My friend, Mr. Teacher over at Learn Me Good, tagged me for a Worst Job Ever Meme, which is kind of ironic in a way. I'm a latecomer to teaching, having bailed the corporate world after about 15 years, and The Principal actually put me on the stop about that during a faculty meeting this week. Her question, "We know you came to us from the corporate world...what made you go into teaching?"
My answer sounds so stupid, but it's true. "I wanted to change the world and I wasn't doing it moving paper from one side of a desk to the other." Honestly, my job had no meaning at all. It didn't make the world a better place. And as someone without kids of my own, I wanted to help kids out there that may not have scored a prize in the parent sweepstakes. So it's trite, but it's me.
And on the way to teaching seventh grade, I've had a number of loser jobs.
In high school I did a year-long stint in a donut shop. To this day I can't stand frosting and I'm not wild about donuts.
I've stuffed envelopes for a realtor.
I've waitressed. A lot. It got me through college. It's hard, physically demanding work and you realize that most people are just plain rude. I am, as a result, a big tipper when I get good service.
I sold jams and jellies in a mall during the Holidays.
I typed for professors during college.
I sold payroll systems. I hated my boss who liked to have screaming fits at all the sales reps, so one day I went to work with my swimsuit on underneath my business suit, quit, and went to the beach for the day.
But I think the job I hated the most was selling a sales training program for an unnamed company. It was lonely. I hated doing cold calls. My territory, since I was new and all the seasoned reps had dibs on the good areas, was so awful that if you did an economic forecast for the area it would be in a depression during an economic boom. Face it, 2-man machine shops do not want sales training. It made me absolutely freaking, cry in my pillow, miserable.
After that, seventh grade is a breeze.
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3 comments:
Loser jobs? I'd rather sell jams and jellies in the mall than to sub again. Ever.
Oh, I've had so many loser jobs! Teaching's the best job ever, though. I also am a "second career" teacher, who came to the wonderful world of teaching after 20 years as a professional journalist. BTW, don't forget to Share the Caption Love! It's that time again: Time for the Silly Summer Sunday Sweepstakes--come play along!
I am also a "latecomer" to teaching. From what I have seen so far, I think that pre-teaching careers help people become more effective teachers.
No offense to people who are teachers right out of college, but they usually (not always...usually) don't have any "real world" experience. Not to mention, they are only a handful of years older than the students they are trying to teach.
I'm not necessarily talking about classroom management, but just effectiveness in general. I loath meetings because I think more could be accomplished by setting aside time for personal planning (and dealing with Dept and school issues via email). When I worked outside of education, meetings (and having everyone on the same page) was important for business. That urgency isn't there in education.
Anyway, just my dollar two ninety-eight.
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