Two Hoops Away...

...From Quiting the Teacher Profession

I have had a really rough day. For the past few weeks I have been trying to get emergency substitute certification so that I can get paid to teach (As I already am) on days that my cooperating teacher is sick or takes time off. I finally found the 11 pages of paper work that need to be filled out online and I filled everything out, sent it to the printer in the main office at school, went to pick it up, and...nothing. So, I sent it to the other printer, the one in the staff work room. Again, nothing. So, I asked in the main office and they said to try it again. So I did. And then again to the staff work room. And the again the main office. These are the only two printers that are installed on the computer. I don't have a printer at home. After running back and forth from one end of the building to the other and back again I finally found a tech guy to install an different computer and with 2 minutes left in my prep I got the form printed.

Or so I thought. Turns out only the first 8 pages printed. I have no idea what happened but at least I got the opportunity to print it again later and it worked.

So, after looking over the forms I noticed that I have to have part of it filled out by the district superintendent. So, I call the district office to find out about where to send the forms and I was on hold for over 12 min. before I had to hang up because my lunch break was over.

I also have been trying to figure out the certification process for NJ and NY for once I move. I tried to take care of these certifications during the summer when I had time. However, the NJ department of education is only open for phone calls between the hours of 3 and 6 on week days during the school year. As I live on the west coast this means I have to call between 12 and 3. I am teaching right now and I have not been able to stay on the phone long enough during my 25 min lunch to get my questions answered. The menu before you even got on hold to talk to someone takes about ten min.

We had an assembly today so I decided to make the phone call during this time. After being on the phone for an hour I found out that I have to take a total of science tests to become certified in both NJ and in WA. I don't know about NY yet. At 100 bucks a pop I not only don't feel like I can afford this added expense but I am pissed because these tests are practically the same, only offered every three months or so, and you can't take more than two on any of the dates offered. I ave no idea when I am going to get the opportunity to get these taken care of.

Ok, so that was frustrating. By the time I got off the phone with the NJ people it was to late in the day to call the NY people and find out what I am going to have to do to get certified there.

Because I could not get a hold of the district people during lunch I decided to track down the principle after school. It took a little doing but I finally did. The one good thing today was finding out that she is the person to actually fill out the district part of the forms. At least she says she is and the forms are signed.

So, after going through the ringer of trying to get information from different departments of education I can't believe we have as many teacher in the US as we do. If I were a smarter person I would not want to be a teacher. Every year it gets hard to do the job and even more complicated to get and stay certified. Teachers get paid crap. They are constantly at risk of losing their job. The hours suck (even with summers off). And the hoop jumping is ridiculous. They make it so hard for the people that actually want to be teachers to become teachers that I am amazed anyone even tries.

Why, oh, why do I do this to myself. I am worth more that this headache.