and not sure which way to turn right now. I'm newly certified in English Language Arts 5-12 and sped, mild to mod. I'm over 50 with a college degree from an ivy league but have never really worked in that field b/c I chose to stay home with kids instead and stayed out for years. I work as a para right now and I'm bored with it and the pay is quite low and my husband is divorcing me after 23 years of marriage and he's pressuring me to get a higher paying job outside of teaching so he doesn't have to pay maintenance, but I told him to lay off b/c I was working on this when he decided to leave. I guess my questions are--what are my chances of getting a teaching job this late in the school year and at my age, will there be any opportunities to come in as a new teacher? What would you do if you were in my shoes? I'm afraid that if I change careers entirely, I'll probably never teach, but I'm also afraid that it could take years for the teaching job market to recover and that I'd still never teach. BTW, most of the teachers I work with seem to think that I'm very good at working with the kids and I'm told that I have a gift for teaching.
Oh, I'm sorry this is all happening at once. I would worry most about what is best for you. Not what other people want. In your position, I would take care of myself first. My district (far from MO) isn't hiring right now because of horrible budget cuts, but last year at this time, we were. In our area, there isn't generally a shortage of LA teachers, but we're often short special education teachers. That might be a more realistic route to take. I'm thinking of taking a math cert as well in case my current position dries up. Math seems to be in high need around here. Hope things turn out for you.
Thanks for your kind words, Kate. Our district was hiring at this time last year also, but then let 40 go, mainly thru attrition--these were all sped jobs, b/c they're taking a lot of kids off IEPs. Trouble is I can't see the teaching job market recovering anytime soon, but it breaks my heart to think about looking for another kind of job. And don't worry, I'm not giving much credence to the wishes of my ex--he's the one who left to go live an alternative lifestyle, so no sympathy here for his not wanting to pay maintenance. Still, it's rather boring to be a parapro when you'd rather have your own classroom, as I'm sure that you can imagine. Anyway, yeah, I'm looking for sped and LA jobs.
