Yep… I realize that life just wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t hate the idea of working for a living, but I’m talking about something different here. And it’s not the kind of a la Office Space hate either, although I do on occasion feel a strange sense of similarity…
I have been a high school teacher for about four years now and think I’m actually fairly good at it. It is a nice neat suburban school with very few big problems and practically none of the typical American high school horror stories. And for the most part, my boss leaves me alone, and the work is not as monotonous as I imagine some jobs can get. I generally keep to myself around most people but there are a few co-workers that I am friendly with. Overall I enjoy my subject matter, and I realize I am touching future generations, and all of the other touchy-feely stuff that goes along with teaching. And the perks of a generous holiday schedule and a six week summer vacation can hardly be beat.
So… what reasons do I have to hate my job? You may be grumbling and wondering what my problem is.
I hate my job because I am dissatisfied with it. I feel that although I am “good enough” at it, there are so many things that I could probably do so much better. I feel that I have tremendous talent and intelligence that I have not in any way been able to tap into as a teacher. (And I’m not the least bit modest about that intelligence as you can see ) I feel like so many of the academic and creative things I enjoyed and accelerated at in my high school and college years have begun to rot from lack of use. The idea of thirty to forty more years of this job makes me queasy.
So let’s get to my questions… WHAT DO I DO NEXT?? How does one go about selecting a career they are better suited for and then building it? Should I go back to school and make new friends with my old buddy Loan, Stafford? Other than something that’s not what I’m doing now, I’m not sure what it even is I’d rather be doing. Am I qualified to do anything else? What jobs are out there where someone will hire an ex-high school teacher with tremendous talent but little training?
Let’s assume that I’m not just disgruntled and I really do want to switch careers. Any advice?
Have you thought about getting your administrators certificate and becomming an administrator?
How about special ed?
How about looking for a different school - either an inner-city or rural school that could use more “intelligent and driven” teachers, or a school that has a specific focus like science, art or language? I think those are called magnet schools.
I am also a High School teacher and 90% of the time I love my job while the other 10% of the time I hate it usually because of discipline problems. Although over the years I have learned to focus on the good kids and ignore the delinquents or let the chain of command deal with them. The subject matter does get monotonous over time but each lesson is different even if I am teaching the same subject matter four times in a day. Each kid responds differently to the work. Try to focus on the positive. Its wonderful when your boss leaves you to your own devices, use that to your advantage. I love taking the lessons off at a tangent. I also have taken all the notes handed out over the course of a year and made a workbook. I love using resources in class to liven up a lesson. I teach history and let kids play with gas masks, helemete, medals etc, play music from World Wars I and II, show them banknotes from different countries, examine maps pre and post attacks during the Somme offensive, show them copies of original documents which they then have to write a story about life in that period etc. The list is endless. I am busy co-authoring a textbook for one of the grades, something I never thought I would do when I started teaching 10 years ago. Maybe you could see if there is a market for something like that even if to keep you from experiencing mind numbing boredom. Just try to be creative and try something you believe will fail and invariably it may surprise you.
What about becoming a school librarian? Same benefits and perks, but you’d get to teach all different types of classes, not just your subject. You’d have to go back for a master’s in library science, but that could be done pretty easily in the summers or even on your computer (the University of Arizona, for example, has a great distance program that I myself am just finishing up). Then later, if you find you get bored with that, you could use the library degree to switch to another non-school library with not a lot of problem.
What fuffle said. I was coming in to suggest becoming a school or university librarian. I have two friends who were teachers and became libriarians. They both wanted to stay in education but were feeling burnt out in the classroom and didn’t want to be come administrators. One friend is a school libriarian for a middle school and really enjoys it. The other is a research librairan at a big university and loves it. Of course, he can get lost for hours researching the most arcane subjects, so he would. For the both of them it was a way to stay in the field of education, maintain contact with students, but not teach the same subject for years. Seems to have fit both of them well.
I believe Sampiro works in a university library. Now that I’ve typed his name, maybe he’ll do a vanity search and wander in to enlighten us on working in a big university library.
Why thank you for asking… I love the opportunity to just talk about myself…
I have a physical science degree. One of the things I enjoyed most was an independent study I took; I worked in the chemistry labs doing research on environmental pollutants. But I’d need to go back to school to get many jobs in that field. I love languages. I’m pretty rusty but I have some pretty good experience in French and in Biblical Hebrew (long story). But what am I going to do with that? To be any kind of translator you need to be flawless. I’ve always loved to write (lots of different kinds) and have always been told that I have a talent for it, and while there are endless “writer” jobs out there I wouldn’t know how to go about finding a steady job that involves something as generic as “writing.”
I have all manner of other talents but lest it all go to my head I’ll quit now.
I don’t think there are any jobs out there for people who have random storehouses of information that doesn’t add up to much usefulness.
That’s not necessarily true, especially if you want to translate from a second language into your native tongue. There are plenty of translators who need to look up terms or who have to do occasional grammar checks. (I don’t work as a translator full-time, but I’ve made some money on the side translating written material from Spanish to English, English to Spanish, and Portuguese to English.) You’d have to have a pretty good command of French to get work translating from French to English, but you don’t need to have the kind of facility that would get you mistaken for a native in Paris. If anything, a really good and flexible command of English is much more important for translating from a second tongue into English.
It’s a major advantage to be a true bilingual (or have native-level fluency in a second language and lots and lots of practice switching in and out of it) to do live interpretation both ways. One-way interpretation, especially when that one way is from a second language into your native tongue, is, in my rather limited experience, less demanding. Still, live interpretation involves some skills that translation of written material doesn’t. In general, I find written translation easier to do than interpretation.)
Ohh, Sampiro, isn’t he the one who tells really good stories? How fun.
I appreciate all the advice so far everyone, thanks!. I’m not trying to be a whiner, I really would like to find a profession that I both enjoy and am good at.
) I feel like so many of the academic and creative things I enjoyed and accelerated at in my high school and college years have begun to rot from lack of use. The idea of thirty to forty more years of this job makes me queasy.