Midlife crisis? Epiphany? Or am I insane?

[johnr]

mrs johnr is on her final few credits finishing up a MBA, wow for sucking the life out of a person. She works her 8-5 job, is on 3 committee's, 2 kids left at home, taking 4 classes, and taking care of me.
Never met someone as driven and busy as her, not sure if its a good thing or not. Starting to think she will get all smartened up and realize how lucky I am...haha

I could not go back to school at this stage in my life, I cant focus for more than 10 minutes on any one particular task, and I truly believe the older I get the harder I learn.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

You can always go overseas and teach english too. Had a teacher that quit teaching in our school and went over to Germany and was teaching on a base their. He absolutely loved it. Don't know if i would go overseas now with how everyone hates Americans though.

 

[Bed Wetter]

Successful educators don't just teach, they evangelize. It helps that my company is very, very good at what we do. I set the expectation that we are the very best in our industry, provide empirical evidence to substantiate that claim, and commend them on the fact that they're sitting in my classroom being entrusted with this opportunity. It's incredibly rewarding when you see people you've trained excel, get recognized, and get promoted.

There's an old saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." I always strive to not be that guy and occasionally jump in to do what I'm teaching others to do.

 

[Traxion]

I'm in year 2 of a similar conversion from industry to education. It is good you are going through the classes and student teaching. I went straight from industry to the classroom as SD allows individuals who have BS/BA degrees to fast track towards a teaching certificate. It was an interesting transition to say the least. I am still building a curriculum and tweaking things. But, as my mentor teacher who has 37 years experience says, every single year you will do that if you are a good teacher. You learn each and every day. It will be a struggle at first, but it gets easier.

The hardest thing for me was understanding what expectation I should have for the kids. I am similar in age to you and the world these kids are growing up in is COMPLETELY different world than what we did. The things that motivate them, and more importantly how they learn, is also very different from us. They are the first generation that grew up completely with technology at their fingertips. As a society, we have learned so much about how to handle this that I feel this generation was the guinea pigs. And it shows. More activities and stress are on these kids than any others in recent history. Society and parents have high expectations, right or wrong, which heavily influence teachers and the educational system. You'll be challenged by the everyone gets a ribbon policy and those kids/parents that expect an A not matter what.

But that all said, you get to try to give kids a few skills that can drastically improve their lives today and forever. You can take a kid that has little hope and help them accomplish even the smallest victory. You'll have good days, bad days, and average ones. The pay isn't great but you get benefits. Days off are nice, but remember you only have 4 minutes between classes to use the restroom. You lose that everyday flexibility almost all other careers have. Bottom line, beyond the plus and minuses of things, you get to make a difference in the future of our kids.

 

[Sluggo]

Duck, maybe you can sprinkle some good conservative values into your teaching.

Bed Wetter, I had you pegged as an educator all along. Not.

In my circle the saying goes "Those who can, do, those who can't, manage."

 

[Hawgeye]

Duckslayer, all I can say is follow your dreams and don't look back. You are young and if this doesn't turn out to be your dream job, which it sounds like t is, you will only regret it if you don't go for it!

First of all, my wife has been teaching since 1991. She works as hard or harder then most do in other professions. She absolutely LOVES what she doeas. She has taught K, 1st, 2nd, 4th and now is a 6th grade teacher. I am so proud that she gets to do something she loves so much and still has the drive and passion to be the best teacher she can be. She gets so humbled any time she runs into a former student or parent that tell her she was a special mentor in their life or she was their favorite teacher...and it happens quite often....that is much more valuable than a 6 figure paycheck... I am still looking for my dream job...although may have found it today!

Now for another related story about "me". I experienced something similar to you and was told my position was eliminated and my employment was terminated immediately with no warning. What was even more painful is that I am in my fifties and was having trouble landing a new career. I had worked for this company for 26 years, started in the field, worked my way up through several positions eventually getting a promoted to branch manager and was very successful for the last 8 years. It was a profession I dedicated my life to and suddenly found myself unemployed. Now what!? My father taught me to work hard, be trustworthy, have high integrity, do the right thing and respect your colleagues, customers and company. I did all that, yet there I was, feeling lost, anxious, humbled, wondering what should I have done different?

i was fortunate that I was given a transitional benefit plan (similar to a severance) that allowed some time to reflect, find what I want to do and not take any old job. I decided I wanted to try the private sector and avoid the corporate world of PC, policies and restrictions, labels etc...not "how can we serve our customers and be the best at what we do?"

After 5 months, I was losing hope and ready to take just any job to trudge through the 4th quarter of my working career. Out of the blue, my door opened! A former employee, who left to pursue a dream of owning his own company, reached out to me to see if I would ever consider joining his firm to create a new division.

Today I accepted his offer and couldn't be more excited!! This is the best I have felt in years!
Why am I sharing this? Because my dad was right, "work hard, be trustworthy, have high integrity, do the right thing and respect your colleagues, customers and company." Because I followed his advice, a former employee had trust and confidence in me to help him grow his business!

When a door opens, RUN through it and don't look back!

 

[Duckslayer100]

Wow...I did not expect to get this much encouragement and insight. Seriously, this is why I love NDA. It's cathartic.

I have zero expectations that this will somehow be a cakewalk...neither the road to a master's or actually teaching. I'm expecting difficulties along the way that are going to test my mettle. Honestly, the greatest challenge is internally: Do I deserve to teach kids? I believe I have the passion, and I hope what I learned through my own education and professional career can help cram their craniums with intelligence. But there is self doubt. Plus, I know things have changed even since I was in high school (graduated 2002). We were on the bubble of the technological revolution. That line between using the library for resources and finding things online. I may not have been as immersed in technology as the kids I will teach, but I was there at the beginning. I had a Nintendo Entertainment System when I was six. I used to play games on my dad's old Mac. I met my wife through Facebook (well, sort of...I knew her in high school and asked her out once...but I digress).

In these ways, I hope I can connect with the kids I will teach and understand the challenges and stresses they face. Or, at the very least, change the way I think to better serve their needs, while still holding them to a high standard.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

When one has the passion and desire to succeed, it makes everything so much easier. Too many lack that passion in todays world.
You can always pick out the ones that truly love what they do compared to the ones that this is just a paycheck.

 

[Retired Educator]

Ha, you got that right.

The most gratifying jobs I ever had were ones that resulted in a finished product. Where you put your sweat and effort to make something, and could stand back and see the results. Was every slab I helped pour and finish perfect? No. Some, for whatever reason, were downright embarrassing. But the good outweighed the bad.

I envision teaching that way. You go into the day with a goal and passion. You end the day hoping you've done the best you could with what you had. And when the semester or year is over, you look back and see what worked and what didn't so that the next year you can make an even greater impact.

For me, the gratification of a job well done is not instant. You might not know for a period of time how much affect you had on a students life. It feels good when a former student let's you know how you made a difference in their life. The tricky part is finding what works for the many different students you will have in class. There is no one rule that works for all. Not all students learn the same way. Not all students have the same interests. They don't all have the same issues at home. Nonetheless seeing success is the fun part of teaching.

 

[Norske]

When it's time for the student teaching, look into MSUM. They used to have a summer school student teaching option. That will save a bunch of time.

 

[Bed Wetter]

The timing of this thread is just swell. So, a little more than a year ago, I was asked to participate in a certification program by a newly hired director at my company. As I explained to her, "we wrote the book on how to do this so I'm a little skeptical about someone else 'certifying' our expertise, but I'll give it a whirl." Well, the certification process had some merit, but not enough to pass the smell test. I came back with critical feedback. I didn't just bad mouth it, I came in with a bunch of examples. Fearing I wasn't going to put myself on the wrong side of this new boss, the opposite happened. She got pissed... with the certifying body, not me. She cancelled the program for the rest of the people in the company who were scheduled to take it.

Fast forward... she landed a position as a committee chair with this certifying organization and made revamping the program a top priority. She literally had them rewrite the program, materials, and exam. She came to me today and said they're finalizing the new certification and she wants me to review it and provide feedback before it "goes public." It's not exactly rocket surgery, but today was a gratifying day, knowing my input is directly altering/raising industry standards.

 

[Duckslayer100]

Gratifying may be an understatement! That's awesome, BW.

You're fortunate in that you worked with someone who knew where to place her angst when being offered constructive criticism. It's appalling how many people claim to be that way, but actually have the skin thickness of wet toilet paper.

 

[deleted_account]

The timing of this thread is just swell. So, a little more than a year ago, I was asked to participate in a certification program by a newly hired director at my company. As I explained to her, "we wrote the book on how to do this so I'm a little skeptical about someone else 'certifying' our expertise, but I'll give it a whirl." Well, the certification process had some merit, but not enough to pass the smell test. I came back with critical feedback. I didn't just bad mouth it, I came in with a bunch of examples. Fearing I wasn't going to put myself on the wrong side of this new boss, the opposite happened. She got pissed... with the certifying body, not me. She cancelled the program for the rest of the people in the company who were scheduled to take it.

Fast forward... she landed a position as a committee chair with this certifying organization and made revamping the program a top priority. She literally had them rewrite the program, materials, and exam. She came to me today and said they're finalizing the new certification and she wants me to review it and provide feedback before it "goes public." It's not exactly rocket surgery, but today was a gratifying day, knowing my input is directly altering/raising industry standards.

i got yelled at from a superintendent, fired a dry wall contractor, and then had a fire pump literally start on fire. talk about a gratifying day at the office

 

[PrairieGhost]

I hope I can connect with the kids I will teach and understand the challenges and stresses they face.

Attitude is everything
You will make a great teacher.
They say college students change their major an average of five times. I made the mistake of finishing most then trying to decide what to do. I have majors in wildlife, entomology, and secondly education. After school jobs were tough so I interviewed at Tempo (like Kmart then) Gun and Reel sports, Almont school, and the Fish and Wildlife. I was offered all four and will never know if I made the right choice.
I always thought the taught biology backwards starting out with cellular biology which bores kids to death. Not everyone will go to college so biology should start out with a more practical side that would serve students that don't go on to college.
Since I have retired a couple of small towns in my area have offered me teaching positions, and it's been tempting, but the new found freedom is just to good to give up.
You attitude that I quoted above indicates to me that you will make a spectacular teacher. I had a number of people working for me temporarily over the years that have asked me what I thought they should do. They were the type that always helped the new people and had an attitude much like yours. I recommended teaching to two of them. One is a very successful biology teacher in Minot right now, and the other is also doing well in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
I don't think I need wish you luck, you have it made already. Best wishes to you and your family.

 

[dschaible]

If your not already financially set starting out as a teacher at 32(34? after school) is a highly risky move for your family. Sure you will feel accomplished at the end of the day but you wont have the funds for vacations, boats, campers, golfing or any shit your kids want. Plus you started 10 years late on your teacher retirement. Sounds like you do not deal with stress that well, just imagine financial stress day in and day out that is what you will be dealing with as a teacher.

I would say try to find a job that gives you the satisfaction of accomplishing something that doesn't have such a low financial ceiling as teaching.

 

[Duckslayer100]

If your not already financially set starting out as a teacher at 32(34? after school) is a highly risky move for your family. Sure you will feel accomplished at the end of the day but you wont have the funds for vacations, boats, campers, golfing or any shit your kids want. Plus you started 10 years late on your teacher retirement. Sounds like you do not deal with stress that well, just imagine financial stress day in and day out that is what you will be dealing with as a teacher.

I would say try to find a job that gives you the satisfaction of accomplishing something that doesn't have such a low financial ceiling as teaching.

Believe it or not, the work I was in wasn't paying much more than a teaching salary. And with a master's degree I'll actually be making MORE to start that what I ended with -- and that's only working 9 months out of the year. But if needed, I can always join a concrete crew or pick up some more freelance work during the summer. Money isn't everything.