The Great Debate

So after a few days off, I have started thinking again, I know... scary thought. I am not sure of what I want to do with my job so I'm going to use this blog as a sounding board.

Although I would love to go to grad school right now, it just isn't plausible. That will have to reserved for later in life. So, now I need to decide on my teaching environment for next year. I am looking at transferring to another high school in my district. This is the school I started teaching at and that Jeremy teaches at now.

Issue #1: Schedule of teaching. I have had 20 preps (different classes/subjects) since I moved to North two and a half years ago. Basically that means I teach three different classes each quarter for 4 quarters each year. That is a lot of work. That means I am prepping for each class each day. At the other school, I would have three preps over a semester and the classes would meet every other day. So I would have a day in between to catch my breath. That would result in less time prepping on a daily basis and a smaller work load, meaning I wouldn’t have to work so hard to get ready for my teaching.

Issue #2: Classes I would teach. As long as I stay at North, there is no guarantee that I would teach the same thing quarter to quarter or year to year. Since I am dual certified, I can and will be shifted around as they please. Because of this, I will continue to get the “left-over” classes. At the other school, I would be hired into an all-English position. The classes are pretty well set already, which include American Literature, my favorite class to teach. Plus in the next few years at the other school, I could work my way into AP English and/or Honors English 9. At North, there is no guarantee that I could get into any of the classes I want.

Issue #3: Soccer. I want to get out of coaching for a while. If I move schools that would be an easy out. I would hate to have to tell the girls that I just don’t want to coach them and then stay in the building with them. It would just be too hard.

Issue #4: Administration. I hate my administration at North. They hate me, so I guess it works out well. :( If I were to change schools, I would have a different administration with different issues. I do believe however that this principal wouldn’t screw with me because Jeremy is there and Jeremy is a union rep and knows darn well what wouldn’t be okay. I think this new administration would know what they were getting going into with me and would try the crap my current administration does.

Issue #5: Drama. The other school had more drama when I was there last. One of my friends that teaches there has a strong tendency toward getting wrapped up in the drama. If I were to go back, I am worried about getting back into the drama.

Issue #6: Simplifying life. If I were to teach at the other school, the Jeremy and I would only have one set of issues instead of two. If we want to go to a game, we only have to go to one school’s, not two.

Issue #7: Stress. With the possibility of having a family some time in the future, I need to be able to balance work and family better. I think with the schedule, I would be able to do less work at home, have fewer issues to stress (one school between us instead of two), and wouldn’t have to deal with the issues of an administration that won’t be going anywhere any time soon (not good enough to move elsewhere and too young to retire).

Possible Issue #8: Working with Jeremy. I don’t think this will be an issue, but thought I’d put this out there anyway. I doubt we’d see each other during the day, and we’re really good at being professional around each other in the work environment (when we coached together, none of the kids knew we were dating, until we got engaged).

After putting this all out there, it looks to me that I am leaning toward transfering. I do worry about when I finally do apply to grad schools that it will look bad that I was at one school for two years, another for three years and then went back to the first.