Why not take the job?

Ever since Sarolta commented on my earlier post about not wanting to take a middle school teaching job because it would just be a job, I have been meaning to respond. Guess I am finally going to do it now.

Sarolta couldn't understand why I didn't take the job if it was offered and I needed one. It sounds simple, I know. But to me, at least, is isn't.

First of all, I have temporary work which keeps the bills paid for now. And my husband works. So we aren't destitute.

More important, though, is the other aspect Sarolta mentioned: that I could just leave this job if a better one came along. In the US, public school teachers are under contract. We cannot just walk away from a job as you can do in other countries. Now, I know people here do it all the time, but I come from a time when you honored a contract.

So that makes the issue more complicated. If I take a teaching job now, I am committing to it until June. No matter what else comes along. That makes it hard for me to want to take a job just to have a job. Of course, I may have not pursued this job and still not get offered anything closer to what I am looking for. That is a gamble I have to take. But I would rather take a job at a bookstore that I could walk away from with two weeks' notice than sign a contract that I would be tempted to break.

So, I don't think it is entirely a cultural issue, as Sarolta suggested, but it is tied more to the differences in conditions of employment. Either way, I am still looking for a job. But today, at least, that is OK.

What kind of blog is this?

Jenn had an interesting post with a SlideShare presentation on why people blog. I looked at the presentation, anxious to see how I would categorize my blogging. What I discovered is that my kind of blogging doesn't seem to exist! Maybe that is why I have had such a hard time blogging lately! And here I thought it was because my life was sort of up in the air!

Actually, the presentation outlines 25 styles of blogging. I found it interesting. I don't know that I would ever do some of the kinds of blogging mentioned there, but you never know.

So, in spite of my recent lack of posting, I have to ask myself again what exactly this blog does. I guess it discusses technology and education and the places the two intersect in my life. Again I must acknowledge the fact that I can't blog if I am not reading blogs. (That is another part of the reason behind my lack of blogging. Lack of focus on reading!)

I guess, too, I must admit that I don't know the exact purpose of this blog. And I am OK with that. All I am hoping for now is to get back to the kind of regular posting I did for the first two years. I miss it. I miss writing. I miss reading. I miss the communication!

Decisions, decisions

It has been almost six months now since I started my job search. I have officially been unemployed for a week short of three months. I am being paid to do some course design, but I haven't found a full-time job yet. This is rather amazing to me. I have always been able to get a job. But, seemingly, this time I cannot.

At least that's what I thought until I heard about a job yesterday. My former colleague has accepted a job teaching ESL at an upper elementary school - a middle school in south Louisiana. She told me that the school district is still looking for an ESL teacher. So I called this morning and talked to the woman in charge.

She gave me a very convincing sales pitch. 4 hours of classroom time a day,2.5 hours of prep and meeting time. More that 1.5 times the salary I was making at the college. Good benefits. I was starting to get interested.

And then she asked me why I was interested in the job. I gave her some answer or other, but I realized almost as I was saying it that the only reason I am interested in the job is just that: it's a job.

And I don't think it would be fair to me or to the school district, much less to the students, for ma to take a job just to have a job. So while I haven't made a final decision yet, I think I have pretty well decided that I will call the woman and tell her I am not interested. It seems like the honest and professional thing to do.

But there is that little bit of me that is scared, that is afraid that I still won't have a job another 6 months from now. Will my standards and my concern for others be as high then?