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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A Short Story


I'm not enjoying school. If you know me, you know that's so weird. School has learning and office supplies, and I really like both of those things. And besides being weird, putting this much time and effort into something I'm not enjoying is really counter to my belief system, so now I've got some cognitive dissonance going on up in here. Double dislike.

My cohort is all starting our student teaching in the fall. Fall is a part-time student teaching gig, and spring is a full-time student teaching gig. That means the official recommendation is that we all quit our jobs sometime before Thanksgiving this year. And then we'll just be hoping to find teaching jobs the following school year, and if we do, our next paychecks after this November will come at the end of September 2012.

Please do not get me started on this, but the summary is: that's not going to work for me. (Seriously -- who is this gonna work for? My 12 year-old classmates who still live with their parents? But see, now I'm about to get started, so anyway . . .)

Tonight my professor stayed after our class (that ended at 10:00 PM) and we talked for an hour about a few options I may have. The options aren't great and I struggle with the prof's style and I don't know if this whole thing is going to work out and I can't quite believe I'm the first student in history that needs an income to live.

But I appreciated her time very much, and I know a little more now than I did before, and I guess all I can do is keep trying to figure it all out. It might work out and it might not. I'm just going to keep trying to ask for help when I think I need it, and in the mean time, I guess I'll hang out here in the grey.

The end.

(Great Venn diagram illustration comes from This is Indexed. All the great Venn diagram illustrations come from there.)

7 comments:

  1. I am so sorry to hear this. I remember my student teaching time period. I lived off of rice and my roommate's generosity. It was such a horrible feeling.

    Loans aren't an option?

    Hang in there. Things may have a way of working out. Can you extend the length of time you do it and then only teach two or three days a week?

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  2. I don't like this story. BOO.

    How DO people do it? That seems pretty much impossible given that you need money to pay for living. I. Do. Not. Get. It.

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  3. You mean you DONT live with your parents?? That situation is pretty crappy, and I fully sympathize, going through some college hiccups myself. Hang in there. Maybe they'll realize you need a paycheck sooner rather than later?

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  4. My BFF is a teacher. Just finished her masters in ed not too long ago. She lived with her parents during school and the student teaching part. Pretty absurd.

    Somehow, this is going to work out. Somehow, somehow. We should have a national fund to support teachers while they do this. Feh.

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  5. I was certified to teach in Minnesota. I'm not currently certified in Washington, and I have to say the part where I'd have to go through this stuff again? Definitely a major reason why.

    Someday, somehow, our education system will get fixed, and the people that should be teaching will be. Maybe?

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  6. Boo!

    I pretty much was told today at my advisor meeting that I had no idea what I was doing and here do this and that the other.

    It's not a good feeling when you are told you can't do what you want and instead have to do this other thing.

    As for the job part? that makes NO SENSE! Who are these people that magically have no need for money?

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  7. Teach SURFING! Everybody wins. I'd take a refresher course from you!

    (And seriously, I hope some of those options your professor laid out were good ones.)

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