old 08-26-2009, 10:32 AM
 
Location: fla
1,507 posts, read 3,123,025 times
Reputation: 715
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Foosball View Post
Not to derail this thread, but....

[rant] nepotism wouldn't bother me as much if it was privately funded (like a family owned business). But to have a state funded school that is practically ran by a few families who hire their offspring and good friends makes me sick. I would prefer the kids get the best teachers rather than the one's who happened to be born to the right family. [/rant]

i agree with your and the original posters' comments--i have a family member who loved teaching/received great evals but has not been able to get a job due to 2 reasons---extreme nepotism and THE SCHOOL BOARD EXPECTS UNDER THE TABLE CASH FOR POSITIONS(NOW being investigated by fbi)----am encouraging this family member to leave that area
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Old 08-26-2009, 10:53 AM
 
77,786 posts, read 59,941,914 times
Reputation: 49171
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Foosball View Post
Not to derail this thread, but....

[rant] nepotism wouldn't bother me as much if it was privately funded (like a family owned business). But to have a state funded school that is practically ran by a few families who hire their offspring and good friends makes me sick. I would prefer the kids get the best teachers rather than the one's who happened to be born to the right family. [/rant]
If you had ever lived in Chicago like I did, your head would explode from all the nepotism, corruption etc. But that goes on in many major cities.
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Old 08-26-2009, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Fort Smith, Arkansas
1,466 posts, read 4,342,745 times
Reputation: 1070
Quote:
Originally Posted by hypocore View Post
The principals are the ones making the decisions on hiring, not the HR departments. So if you only made online applications or only met with a district representative at a job fair, then you were searching from the wrong starting point. If you weren't literally knocking on the doors of the actual school and setting up appointments directly with the principals, then you weren't likely seriously considered.
QFT!

There are some districts that I appplied to online that has a statement on the website that says something like "Do not contact the principal. They will review your online application." After I talked to some of the principals, they almost unanumously agreed that they do not ever look for random applications, only the applications of people who have contacted them.

You must email/call/visit/shake hands to get a teaching job.
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Old 08-26-2009, 06:01 PM
 
Location: Whoville....
25,386 posts, read 35,414,606 times
Reputation: 14692
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Foosball View Post
QFT!

There are some districts that I appplied to online that has a statement on the website that says something like "Do not contact the principal. They will review your online application." After I talked to some of the principals, they almost unanumously agreed that they do not ever look for random applications, only the applications of people who have contacted them.

You must email/call/visit/shake hands to get a teaching job.
Same here. They state "no phone calls" and "do not contact the school". Here, they've consolodated into a single database for a big chunk of the county. Only the charter schools still take individual applications. So, either you apply on line, make contact at a job fair or are lucky enough to know someone in a district and sometimes that isn't enough. I knew someone in a district that hired 4 science teachers but they required the general science certification. My single subject certification wasn't good enough. They wanted jacks of all trades and I'm a subject matter expert just in a limited number of subjects.

Gee sounds like our education system. A mile wide and an inch deep. I can go deep but I don't do wide.
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Old 08-26-2009, 07:25 PM
JS1 JS1 started this thread
 
1,896 posts, read 6,751,683 times
Reputation: 1620
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Foosball View Post
QFT!

There are some districts that I appplied to online that has a statement on the website that says something like "Do not contact the principal. They will review your online application." After I talked to some of the principals, they almost unanumously agreed that they do not ever look for random applications, only the applications of people who have contacted them.

You must email/call/visit/shake hands to get a teaching job.
I'm perplexed. Why would a school, of all places, expect someone to disobey the instructions prominently displayed on their website?

If a student flagrantly violates the principal's rules, he gets tossed into suspension. But teaching applicants are supposed to do the opposite, making them and the principal a bunch of hypocrites starting August 24?

I don't doubt what you are saying, I'm just saying that the system makes absolutely no sense.

I went to a seminar by an HR rep who said that if you are certified to teach math, you can pretty much just leave the seminar now because you don't need his advice on how to get a teaching job. I stuck around anyway but relied on his advice that you don't need to sneak around the rules and brownnose the principle. How wrong I was.

On the bright side, my business job is the best job I have ever had, so I'm staying. I don't want to hear schools whining "we're desperate for math teachers" because it only means that they are so full of bull crap it's coming out their nose. If I hear that again, I may have to write a letter to the editor to straighten them out.

p.s. I was told by a career counselor that the way to get a job in the business world is networking, that applying on-line rarely results in a job. Yet the job I got was from applying on their web site. I tried to network the best I could but I don't know a lot of people. A company representative contacted me, arranged an interview, and two months from uploading my resume, I got my company badge. Hmmmmm....

Last edited by JS1; 08-26-2009 at 07:43 PM..
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