Saturday, February 28, 2009

Job Search

Recently I was seduced to the dark side of the internet. I embraced my destiny as a total loss and joined Facebook. And a little while ago, I posted a status update:
"Don Gwinn is looking for a new job."
That brought some concerned phone calls and some guessing, and in retrospect, I suppose if your mother-in-law is a Facebook friend, you should probably call her before you post such an announcement. Many of my friends have asked whether I was laid off, a natural thought in today's economy.

I'm not going to say a lot about the details on the internet, but I'll say this: I resigned from my position, but I'm not necessarily leaving teaching. I'm going to put in at some other places and see what happens. I'd like to stay in special education, but if there's someone in the area who would like to have a regular-education elementary or middle-school teacher who's "Highly Qualified" in math, science, social studies and language arts, AND has an intimate firsthand knowledge of special-education mandates, AND knows how an IEP is intended to work inside and out, AND has years of experience as a classroom teacher, a direct-instruction special-education teacher, and as a co-teacher in an inclusion classroom including kids with and without IEP's . . . . well, I'm available. I'm also experienced in the assessment/records required by the new coming Response To Intervention (RTI) standards, especially in reading fluency and reading comprehension.

Because of the way I have my pay schedule structured, my pay from my current employer won't change until the end of the coming summer, so I have some time to find something else. I'm going to be applying at a lot of places in the next month to try to beat their early hiring deadlines, but it wouldn't be surprising if it took a lot longer at some places, since there's always a lot of last-minute hiring over the summer.

So, among my assets, I have an early start, a lot of varied experience, and the experience I gained from working for a district that was getting a real jump on the new legal mandates that haven't taken effect yet.

Among my liabilities? Well, I have a wheelbarrow, but there's not a holocaust cloak to be found in this country. Also, rumor has it that a relatively large number of other special-ed personnel were or soon will be released from the same district--which means a lot of competition for those special-ed openings. Still, I'm more flexible than a lot of other people out there, and that's an advantage.

What I should do is write the great American novel and put all this sordid working-class nonsense behind me. I have this great idea for a story about a colorful band of guns-for-hire who hunt mythical monsters for a living . . . . . oh, right.

7 comments:

Joe Allen said...

Are you wanting to stay put, or is relocating a possibility?

Especially if it's a shall issue state?

Don said...

Probably staying put for now. We're partway through renovating this house, and I don't think we'd get much out of it at the moment.

Otherwise, I think there'd be a good chance of relocating if I could make it work certification-wise--my wife has talked about finding something else in the next couple of years, too, but I don't know how seriously she meant that.

Joe Allen said...

If you ever want to look for something in Missouri/Kansas, I've got a friend at the UMKC School of Education that would likely be a good resource for scouting something out.

Home on the Range said...

I was surprised that teaching positions are getting scarce, yet I know two women, wives of co workers in much the same position.

I hope you find something that will reward and challenge you. Good teachers are worth keeping.

Anonymous said...

How about running for senate? We could use a honest replacement for both Durbin and Burris.

Anonymous said...

I do like reading your blog, but if you want to take it to the next stade - consider changing your design. The only thing I can reccomend is you to browse free themes for blogger.com

Anonymous said...

酒店小姐
酒店兼職
禮服店
酒店經紀
酒店兼差
酒店打工
酒店上班
假日打工
台北酒店經紀
童裝批發
童裝批發
酒店喝酒
暑假打工
寒假打工
酒店
酒店經紀人
酒店現領