You must not have done any job hunting lately - the new normal is that you hear absolutely NOTHING when you apply, regardless of industry or position. Frankly, these days I’m pleasantly shocked if the freakin’ website application results in an automated “thank you for applying” e-mail. (About 1 time in 20, by my experience).
I’m on day three of my new job so yes I have done job hunting lately.
Surely it couldn’t hurt to give the schools a call to check your application was recieved.
Oh, I don’t know. The few people I know who were home schooled had a better education than 90% of the people I went to school with. Not all, or even most, I think, home schoolers are fundamentalist wackos, if I understood your post correctly.
And yet there are studies showing that home-schooled kids outperform public school kids on SAT and ACT scores.
Gee, why didn’t you mention that?
And why didn’t you mention that those studies are very self-selecting? Read between the lines of this one, for example. It mentions that homeschooled students who take the SAT have an edge over all students who take the SAT.
What it also says is that only 0.45% of students who took the test were homeschooled. Considering that approximately (numbers very greatly) 2% of US students these days are homeschooled/unschooled/“other-schooled”, there seems to be a lot of self-selecting going on there. Essentially, what’s going on is that some homeschooled students do great. But a whole lot of other homeschooled students were doing so badly they didn’t even bother to take the SAT because they had no hope of going to college.
I assume this probably isn’t an option for you, but Florida is hiring teachers right now (which I don’t really understand, since the education budget is being slashed).
A good friend just got a job teaching high school math. She doesn’t even have a teaching certificate.
One data point for the home schoolers: while I did know one family who home schooled their kids for religious reasons and got letters from a few more when I worked for a textbook publisher, the home schoolers I know in the real world just really hate public schools. Mostly because of their own experiences, I think, but ostensibly because they’re against mainstreaming or bullying or the class only progressing as fast as its slowest inhabitant or whatever.
Try the DoD Educational Activity (link). They staff DoD dependent schools - mostly abroad but also at a couple of locations in the United States.
My cousin’s ex-wife was a certified teacher who worked with homeschooled kids, though I’m not sure what her setup was.
Also - my brother worked for several years at an education nonprofit doing curriculum development. He did this between jobs as a classroom teacher, and it helped him get his current job at a well-regarded school district.
Look around for jobs like this, and also things like corporate training and the like. None of this will prevent you from getting a classroom job in the future, and could be valuable experience and a good opportunity now.
Hmmm … I’m thinking liability insurance might be a big problem – or would simple homeowner’s insurance cover it? Might want to talk to an insurance agent.
In most states, in order to operate a private school, you have to incorporate, pay county and state licensing fees, and submit to regular health inspections. T’ain’t easy.
To the OP:
Yep, more supply than demand these days; it sucks but there you go.
Follow the good advice others have given here, but I also feel compelled to add that you come off as whiny and entitled, and you seem pretty quick to play the victim card. If you’re letting that attitude bleed through to potential employers, you’re doomed.
Discriminated against because you’re new to the area? Doubtful. Chronologically at the bottom of a large pile of applications? Probably. A bit delusional about how much everbody should be falling all over themselves to get in line to hire you because you’re such a golden child? Sounds like it.
Your post made me think of a job as a trainer at a large corporation - I think (and I most definitely could be wrong here) that they’d love to have someone trained as a teacher for positions like that.
Wheelz, I am also getting a vibe of someone who is not familiar with fighting tooth-and-nail to get a job, and how the real world actually works - I think most of us expect to send our resumes off into the ether and never hear back from 99.9% of them, and getting a decent job taking much longer than you think it should.
I don’t know who told you this, but they are wrong. You also need to make some predictions on what jobs will be in demand when you complete your education.
As many people have iterated throughout this thread, most states are having to make severe budget cuts due to a significant decline in property tax revenues, as a result of the housing and finance crisis of 2008/2009. As most education budgets are funded by property taxes, school systems across the country are being forced to tighten their budgets. As the biggest component of a school’s budget is teacher salaries, the only way that schools can meet their budget tightening efforts is to reduce the number of teachers and increase classroom sizes. Some states have put in temporary increases in sales taxes to offset the decrease in property tax revenue, but that’s not always acceptable to voters.
Good luck.
That’s a good idea until some shitass government agency comes calling and states that your school does not “meet standards”, which would cost tens of thousands of dollars to get.
One could be a floating teacher who contracts out to people’s homes.
Unfortunately, a lot of “home schoolers” are the children of religious nutters.
escape3500, like it or not, you’re an unknown quantity. You didn’t go to college in Tennessee, and in fact, you just moved there. Districts don’t know you or the quality of the program from which you graduated, and they may have reason to think they can’t pay you enough (because of the private-school education), or that you’ll get bored and move on, or that you’ll move when your husband takes another job somewhere else. All you’ve really done is announce “Here I am! Hire me!” but you haven’t really given any reason why.
What this means is that you’ll have to prove yourself. As others have said, connections help. Can you sub for a while? Or volunteer as an after-school tutor? Or start an after-school tutoring program, if there isn’t one. Any or all of these can help you meet people who can help you get into the district.
I went to school in TN (east) and of the 25% that went on to college about half of them wanted to be teachers. You have a lot of local competition that already know everyone they need to know to get the jobs. What part of TN? It is not the same everywhere, there are 3 stars on the state to represent the three “states” of TN. If you are trying in one of the big 4 cities you will probably fare better. Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga
You do realize it’s summer, right? Sure, principals might be in here and there, but I wouldn’t expect much of a reponse. Now that it’s August, things are starting up again and I’m sure the administrators are chomping at the bit to slug through the 600 applications that piled up over the summer. Good luck!
Forgive me if you’ve tried my area already - Clarksville, TN - here’s the website with openings for teachers (hope this works)
http://www.generalasp.com/cmcss/onlineapp/jobpostings/view.asp
The area, including Nashville, has loads of private schools too. But I don’t know much about teaching. There is higher turnover in my city because of a military base, so keep checking.
I feel your pain. I got a Master’s in a different field in 2007 and will probably never work in it.