Kids Go Back to School - Teachers Search for Jobs

For the first time in 23 years (or more if you count preschool and daycare), I don't have anywhere to be on the first day of school. From a student's point of view, that may be a cause for celebration (woohoo! sleep in!), but for a teacher, it's unnerving, to say the least. My Facebook homepage is filled with teachers talking about their new classes, parents showing off pictures of their kid's first day (and teenage cousins whining about going back to school), and I am feeling a bit left out. I have no classroom to decorate, no lessons to prepare, and no names to memorize.

I've been teaching for six years - two years as a substitute teacher while I attended grad school, one year as a full time teacher at a charter school, and three years as a long-term substitute teacher covering various maternity and medical leaves. So here I am, with my college degrees, professional teacher certifications, and years of teaching experience... and I don't have a full time job. It's frustrating, but I take comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one.

Rather than call myself unemployed - technically I'm not, because I am a substitute teacher - I like to consider myself a "teacher without a classroom." It's no surprise with the current economic situation that schools were forced to make difficult budget decisions, which included cutting teachers, teaching assistants, and special programs. Some teachers who were lucky enough to land a full time job in the past few years received pink slips this spring because districts had to notify all employees on the bottom of the seniority list that they may not have jobs the next fall. If schools don't even have enough money to keep their teachers, who is going to be hiring new teachers?

Education Week Article: Pink Slip Purgatory

I have applied to over 250 teaching jobs throughout the past four years. Unfortunately, not only am I competing for jobs against experienced, tenured teachers who were laid off last June, but I am also competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other certified applicants. There are more than ten colleges in New York's capital region churning out new teachers every year (see Capital District Colleges). My only hope is that my experience and references count for more than their connections.

Last spring, I started to ask myself, "If I can't teach full time, what else can I do?" For someone who has said since about first grade that she wanted to be a teacher, it can be a little difficult to consider other jobs or even the possibility of switching careers. I decided to consider a few options:

• Option A: Continue substituting on a daily basis (as needed) until I get a full time job. This would allow me to maintain connections with school staff and hopefully stay "in the loop" about future job openings. I am also looking into tutoring (to add on to any of the options).
• Option B: Babysit/Nanny full time (or multiple part-times). I would still be working with children, and I would have the satisfaction of getting to know them and feeling like I'm making a positive difference. I checked out sittercity.com to find out what people were looking for in my area.
• Option C: Explore other jobs/careers that would utilize my skills (I'm currently using monster.com and LinkedIn as resources). So far this search has included working front desk at a hotel (even the manager said it was bad pay and difficult hours - hmm, no thanks), membership representative at a gym (I know what you're thinking, but it did not smell like sweat when I went there), or museum educator (my favorite prospect so far!).

School starts this week all over the country, and I am still not completely sure which option I'm going with for this school year. If you find yourself in a similar situation, my advice is to not let it get you down. Explore your options, choose something that works for you, and don't lose sight of your goal just because you're not reaching it as fast as you'd like. Find something that keeps you going. For me, it's a heartfelt thank you card from one of my sixth graders and a Chinese fortune that simply states, "It is not your character to give up."