Does anyone feel like BTSA is an ax hanging over your head? I've had my preliminary credential for 2.5 years now. I feel like the fact that my timing was so bad that I got it in the worst job market of all time for teachers is being held against me by the state. Basically this year is shot, because I've only found four jobs to apply for and not even had an interview. Even widening my area to all of OC, LA, San Diego and Riverside counties has been fruitless. By my calculation, I have one more year after this one to find a job or I'm sunk. Yes, you can get an extension, but how is that going to look? Subbing for four years or more with no job offer? I got a 4.0 in my teacher prep program. And I'm a d+*n good teacher and as a sub I put in all of my soul each day! It drives me crazy to see other subs phoning it in and making the rest of us look bad! I've also looked outside of CA, but some states won't accept a preliminary credential and want x number of years of full-time teaching experience which I obviously can't get. I've always been a person who felt like I was in control of my life and my future. This whole thing is so overwhelming and makes me feel so defeated that I want to curl into a ball and cry. If I'd done this 5 years before I did it, I probably would have been fine. Since I had to work another field to afford to go back to school, the timing was horrible and I can't get around that. Sorry for the rant. I just feel stressed and depressed over this right now. The time limit is the worst part because I can't just "wait out" the market like people say to do because of the time limit on BTSA.
I understand your frustration. I was stressed to the max when I graduated in 05 because I, too, was worried about BTSA. I lucked out and was able to get a job (in the central valley). It sounds like you are in southern CA, where I heard jobs were pretty scarce. Have you looked in the central valley and Bay area? Would you be willing to relocate? Also, don't worry about it looking bad that you had to apply for an extension. Many people have ha to sub for years and years before finally landing a job. And admins KNOW that it's been a tough few years for new teachers.
What is your credential in? My district still is interviewing for a 5th grade and a couple of MS positions, and a HS science spot. If you're willing to dip your toes into Ventura County, PM me and I'll send you the info.
I haven't tried the Bay Area. I used to have to go up there regularly when I had a corporate job, and it's a little too cold for me. I've never even looked at the Central Valley. I always stereotyped that as really small farm towns, but I'm sure there are some urban areas with a lot of life outside of work. It's probably a lot more hip than I give it credit for. It's definitely worth a try. At least if I got an interview, I'd have an excuse to check out the area. I really want to move to Phoenix. I sent in my paperwork over a month ago to the AZ Dept of Ed for licensure, but haven't heard anything and my check hasn't been cashed. I'm not sure if that means I was rejected for some reason or if my paperwork is just sitting in a big stack in someone's in box. At this point, I'm not sure I can be picky. I probably should just send out resumes to the entire state and see where it leads. After all, it's always possible to be surprised and end up happily in a place where I never imagined I would go, right?
The central valley extends from Sacramento down to Bakersfield. You have lots of large towns (Modesto and Fresno) and small rural farming towns. I just moved to the central coast in March. During the summer, my old school had at least 4 elementary teaching openings. This was really hard for me because here there are no jobs. Bleh. So, give that area a shot.
The job I accepted (I am over on the east coast) is so rural no one in the state even knows where it is (except for 1 person who went to high school nearby). I am excited to work in a rural school (my student teaching was in a rural school as well) but I am really hating moving away from all of my friends. However, when I look at the rest of my class with no job, I know that I made the right decision to apply everywhere throughout the state. Back in March or so when I realized there would be no jobs near me, I had to decide to stay here or to follow my dream. I had decided I wanted to stay here about 3 years ago, but had wanted to teach elementary school since I was in 2nd grade, so obviously I chose to follow my elementary dreams. We will see if I am glad that I did so!!
jen12, my 2 credentials expire...NEXT MONTH & I only did 1 yr of special ed teaching (along w/ BTSA). I sure don't want to lose them because I've worked too hard to get them, however, I've switched gears away from teaching and into speech-language pathology, but that still doesn't mean I want to just lose my teaching credentials. I've emailed the CCTC credentialing analyst & she said: The Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) determines the renewal requirements for each type of credential and authorizes program sponsors to ensure that the requirements are met according to the written program narrative that is pre-approved by CTC. The CTC approved RIMS-BTSA Induction Program has an eligibility requirement that the participant must be employed as a teacher in order to complete the formative assessment process with an assigned support provider. I believe most California BTSA programs have this same requirement for multiple subject credentials. The renewal code on your level I education specialist credential also indicates that you must teach two years in special education and complete a university program to renew it. So, that only leaves one option and that is to let your credentials expire and remain dormant until you need to re-activate them for employment purposes and to move forward in completing the renewal requirements. There is no penalty to do this. A link to the CTC information leaflet describing the option to request an extension of time to your credential is shown below: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/al3.pdf
I completely understand the frustration with this. I have 3 years to get the second year of BTSA completed. With all of the trouble I've had finding a position for the 2011-2012 school year I'm hoping I'll be able to extend it, if I don't find a job soon...
Here's the reply I got when I asked the credential analyst last week if I eventually lose my credentials if I never get back into teaching: "An expired credential may be reactivated at any time and does not disappear from the dormant phase. You may need to meet changes inacted since your credential expired based on any new legislation. For example, recently CTC changed their fingerprinting policy to require someone to submit new fingerprint approval if they have not held an valid active credential for over one year."
I feel like a broken record as I've complained about it on other threads, but I only have 1.5 years left to complete 2 years of BTSA :thumb: Yeah I'm just a tad bitter.
Sorry to bump this again, but what is this I've been hearing about some districts/areas bumping BTSA down to one year?
Hmm, never heard of this. From what source did you hear this from exactly? This is something to ask the CCTC credential analyst.
I have heard that if a teacher has been working at a school for a number of years then BTSA could be completed in one year (some sort of early completion?) but it is up to the school district's BTSA office.
That is true, I did BTSA in one year. It was referred to as "accelerated" BTSA. The requirement was that you must have been the "teacher of record" for two full years. I don't remember if it had to be at the same school/district. You should be able to find information for it on the web. You do have to apply but I remember the application being really short and easy. The weird thing was the BTSA office we worked through really frowned on doing it in one year. There were several of us in my position who had been teaching for two years and every time we asked questions at the group meetings about how to go about it, they cut off our questions and were really rude about it. The impression we got was that they didn't want other people in the room to know that we were doing it in one year instead of two. They kept repeating that while we could do it in one year, it would be better to take the two full years so that we could have more time for professional growth. (Yeah right, who would voluntarily choose 2 years of BTSA instead of one!!) I do believe that the requirements were less for one year vs two. It's not that they make you cram two years into one, they cut out some stuff here and there. I remember they said that if your work did not reflect work of an experienced teacher, that they would make you do the 2nd year. So in theory we may have been graded more harshly but I didn't hear of anyone who didn't pass.
When I was in my credential program, the history they gave us on BTSA was that it was created because new teachers felt that there was no support, no mentoring and that they were thrown into the fire without any assistance, so BTSA was created. It seems to me like it does just the opposite of what it was intended to do. I haven't gone through it yet, but from my perspective it seems to just add another stressor to a beginning teacher's life. I was in a sub meeting the other day and it was brought up because people were afraid of losing their credenitals through no fault of their own, because they can't get to BTSA without a job and can't get a job because there just aren't jobs out there. The district rep speaking said she thought the restrictions would have to change because the state would have to adapt to what is going on in the economy - this has also been my own belief. I wonder if the one year BTSA is an adaptation to what is going on now. The fact that its a change and nobody likes change may be the reason for the sense FunTwoTeach had that the reps were trying to squelch the questions about it.
Exactly! Sure, I want extra support & a mentor, not more (many times useless) homework assignments due every week on top of everything else I have to get used to w/ my new job! By the way, I did 1 yr of it so far, but I gotta check into that 1 yr deal to see if I can qualify for that somehow.
I had to do two years of it, but I remember my second year was when they were making the switch to one year, or planning on it. All I know is, while I did like having a mentor to work with, I HATED the amount of work that it came with.
What is also frustrating is when you meet people who have mentors that just sign off on everything. I have met SO many people who didn't do the observations and meetings, but they were friends with their mentor and basically just made everything up. That made me lose all respect for BTSA. Those types of programs sound good, but aren't practical or based on a first year teacher's needs. In my opinion teachers definitely need mentoring and support, but producing a bunch of paperwork as "evidence" of that doesn't make sense.
