Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about jobs.  I need one.  Well, I sorta have one, or at least I’ll have one as soon as school is back in session.  I’m not so worried about not having a job all summer, though it doesn’t make me feel awesome.  I’m studying for more teaching certification tests so I will try to spend my unemployed time wisely.  I’m very worried, however, about getting a job when school does start.  I’m signed up to sub again for the Austin ISD, but c’mon…that’s not what I want to do.  I want to teach not just fill in for the teacher.  Subbing isn’t all bad, but it’s not as rewarding as the real thing.  Plus, it’s exhausting.  You have to worry about landing a gig every day, and you never know where you’ll be each day.

I’m very nervous that I won’t be teaching this year, and I’m also very nervous that I will.  I really, really want to land a job, but this is a big career change for me.  I didn’t go to school for this.  And while I do feel like that I can totally do this and do it well, doing it for the first time is scary!  The good thing is that where ever I land a job, the place I got my alternative certification is going to make sure that I have a mentor for my first year…whew.  At least I’ll have someone to help me out and point me in the right direction.  Mostly, I’m just scared that no one will even glance at my way for what ever openings there are.  I have very, very few professional connections, and very little knowledge about how to get my foot in the door.  I’ve been working on the daunting applications for the 3 closest school districts which are all online.  Being all online makes me feel like a no one.  How do I know if anyone will even look at my stuff or call me in for an interview.  I have a few people I know who teach.  I should definitely email them for advice on what to do outside of complete these applications.  Surely there is something more proactive I can do to help my self out.  I feel so useless right now.

I’m studying for the Generalist 4-8 exam.  I would like to take it in late July, maybe earlier.  I would love to get the ESL test out of the way before school starts too.  Passing the ESL would actually be my best bet toward landing a job, but it’s also the least of the content that I want to teach.  However, as bad as I feel like it would be, I’m willing to put in a year just to get started.  I just need to get my foot in the door.  I so don’t want to sub next year…sigh.  To be totally honest…if I can’t get a job teaching next year, I will feel like I failed somehow.  Sometimes I wonder what possessed me to go on this crazy career changing path, but then I remember that if I didn’t do something, I was going to be working admin jobs for the rest of my life.  And since I didn’t go to business school, I really wasn’t going to be advancing too much no matter which company I worked for.  I want to enjoy going to work, and I would definitely like to make a difference in the world.  And while most people think that teachers don’t get paid enough (which is so totally true), in Texas, I will make more than I’ve ever made in one of my admin jobs.