Another Teaching Question! (Houston, Fort Worth, Arlington: get credit, home, teaching jobs)

[N2reining]

My question is-- How easy is it to find a teaching job in the Fort Worth area? I have a teaching degree, but have not had any luck in finding a job in public schools here.

Most of the experience I have had has been in a very SMALL private school (35 students in the whole school)! Public schools here in MS seem to hold that against me and won't give me a chance!

I was just wondering if I would even have a chance being a teacher in Ft. Worth?! The small school where I taught was not accredited and is not looked upon as an actual school. It is one, it's just not accredited. When I took that job, I thought it would be a good experience, but it has only held me back for the past 10 years.



Is Fort Worth that picky or will they give someone with the right degree an opportunity?

[kittymama]

I would think if you were certified by the SBEC and had the appropriate credentials, you would be given some consideration, after all some experience should put you up from no experience - ie, fresh out of school. What do you teach?

[N2reining]

My certificate is K-8. I've taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. Here they question my ability to handle 25 or more kids, since I only had 6 or7 in my classes previously. They do not ever take into consideration that if I was just out of school I wouldn't of had that experience, either!

I also have 2 years experience as a teacher assistant in Kindergarten and 2nd, and my student teaching was in kindergarten and 3rd grades.

I am also very laid back, I'm not real jumpy and bubbly--they don't like that here, either!

[loves2read]

FTW ISD --story in paper last week about possibility that teachers could be laid off because of budget concerns--story was that they would increase class size and reorganize in some instances, lay off other personnel (clerical and janitorial probably) trying to avoid losing teachers...
so I don't know how many jobs FTW might have open
this is going to be tough year for getting teaching job and being from out of state won't help anyone--small school or not...
being unaccredited DID hurt your chances--you might consider some of the better charter schools and private schools since they are often in that same situation of small class size...

[loves2read]

article in today's FTW paper regarding job fair for teachers--

At Arlington job fair, school districts hunt for teachers | News | Star-Telegram.com (http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/1290970.html - broken link)
the one at UTA was for education grads...the one later at Arlington convention center is for anyone wanting teaching jobs in the area...

hundreds (probably thousands) of people will be in line and probably no one really offered a job after being there...I would love to know how many people actually will get a face to face interview with any district and if anyone had a contract offered...
I bet only ones in select areas like science/math/special ed/ESL--the critical need fields...
the article gave strong impression that teaching is field with "many openings" vs other job areas where people are being laid off---so totally wrong...

the number of actual jobs that are open for hiring was obscured by a phrase about districts not knowing how many openings they would have until later in the spring--so they want to have all the quality applicants they can get to pick through for the ones they will actually hire...

there was a comment about always needing replacements for retiring teachers and other openings...but
the same paper ran article last week about FTW ISD cutting back on budget--significant multi million dollar shortfall--and the district HOPED it could get around having to cut teaching positions--but it does not know at this time how it wil balance the budget...
the article also addressed all the alt certs applicants coming into the teaching field--
it was just another one of those meaningless trumpets of lots of job opportunity in teaching...
bah humbug...

[N2reining]

Well, I'm not there yet, so maybe it will improve by that time! Might could just substitute and "get in" that way...

[kittymama]

I was going to suggest substituting as well. It work on what they see as your biggest "deficiency."

[N2reining]

I had also thought about telling them that if my experience at the private school is such a big drawback--just consider me as a first year teacher and pay me accordingly. That way, the 10 years I spent there just wouldn't count.
Would that work you think?

Why is my experience there so poorly thought of, though? I don't get that...

[loves2read]

they probably won't give you any credit on your pay check for the non-accredited school IMO because you did not pay into a state retirement system...and if you sub you don't get credit for that on your pay scale either even if you work almost every day in the school year....

when I returned to teaching after long voluntary layoff staying home with my kids--I had taught 5 yrs previously in Houston ISD and got pay credit for teaching half of that--he said because I was working part time...bogus...the human relations director just did not want to pay me on the 5 yr exp scale...

one thing you need to know--if you don't already--is that some principals will not hire from within their sub ranks--we had people sub at our school and be fairly regularly called--when there was a job opening--the principal wanted to hire people who either were full time teachers and looking to move schools or new grads...these principals seem to think that taking work as a sub means that you see yourself not as "full-time" candidate--the fact that you could not get a job although you applied for ful-time jobs did not really count for them--they see subs as "runner-up" types and second class...
so just beware that being a sub is not always going to help --
most subs never meet a principal unless there is a real problem during an assignment--you often don't even meet the dept head or get chance to talk to other teachers in dept -- depends on the school and schedule of person you are subbing for...

[N2reining]

So how in the world do you get into the teaching job? When I got out of school the only offer I even had was the private school!

It's very very competitive here. If it's a popularity contest, I won't ever get a job teaching there.