I hire substitutes every week. My only requirement is that they do a lot of observation and convey a sense of understanding about pedagogy and a willingness to learn more about it. Public education isn’t going away, and often the inexperienced teachers turn out to be the best, because they haven’t gotten ingrained bad habits or burned out. The important thing is that they show an interest in learning the best teaching methods, and are willing to seriously try them. I’ve hired recent graduates as well as people changing careers (like paralegals).
It will impact the ones that are still living at home the most though.
You hire pedagogs to teach small children?! That is NOT cromulent!
Hey Ninjachick,
I am pretty much in the same boat as you. 22 and it feels like my life is already over, even though it’s just supposed to be beginning. I don’t have as many loans as you, and I don’t graduate for a year, but I do understand those feelings of worthlessness and total despair at the future.
Dunno how that’ll cheer you up, but hey, at least you’re not alone!
I don’t actually suck at life. I have intelligence, talents, abilities. I’m just convinced that the real world wants to break me because I have a low tolerance for other people’s bullshit. (My own is another matter.) So I choose not to mess with the real world unless and until it’s absolutely necessary, and only on my terms.
This attitude came about partly thru long term depression, partly thru years of trash talk from family members who just got tired of my problems, and yes, partly thru too much real-world bullshit I was not prepared to handle.
Another reason to avoid teaching like the plague. How do you expect to be paid for experience when experience is seen to hurt you?
In my current occupation…nobody would EVER say or believe the quote above. It would be a silly statement. Coincidentally, I am paid much more than when I was a teacher.
I don’t think anyone here has told her to go off and be a teacher as a career. I mean, maybe she’ll sub a bit and love it, but that’s not mandatory.
Subbing is just a job. It’s not a career. It might lead to a career if you want it to, but for now, it’s a good job for a college educated person with few other options. Trust me, most of my college-grad friends that are sans “real jobs” (I’m 23) don’t sub and they average $10-$12 an hour doing office work. The friends that sub? Like I said, $20 an hour.
Don’t do this. In my experience, the desperate job search never leads to a job. The focused on does. I really highly recommend the job search classic What Color is your Parachute. It can be a little cheesy, but it does have a lot of really good advice about which job hunting techniques are most effective, and how to make the best use of your efforts. Not to mention, it’s pretty inspiring and will probably make you feel better about your situation.
I just wanted to add my “good luck, I’ve been there, too,” Ninja Chick. I was offered a pretty good job right out of college and moved back home with my parents and started working. I had the intention of moving out as soon as I had a little bit saved up, but the job evaporated up from under me a couple months in, and I ended up working in a bookstore. I did that for a year: working retail wages and getting heavy handed hints from my parents about how I needed to do something else.
But I couldn’t figure out what that something else was. I felt like shit. All I had ever done in my life was go to school and I had no idea how to do anything else.
It took a move across the country to a place I’d never been, didn’t have a job, and knew no one to help me gain some perspective. It got me out of my rut, though.
Good luck. I know you’re scared and you should be, but this is also an exciting time, when you can go nuts and make some really adventurous choices.
Can you get an education degree? In Canada I’m a third year teacher and I earn 50000$ a year and I teach music lessons and gig which nets me another 5000$ish. You mentioned having taken math classes…this makes you desirable! Also having a masters pays more too. You could even privately tutor kids for some extra cash. Is that an idea?
Which brings up another thing: tutoring. You could either pound the pavement yourself- put up signs at local places, ads on CL, etc. Or get a job at a learning center type place.
I have a friend who is a writing tutor for high school students- she meets with 3 kids at a time and each parent pays $20 an hour. Obscene, no?
Ninjachick, I wish I had your problems. At 24, having attended college on and off since 2002, I still don’t have an AA because of a crippling learning disability which renders me unable to pass 8th-grade math classes, much less College Algebra. I would weep with joy to be graduating with a BA. If I could, I’d be the first in my family to do so.
I dunno if this has been suggested yet but could you try tutoring? The community college I go to provides tutors to it’s students for free, and pays them $8 an hour, private ones make more. 4 years at a subject you have trouble with prolly really improved your study skills. Maybe you could make some money teaching those skills.
Then again it’s also possible that 5 years after graduation you’ll still be living with your parents working a dead end job that has no benefits and nothing to do with your degree. 
Believe me, everyone says “Oh, you’ll never work in your degree field” I’ve been flat TURNED AWAY by a good number of recruiters “Sorry, we’re not looking for anybody in your field.” And in this economy why would they hire someone without a degree in the field when there’s likely many qualified candidates with not only formal education in the field but also likely extensive experience.
Say, there’s a well paying career choice. I think the hooker that Elliot Spitzer got busted with was $1500/hr. The OP could be debt free in 30 hours!
(Oh for crying out loud I’M KIDDING!)
I feel for you Ninjachick! I graduated in a tech recession and had to return to live at home with my parents for about two years. I never found a “real” job that whole time and made do with low-wage temping.
After saving up about $1000, I decided to chuck everything to the wind and move out on my own. I spent 2 more years with subsistence temping until finally getting a full time job as an admin assistant (not my college field). Two more years later I finally got a job (through a friend) at a tech company applicable to my field.
It wasn’t until then that I could even think about getting out of student loan delinquency.
On the up side, I did a hell of a lot of living, adventuring, and partying during those temp years. There is always room for friends and fun, even when dirt poor.
I haven’t seen anyone suggest this - bartend or waitress. The money can be good. It’s enjoyable. And it gives you the days free to look for permanent work. I’d recommend with it taking enough courses, if possible, to defer student loans (I don’t know how many that is). It also gives you a reason to fill in the blank space on the resume at a later date. “Sure I have waited tables for the last year, but I was paying for graduate classes…”
And at 22, its not sponging off the parents if they are willing. Hell, I was in my mid-30’s at law school and Dad helped me out somewhat. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been possible, and I would have been unable to sneer at hippies for their bad life choices (even though I am not a tax lawyer).
Put in apps at every elementary school in the district for substitute work. ( One of our regular subs at our school is a parapro. When I found this out I wanted to kick her very hard, as she speaks horrible english ( native born) but she knows how to control the class.)
It is an awesome way to get your foot into the door and earn a bit while waiting for something else to come up.
Also, this time of year, alot of teachers contracts start coming up and buyouts start being offered. Flood every district and school in a 50 mile radius.
Don’t give up hope. ( You have your health. You are worrying about is debt. Everyone has debt. It’s all the rage right now! Just be thankful you have this debt without a mortgage to pay or kids to feed and your family is healthy. BTW, Welcome to the club! Here is your albatross!)
This is not a tragedy. It is an opportunity.
In every occupation you can find people who just shuffle along and make the minimal effort not to get fired. A teacher, though, usually works under two conditions that result in contradictory ends: 1) It’s impossible for any administrator to know what every teacher is doing in a classroom all the time, and students rarely take the initiative to complain; 2) Most school districts have teachers’ unions that make it difficult to dictate exactly how teachers teach. So you can get two very different types of teachers. Some take advantage of these conditions to fall into routines and avoid improving their teaching, and others are constantly striving for excellence. “Experience” in teaching is a double-edged sword. Once you’re in the system, you’ll get raises along with everyone else, according to the collective bargaining agreements. The teachers who strive for excellence are those who love the job, not necessarily those who’ve been around for a long time.
And if you’re in a big enough city, substituting is not just a temporary thing. I know substitutes who have been doing it for years, because they constantly get assignments. They get called in often because they’re always available. And at 30 bucks an hour, I wouldn’t complain.
Remember the thread where the dude was saving up for hookers?
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Ditto