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It’s that time of year… job decision time. Stay with the crazy, messed-up charter school I’ve been at the for the past two years? It’s getting a new principal (again, she will be the fourth since I started here) and although this isn’t high praise, she’s the best I’ve seen so far. Or, take the other option and go to a much larger district school where I would teach computer programming? I would be able to design my own curriculum and use Flash and ActionScript as the primary instructional tool. Or, third option, bail out and go on a rock-climbing trip for a year?
Not knowing the details of your situation, I can’t speak toward options one and two. But I can say that the last time I was in one of those “bail out” situations, I decided to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. I highly recommend it.
Comment by tony lucchese — May 7, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Stay, because that would make for the most interesting reading on your blog :) You don’t have to do summer school, do you? Lots of time for rock climbing before August comes, then!
(Seriously, I would not want to affect your decision - but then, you’re putting the question out here on a blog of most interest to educators, and maybe particularly to math teachers in low-income areas - so the kind of responses you’re going to get are pretty predictable, aren’t they?)
Comment by H. — May 7, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
I think you have a tough choice - education at its best is a exciting and meaningful enterprise that is sometimes fun (depending on how well things are run).
It is an incredible task to help create a successful school, and many places will fail. Being part of a failure is depressing and unsatifying, not to mention makes it feel like you haven’t done anything - that you put in your heart and didn’t get anything out.
Working for a large school is different. You feel disempowered, and you focus narrows to solely making your classroom the place you want. It can help with creating a good curriculum, but it is even more important to have strong leaders if you care about the general and long term successes of your students. You are much more likely to derive personal satisfaction from individual students - usually your favorites.
It is the place where you have a meaningful impact in a small number of students’ lives, and you narrow your focus.
Rock climbing is fun, and gives a feeling of accomplishment. But it isn’t as hard - which is both good and bad. When you succeed it isn’t you accomplishing one of the most important things in the world, but it is something you can do, and it can help you refocus your thoughts and your life.
To be successful in education you have to feel like you can have an impact, you have to work incredibly hard, you have to find a way to be happy when things turn out badly, and you have to revel in the good moments because they will always be fewer than they should.
What do you want for your life? Do you want the challenge that will likely fail (the charter school), the smaller challenge that you will have success in (district), or the easier life that is still fun and fufilling.
I was working for a charter school, and I decided to change to working for a district school. I thought the charter school fight was the one I wanted - creating a place that was truly successful where no other schools were. But a lot of the people I worked with sucked - especially the ones in positions of power. I knew that I could do better than them and have a reasonable chance of helping to create a great school where there was none.
So I went back to a district school to move into district administration and refine my skills. Once I had developed my skills I could move back to helping failing schools.
I have sent the past year working with two different school districts. I am saddened by this because everyone I have been working with has given up on change, and improving things as a school. All anyone cares about is taking care of the problems in their office or their classroom. That is great, but it doesn’t make a good school, it doesn’t create a team environment, and it allows kids to fail that would otherwise succeed.
Now yesterday I was notified that due to budget cuts I would loose my job next year, because of insufficient seniority. So, now I have to figure out what is coming next. I still believe that schools are worth the effort, I have been a part of really successful schools, and I want to spread the opportunity of that to other kids. I guess I just don’t know what to do now.
This doesn’t really speak to your problems except to say that you have a choice about the kind of environment you want to work in, and who you want to work with. As with many things you can choose which parts you want to be easier, and which you want to be hard. And as always you can create more challenges for yourself that it will be amazing to beat, but take a lot of time and effort you may not have to spare at this point in your life/career.
Comment by Jeff — May 10, 2007 @ 6:59 am
[…] previously mentioned, I’ve been trying to decide what to do next year. Now I’ve made up my mind: I’m […]
Pingback by understanding » Decision — June 18, 2007 @ 8:07 pm