Unemployment 1

First, I would just like to take a minute and say that some people have no sense of humor. How can you go through life with no sense of humor?
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Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’m going to be serious tonight. When I was in high school, I decided (with much coercion from my mother) that I was going to apply to Rowan as a history major/education major. My original plan was to teach history to either middle school or high school students. When I was filling out the application, there was a small box at the bottom of the paper for “Collaborative Education,” a new program at Rowan designed for the next generation of teachers - certification and degrees in Special Education in Elementary Education. Only 30 people were accepted into the program each year, and my mother encouraged me to check the box. I really had no interest in the program, but figured ‘what the heck, I check the box off to make her happy. I won’t get in since they only accept 30 people out of hundreds of applications.’

I was wrong. Even with my mediocre grades in high school, I managed to get into the program. After being miserable for the next 5 years, I graduated with a Master’s in Collaborative Teaching and Bachelors in both Collaborative Education and American Studies. I later became highly qualified to teach Middle School Math, Language Arts, and Social Studies. I started working as an instructional aide/math teacher, then later became a math teacher at the Intermediate School. I now have a combined total of 5 years of teaching experience along with another 5 years of schooling in education.

If you look at my job on paper, you would think I had it easy:
*My day starts at 7 in the morning and ends at 2 in the afternoon. I don’t have to come in earlier than the kids and I’m allowed to leave when they are dismissed.
*I have an hour prep each day plus a 30 minute lunch.
*I have summer’s off along with all major holidays. I also get a week off for Christmas, and roughly a week off for Spring Break.

However, when you look at my job responsibilities you won’t think it’s so easy:
*I’ve never come to work at 7 in the morning, I’m there early every day. I set up my classroom (go over my lesson plans, make sure that I have copies of everything I need, write the objective/itinerary for the day) and clean up from the CCD class that used my room the previous night.
*I’ve never once left at 2 pm. I have students stay after for extra help, detention, after school clubs, papers to grade, lesson plans to create, phone calls to make, and meetings to attend.
*My day never runs smoothly. My day never runs smoothly. In the last three years, I’ve had calculators, textbooks, and pencils thrown at me. I’ve had students tell me to “suck their dick” or “I don’t have to listen to you because your gay.” On a weekly basis, I have parents emailing me about their sons grades/behavior in class. Usually dealing with the parents is more stressful than having to dodge a calculator, because they are ruthless.
*Countless nights of bringing home papers to grade, quizzes/tests to create/
*Of course there are also the other responsibilities that come with being a teacher: staff meetings, dress codes, observations, meetings with parents, meetings with administration, organizing and planning school events, chaperoning school trips…the list goes on and on.

My goal was never to go into education “because of the money.” In fact, I wasn’t even aware of the starting salary for a teacher when I started school. I wanted to become a teacher because I liked kids. I liked introducing students to new concepts.

In less than two weeks, I will be loosing my job because I don’t have tenure. I have been given the opportunity to teach second grade for the summer within the district, which only delays the inevitable. I’ve done an amazing job at GIS, my fellow colleagues love working with me and principal and vice principal believe that I am an asset to the school system. It doesn’t matter how hard I worked. It doesn’t matter how many hours of my own time I've put into my job. I’m being laid off for only one reason - tenure.