Classes Begin
I'm taking two courses at North Seattle Community College this quarter, an Introduction to Human Geography and a College Algebra course. I need both to get into the University of Washington teaching credential program in the Spring. The classes are a bit of a pain, because they are from 11am-1pm every day, so I can't get a day job anytime soon. The classes do fit well into my tennis coaching gig though, so all is well.
The geography instructor is the professor from "Back to the Future" -- Or at least he is crazy enough. He's been retired twice, has unicorn-white hair, and has more energy than a banshee during mating season. He wants us to address him as either Sir or god... but as nutty as his classroom runs, I whole-heartedly agree with his approach to teaching world human geography. He is going to try and transform all of us into Hindus, Muslims, Cavemen, Native Americans, and Taoists when we study their traditions and regions.
In the math class, we are doing the same stuff Mr. Howell's 8th grade class is doing, which I find kind of funny. I could probably test out of the class, but I just need the credits, and I think I'll find the instructing of it interesting to observe at the community college level. Our professor goes over things about 10x faster than Mr. Howell does, and so far he doesn't really seem to care if the class understands the material or not!
Monday night I went to an informational meeting for the UW-Bothell teaching credential program. It was a blast, and I really can't wait to start next Spring. I was one of four guys in the room, one being a father of one of the women in the class, another was a boyfriend, and the fourth was a 45 year old guy making a career change. The ages were spread out pretty wide, but this whole teaching thing just gets better and better:
1) I'm going to love teaching in the classroom
2) I feel like teaching is one of the most important and under-rated (and underpaid) professions out there, so I'm going to be happy with what I'm doing for a career
3) As a middle-school math teacher, I'll be able to get a job anywhere, as that combo is in high demand
4) 3 months of vacation?! LOL!
5) The teaching program is going to be a much better way to meet women than sitting at home blogging and playing WoW... (although Essmmerellda, if you are reading this and are playing WoW again tonight--hit me up, baby!)
The only part of the informational meeting I wasn't happy with was the pay-grade presentation. If you have a BA, you get paid about 29k to start. BA and a few grad classes you get 31k. BA and a teaching cert, 33k. Masters, 35k. The presenter was saying how you can't really live in the Seattle area on just a BA's salary, so she urged everyone to get Master's degrees. 29k is going to be more than I've ever made before, so I'm not too worried about it. But I can already see the administrative jumble being a pain for teachers. Also, since I'll be teaching in a high demand area, I should be able to get a little higher on the pay scale to start--although I obviously didn't choose to be a teacher to make money!
The geography instructor is the professor from "Back to the Future" -- Or at least he is crazy enough. He's been retired twice, has unicorn-white hair, and has more energy than a banshee during mating season. He wants us to address him as either Sir or god... but as nutty as his classroom runs, I whole-heartedly agree with his approach to teaching world human geography. He is going to try and transform all of us into Hindus, Muslims, Cavemen, Native Americans, and Taoists when we study their traditions and regions.
In the math class, we are doing the same stuff Mr. Howell's 8th grade class is doing, which I find kind of funny. I could probably test out of the class, but I just need the credits, and I think I'll find the instructing of it interesting to observe at the community college level. Our professor goes over things about 10x faster than Mr. Howell does, and so far he doesn't really seem to care if the class understands the material or not!
Monday night I went to an informational meeting for the UW-Bothell teaching credential program. It was a blast, and I really can't wait to start next Spring. I was one of four guys in the room, one being a father of one of the women in the class, another was a boyfriend, and the fourth was a 45 year old guy making a career change. The ages were spread out pretty wide, but this whole teaching thing just gets better and better:
1) I'm going to love teaching in the classroom
2) I feel like teaching is one of the most important and under-rated (and underpaid) professions out there, so I'm going to be happy with what I'm doing for a career
3) As a middle-school math teacher, I'll be able to get a job anywhere, as that combo is in high demand
4) 3 months of vacation?! LOL!
5) The teaching program is going to be a much better way to meet women than sitting at home blogging and playing WoW... (although Essmmerellda, if you are reading this and are playing WoW again tonight--hit me up, baby!)
The only part of the informational meeting I wasn't happy with was the pay-grade presentation. If you have a BA, you get paid about 29k to start. BA and a few grad classes you get 31k. BA and a teaching cert, 33k. Masters, 35k. The presenter was saying how you can't really live in the Seattle area on just a BA's salary, so she urged everyone to get Master's degrees. 29k is going to be more than I've ever made before, so I'm not too worried about it. But I can already see the administrative jumble being a pain for teachers. Also, since I'll be teaching in a high demand area, I should be able to get a little higher on the pay scale to start--although I obviously didn't choose to be a teacher to make money!
posted by MHG at
9/25/2007 01:26:00 PM
1 Comments:
wait..how did i miss that? you're going to teach middle school math? i'm so jealous. i mean, wait.. jealous isn't the word. maybe envious ? because i'd love to and would probably just end up killing people. i mean kids. which i hear is even more frowned upon.
but anyway..awesome for you! i know you're going to love it.
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