News

Found a new job.

Our school's science department has a spoken agreement with a competing school to trade materials when we need to. It is common for us to trade organics for inorganic acids and that.

The boss of the science dept over there is a neighbour of my parents so i have known this guy for a good 2 years, nice guy. In one of those many opportunities when i went to trade something with him he and i sat down for a little while and discussed teaching. At the time i hadn't even thought about it because i was still trying to go corporate, so i told him it'd be nice but that i wasn't interested at the time.

So a year went by and about 3 weeks ago i went to trade some butyric acid for some acetone. He brought it up again.

Things have changed since he and i spoke last about teaching; i got approval from the bosses here to start a master's program that was provided through the school at a minimal cost to me. But the program was riddled with IFs. If i was accepted by the university to do the masters, if there was space in the program, if the teacher wanted a class that big, if there's nobody with more priority that needs to take it (teachers get priority) etc etc etc.

The university accepts a class size max of 25, but gives teachers the liberty of taking more students if they want. Right now the profs are allowing 35 max. I'd be #34 in the class. but not all of the classes will be taught by the same profs, some will have other profs coming from the states, and if these guys want 25 only, everybody from #26 to me is fucked. That and if there's a couple of new teachers that want in, i'd also be bumped out because i don't have priority. Too many ifs.

Also there's the issue that the masters is at least 2 years long, and that's if i do all classes on schedule and pass all courses and produce a decent thesis. Then there's the fact that i'd have to pay for a great deal of the courses, not to mention plane tickets, certification exams etc etc etc.

And then there's the little thing that this master's is not directly conducent to getting certified.

I could take cert exams after finishing the masters... but what good is that to me if i have to wait so long to do that and dish out so much money? The school's not going to help me much with that because i'm just a local hire, so essentially I'm not going to slave away at this school with no chances of growth while i could be doing something of myself, faster and more efficiently.

So back to that conversation 3 weeks ago. He asked me what about teaching and if i had changed my mind. I told them my school was willing to pay for a little bit of the masters and that i'd have certs in 3 to 4 years.

He asked what if i took a job at his place and got certs through a fast track program with the school paying for the courses (and me paying for room and board). We sat down, discussed a little bit how it'd be. The entire science team of that school was moving out due to contracts that end, so a new crew is coming in and some don't have a lot of experience and not one of them had ever used vernier classroom technology or smartboard. I'm sort of an expert with both.

So here's what they offered.

- The fast track course
- The student teaching hours
- The praxis test
- The possibility of being department head once i started teaching full time
- The possibility of getting prepared for IB, AP and some other curricula.

What does this entail? That, with 99% certainty, in 5 years i could be at an ISS fair getting a job in a different country. Where i am at, the certainty is more like 50% and i'm looking at at least 8 years to be there.

I'd start doing the same job, lab techie, but for a little bit more money and a lot less time in traffic everyday. Next summer i'd start the fast track. In the 09-10 schoolyear i'd do my student teaching hours and in the summer of 10 i'd do my second summer i'd finish the fast track and get certs.

Then i commit to a to 5 year contract at the school, get heaps of experience and (with the kids i haven't had being about 3 to 5 years old) move to a different country.

So i got the call today with the offer and i said sure why not. Nothing to loose, everything to gain. They'll write the contract up and have me sign it sometime soon. Then, once school ends, i'll send in my resignation and be done with it.


Still a lab tech, just not going to be one at this dump anymore. :)