Nerves

May 19, 2008 in How to Get a Job
Tags: bfe, bfe-podunk joint unified, clear credential, job, master, podunk, social science, student, substitute, substitute teaching, teacher, teaching

Podunk fell through. After weeks of unsuccessful communication attempts, I had finally got through to my contact at BFE-Podunk Joint Unified and had accepted that position I was, by then, so excited for.

She dropped this bomb on me:

We’re still working on our master schedule. We’re not sure if we’ll need you.

Oy. Don’t trust verbal offers is the lesson here, I guess. More than anything else, this means I don’t have a job lined up for the fall, yet. Stress becomes me, and I might have only myself to blame for it: My master teacher is convinced that it’s because my employers found this blog.

After reading your blog, I wouldn’t hire you, either.

Oh well.

I could always continue subbing for another year or so. It’s easy money, work when you want. It’s also a no-benefits, non-credential-clearing job. With such a large home district here, it’s possible to work just about every day — as long as you work in special ed and continuation schools.

Except I don’t want to work in continuation schools or special ed. I want to work in my own classroom, teaching history, or journalism, or English.

Why can’t I find a job? What am I doing wrong?

My Curse of Knowledge for BFE-Podunk

May 10, 2008 in Reading Response
Tags: bfe, comment, curse, doesn't, edublog, edublogosphere, education, educator, good, intelligent, joint, knowledge, make, master teacher, mindset, perspective, podunk, reflection, role, school, smartness, student, student teacher, teacher, thoughts, unified, you

I’ve had four teachers at my current, inner-city school compliment me on my intelligence at separate times. Each of the four immediately added that compulsory layer of “it won’t make you a good teacher.” This has been a source of frustration for me.

Paul Bogush had some thoughts about the essential differences on the role of intelligence in each BFE-Podunk Joint Unified and White Kids’ Unified. He shared them in his comment.

Mr. Bogush, for his part, also riffs on the hard-to-swallow theme of the four teachers in my department.

You have the “Curse of Knowledge” — you know so much that it is often impossible to realize what it was like to not know it. You are a thinker so initially it will be impossible for you to realize what it is like to be ignorant and naive. …

Unlike White Kids’ Unified, students have to come first at Podunk, Mr. Bogush said. Whether or not administrators demand it in Podunk doesn’t really matter — the situation already demands student-centric reflection.

At Podunk, you will have to reflect, reflect, reflect. Not about your curriculum, and not about your primary sources or images, but about your mindset and the students. Why do they think what they think? You are so smart that you will feel stupid. Day after day.

You will find that all the things in life you thought were important are not, and some of the things that you took for granted become precious. You will have to be a mom, dad, brother, sister, social worker, and thrift store operator first. Only then will you be able to teach. You will learn that the “smartness” that you have is worthless and you will have to figure out 100 other ways to a kids heart.

Don’t mind my interjection, but is smartness really worthless? I chalk this up to hyperbole. He continues:

Don’t let being too “smart” keep you away from Podunk — let it drive you there. You might hate it; you might dread every minute. However, it will make a “thinking teacher” stronger. You will learn skills and insights that you will never get from a book, from a person, or by working at the other school.

I had intended to reflect on his comment, but I couldn’t bring myself to add anything. Mr. Bogush sums it up his point of view, and I have no perspective to counter it.

No perspective, at least, that the teachers at my school would allow themselves to appreciate. As far as they’re concerned, smartness be damned: I’m a student teacher. I don’t have any business making judgment on high educational theory.

What is the role of smartness as a teacher? What is the role of reflection, at either White Kids’ Unified or BFE-Podunk Joint Unified, and is the role different between the two districts?

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Which Should I Choose?

April 28, 2008 in How to Get a Job
Tags: appointment, bfe, bfe-podunk joint unified, choice, classroom, clovis, college, commute, district, edublogosphere, education, fog, friday, job fair, joint, master, master teacher, podunk, school, student, student teacher, supportive, teacher, unified, white kids' unified

Let’s assume I have two choices. I have White Kids’ Unified, a mostly wealthy suburban district within spitting distance of my college and hasn’t yet offered me a contract. I also have BFE-Podunk Joint Unified, a very poor rural district that the administration in charge advertises as 95 percent Hispanic, and a district which has offered me a contract.

My master teacher has told me outright on several occasions that I am or may not be good at anything but a middle-class-white-kids’ school. This isn’t a compliment — she probably hates White Kids’ Unified with of the rest of the teachers here, masking her feelings with utter contempt.

I can’t help but think that I really do want to teach at White Kids’ Unified, anyway. Interviewer whoever-she-was was very clear:

Administrators will take care of teachers’ needs. We’re working on putting in projectors in every classroom.

White Kids’ Unified is genuinely interested in putting me in a journalism class, or a real history class. White Kids’ Unified will give me the best chance to teach my AP US History, and the way I want to.

And yet.

Something about Podunk-BFE Joint Unified makes me want that 40-minute commute each way. Something about making a real difference, a real influence. I don’t care even if I am being played for the fool — I could really teach something.

All that stuff about getting into education for the kids isn’t a lie in Podunk. Sure, the mantra of teachers in White Kids’ Unified is, after all: “For the kids.” On the other hand, teachers at Podunk-BFE Joint Unified live that motto.

If they’re working there, they have to.