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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
OP, you said that you had over 20 interviews, but only this one offer. Did you receive any feedback from those interviews or did anyone give you advice as to why you did not receive other job offers?

My main concern is that you are coming into teaching as a "fall back" job and that you may not have the passion and desire to really teach. Did you think you would be a teacher as you went through college?

It takes a lot of determination and hard work to teach at any level. Yes, it can be a very fulfilling career if you really dedicate yourself to it. However, there is much, much more to teaching than the content. Especially these days. Teaching will make you think about human behavior and motivation a LOT. You will come to analyze yourself in ways that you have not had to do before. You will reflect a lot on your own strengths and weaknesses as a human being. Are you ready to be completely honest with yourself and your students? Kids can see through adults in a nanosecond. They will try you. They want to know if you truly care about them, not the content so much. It's a lot of responsibility. Are you good at gaining trust, especially with children who are going through some hard times themselves?

Teaching will test your inner strength and confidence to a degree that it has not been tested before. You have plenty of content readiness as many people do who come into teaching. What you may not have is the emotional/psychological readiness. This is why student teaching and the classes in management, methods, and child psychology are important (those pieces of the licensure). I would highly recommend that you take the licensure classes and student teach this year if possible.

I was almost 30 years old when I started teaching (in a middle school). I had worked at another career for 5 years after college. It was a huge change for me and I'm not sure I would have had the maturity to really do it if I had started straight out of college (but some people do). I went through all the classes and student teaching before I was employed. I'm glad I did. I enjoyed my career, learned a heck of a lot along the way, and met really great people. Good luck OP.

Signed,

been teaching for 32 years[/quote]

Thank you for taking the time to write this from the heart and for proffering me your perspective as a teacher with considerable experience. No, I have not received any feedback nor other offers, as of yet; however, I have only been interviewing for about two weeks. I want to be an educator. I just had a different vision of how exactly that would manifest, but I trust that the universe is guiding me where to go. I believe my empathy for others and authenticity will be an asset here. I agree that I may not have the emotional/psychological readiness, and that is terrifying to me, but I won’t know that until I try my best. Rest assured, I will not be alone; I will have a co-teacher and mentors with more experience. No one ever asked, but I’m actually 46. I am still seriously considering in enrolling in the licensure program at GMU. It is another 36 hours of comprehensive coursework. [/quote]

You’ve got a great attitude about this. You probably aren’t emotionally or psychologically ready, but very few new teachers are… even the ones coming to the job straight out of their education undergrad training. Where you’re ahead is that you actually realize this already and you’re not coming into it with a false sense of security.

I posted above about the alternative certification programs. Many of us came into teaching this way. Yes, the first couple years are hard, but you’ll have support. You are doing all the right things already: reading about strategies, taking notes from experienced teachers, keeping an open mind. That’s why I see this working out. (I’ve been a mentor teacher for the last ten years.)

When you get to an inevitable rough day, don’t let it crush you. This is a job with a short memory - what went wrong will blow over and you’ll get another chance. Talk to your supportive coworkers and they’ll uplift you with “I’ve been there” types of stories. And they are still standing, so you will as well.

Good luck, and welcome![/quote]

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