In school, students progress: They pass tests. They complete semesters. They advance to the next grade level. They complete degrees. The most difficult part of my transition into adulthood is the fact that after your degrees are complete, this sense of progression seems to diminish. Unfortunately, the amount of progression I have made in life seems linked to my self-worth (maybe it was the years of brainwashing from the modern educational system?), so when I feel that I'm not progressing enough, my inner monologue is bugging me about why I'm not doing more.
Yeah, okay, so you can get a job, and you can keep doing that job until you get promoted. In some businesses, there is more potential for promotions than with others. When one chooses to become a classroom teacher, there isn't a lot of movement that can be made unless one decides to pursue additional education. Teachers have the option of going back to school to add an endorsement to their certification. They can also go for a master's degree or a Ph.D. Oh yeah, and there's also the option of running out of the classroom, hands in the air, determined to never go back, and just pursuing another degree all together in order to switch careers.
...But then there's the money factor. Unless you live in a world of delusion or in some underground mole society that treats its educators as gods, the teaching profession isn't known for its large paychecks, and going back to school costs quite the sum. Before going back to school, a person has to make sure that he/she is committed to put the time, effort, and money into that degree before signing up for the classes. Most people who go back to school must complete their education while also holding a full-time job because, let's face it, people need money and insurance!
My current project is making sure that I have my three full years of full-time teaching, 150 required professional development hours, and two reading courses completed by June 2017. That must be done in order to ensure that I receive my professional certificate before my provisional certificate expires. So far, I'm a little behind on that because I started working full time in January of last year, but I still have time to fulfill these requirements before the expiration date. (Dang, 2017 seemed so much farther away back in 2011!)
On top of working towards this goal, there are a few other options to explore:
1) Getting an Ed.D: A doctorate degree in education would eat up about seven or eight years of my life, but it would open up so many doors and opportunities in the field of education outside of classroom teaching; however, pursuing a doctorate might complicate my life if I end up getting married and having children in the next decade or so. Key word: if If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that life can never be planned far in advance; rather, it just happens, and it's important to be ready for unexpected changes. An Ed.D. would also involve a long-term commitment to a university and an area of the country. Again, I'm not sure where life is going to take me in the next few years, so I don't know if I'd be able to make that commitment.
2) Going back to school for a math minor so that I can add a math endorsement to my certification. Okay, so for the last two school years, I have taught math to some capacity, even though I'm technically not supposed to do that. (SHHH!!) At my former place of full-time employment, each teacher taught a math elective during fourth quarter due to the absence of a math teacher. At my current place of employment, I seem to be tutoring a lot of kids in math because they are finishing their English classes in a hurry, but they are stuck on math. Having a math endorsement on my certificate would also make me a stronger candidate for other teaching opportunities in the future, and maybe I could eventually work for a unionized school system! (Note: Is that actually a good thing? I've heard mixed reviews.)
3) Getting a Computer Science Bachelor's Degree: I would have to go back to school for a long time to get a bachelor's degree (I wouldn't quit my job to go back full time, so I'd have to go back part-time) and basically start from scratch, but the world needs more programmers. Plus, with an education background, I could work in designing my own educational programs and selling them to schools, especially now that I've gained a lot of hands-on experience with educational programming at my current job. This degree would also give me the flexibility to leave the teaching profession if I so desired and simply become a programmer.
4) Going to the kitchen and eating an orange: Why? Because I wanted to add one item to this list that I could accomplish right away. CHECK!
So many options...and which one to choose? Which commitment to make? Help me, Batman...by which I mean an academic adviser, whom I will call "Batman". Mister or Miss Batman.
