Sep 21, 2006 12:28 PM
I had a lot of difficulty in my first-year teaching position at a Bronx middle school last year so last spring I dove into the open-market transfer system to find a position at a high school for this year. I felt that a high school would be a better fit for me.
I thought I had a job at a larger, yet progressive high school in eastern Queens. But given the chaotic nature of the Department of Education and how it runs things, I was wrong.
When the principal offered me a job in early May, I canceled all the other interviews I had. Over the next month, the high school sent me information about the upcoming school retreat and professional development being offered in August.
Then, in June, I got an urgent message to call my new principal. To make a long story short, the school never had the budget to hire a new English teacher. Um, excuse me?? I had the principal explain to me how this happened. He told me this long story about how the school didn’t have the resources to hire an additional teacher, that he was picked to be an Empowerment School, and that he was waiting for funding. He said he wanted me to “wait and see.”
I was really frustrated. Job hunting is difficult enough, but when you throw in having an offer rescinded from a school where you wanted to teach and you can’t “wait and see” when you have bills to pay, I was very defeated. Staying at the same middle school for another year wasn’t an appealing option either, since it wasn’t the best environment for me.
So I went on a job hunt again. I spent most of the summer looking for work even as I was teaching a high school program at a college in Brooklyn. It was hard. I had lots of interviews at high schools and middle schools. People never called back. I did follow up. I wondered if I was doing something wrong. But I was told that this is how hiring is done for teachers in New York City. So I just took a deep breath and hoped that things would work out.
I ended up interviewing for another middle school in the South Bronx in late July. It was smaller than the middle school where I worked in my first year. The principal was friendly, honest and very direct about the fact that her school was challenging. The kids are at risk — very bright children, but little to no motivation. She and I had a good conversation about the realities of teaching and whether or not I wanted to teach at her school.
It was a tough decision. I wasn’t sure if I was truly cut out to be a middle school teacher. The middle school years are the toughest; students are starting puberty and are going through it. But I came to believe that clearly my path was middle school teaching since all of the interviews and offers I received were from middle schools throughout the city. And, despite the issues I had at my first-year placement, I really loved my kids and enjoyed the growth we both experienced throughout the year.
So I said yes to her job offer. I’m becoming more comfortable with the reality that my journey in life will be one as a middle school English teacher. I just hope that some of the issues I experienced last year don’t recur at my new school. All in all, I’m looking forward to a great year as an 8th-grade English teacher.
BXMS Teacher is a pseudonym for a second-year teacher. A version of this post first appeared on the UFT blog, edwize.org, where “New Teacher Diaries” is a regular feature. Newer teachers are invited to chronicle their experiences in the New York City public school system on the blog. If you’re interested in contributing, send an e-mail to blog@uft.org.