(no subject)
Feb. 16th, 2002 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupThere's been a lot I've wanted to write about this week. It's a weird thing, keeping a journal. I remember when I did it in my early 20s. You start experiencing something and then you think, "I wonder how I'll write about this in my journal?" I end up writing about maybe 10% of the stuff like that, but that is probably for the best.
Anyway, the school... much to think about. In some ways it was both better and worse than I expected. Worse: it reminded me a lot of my high school except that the building was brand-new. Basically, suburban. Not a good thing. When I taught a few years ago all the kids seemed kind of cute. That was not the case here -- they immediately made me remember how upsetting it was to be in high school, except if now I was the teacher, they would hate me and consider me incompetent, even the relatively good students. Mostly, though, I picked up a strong undercurrent of frustration from the teachers. They have to gut their curriculum and remove the interesting classes so they can meet state standards and other such crap. They did not seem to enjoy their jobs.
On the other hand, the position (actually a fellowship) seemed to not actually call for that much teaching. Someone wrote a grant, and they got the grant, but the people who wrote the grant didn't communicate with the people who need to implement it. So they basically asked me, "So what would you want to do?" I can imagine writing exercises and doing research on topics and helping them implement web units -- kind of like being a faculty consultant. That appeals to me, sort of. So that's a plus.
Still, the whole thing was kind of a downer, honestly. E.g.: in the lunchroom, after the person showing me around rattles off my supposedly illustrious-sounding qualifications: the teacher at the other end of the table says, "So, um, why would you want to come here?" Hey, personally, I don't think that getting the degree was half as difficult as teaching a class every day. But that is the way the world (notably parents and in-laws etc.) values such things, and it is depressing sometimes.
So, until/unless I get some kind of prospective college teaching thing, I will face two options. One is this fellowship; the other is to stay on with the Board and see what pans out there. They like me and basically told me I can stay as long as I'd like. Pros: Money, work at home, money, easy work, good benefits, might be a career path, and money. Cons: I don't know if it will be any easier to get back to the academy from there than from the high school. And the fellowship might have some prestige with academics, though I doubt it. Or the fellowship might give me some clout for a career in "education," something I know remarkably little about, but which currently seems like the closest thing to a career path that I have right now.
I really don't know what to do.
In the meantime, I worked constantly this week and spread myself out reeeal thin. Now I have many papers to grade and a big stack of articles to copyedit and a whole lot of module glosses to write. I burn my candle at so, so many ends.
Anyway, the school... much to think about. In some ways it was both better and worse than I expected. Worse: it reminded me a lot of my high school except that the building was brand-new. Basically, suburban. Not a good thing. When I taught a few years ago all the kids seemed kind of cute. That was not the case here -- they immediately made me remember how upsetting it was to be in high school, except if now I was the teacher, they would hate me and consider me incompetent, even the relatively good students. Mostly, though, I picked up a strong undercurrent of frustration from the teachers. They have to gut their curriculum and remove the interesting classes so they can meet state standards and other such crap. They did not seem to enjoy their jobs.
On the other hand, the position (actually a fellowship) seemed to not actually call for that much teaching. Someone wrote a grant, and they got the grant, but the people who wrote the grant didn't communicate with the people who need to implement it. So they basically asked me, "So what would you want to do?" I can imagine writing exercises and doing research on topics and helping them implement web units -- kind of like being a faculty consultant. That appeals to me, sort of. So that's a plus.
Still, the whole thing was kind of a downer, honestly. E.g.: in the lunchroom, after the person showing me around rattles off my supposedly illustrious-sounding qualifications: the teacher at the other end of the table says, "So, um, why would you want to come here?" Hey, personally, I don't think that getting the degree was half as difficult as teaching a class every day. But that is the way the world (notably parents and in-laws etc.) values such things, and it is depressing sometimes.
So, until/unless I get some kind of prospective college teaching thing, I will face two options. One is this fellowship; the other is to stay on with the Board and see what pans out there. They like me and basically told me I can stay as long as I'd like. Pros: Money, work at home, money, easy work, good benefits, might be a career path, and money. Cons: I don't know if it will be any easier to get back to the academy from there than from the high school. And the fellowship might have some prestige with academics, though I doubt it. Or the fellowship might give me some clout for a career in "education," something I know remarkably little about, but which currently seems like the closest thing to a career path that I have right now.
I really don't know what to do.
In the meantime, I worked constantly this week and spread myself out reeeal thin. Now I have many papers to grade and a big stack of articles to copyedit and a whole lot of module glosses to write. I burn my candle at so, so many ends.
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no subject
Date: 2002-02-17 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-02-17 05:56 am (UTC)Or is this one of those things that will make me regret allowing anonymous posts?
no subject
Date: 2002-02-17 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-02-17 02:07 pm (UTC)Will teaching High School really stain your CV?
Re:
Date: 2002-02-17 02:18 pm (UTC)When I was at the AHA last month, I was told that teaching community college or high school would create a ceiling whereby you could not really get another position above that station. The guy telling me that was the Provost of the Cal. State University system, so I figure he knows what he's talking about. Part of the general way that academia has not recognized the glut of job applicants out there. You've got a generation of profs who came of age during the flush times, with a certain snobbishness as well.
This position might not look like "teaching at a high school," though. I'll have to ask my advisors at Hopkins what they think.
I also wonder if it might not help me with the Board on some level. Getting the view from the trenches, as it were. And there are supposed to be seminars on pedagogy and so forth thrown in. So. Hmph.