so can I just kinda walk away? career focus

[Zoe Girl]

I still have lots of email lists and other things for job searching and teacher groups. I looked at one today and then just deleted it all. It is part of simplifying I guess, not to have all these emails for jobs just so I never miss any possible chance!! But it is wearing me down, to see all these great lesson ideas, book review of childrens books, seminars, etc. for a club I don't get to join. Maybe someday when I can move or when the economy changes I will start to focus on education again, right now it is too much like palying the lottery to get (or keep) a teaching job.

I do have a decent job for the economy and I really love it, so I am thinking about just focusing on that, cleaning up the rest of my life, living super frugal and stop pushing.

Okay this morphes into a bit of a spiritual theme which I may follow up with there.

[Zoe Girl]

PS. I was thinking about starting some type of support group for teachers who are not teaching. It seems like there are a lot of us, and there are lots of things to get new people into teaching and I am not even sure if those people have jobs. It is a little different to me than someone who wanted to be a stockbroker and couldn't find a job because many teachers feel called to do this in some way.

[herbgeek]

another way to think about it (from a friend raised in a Quaker school): You can just "put it down" for a while. You don't have to make the decision to never focus on education, you just aren't focusing on it for the time being. You can always go back to it at a later date, if you still feel the calling. I find that this makes transition times easier for me, when I'm not focused on the loss of something. Knowing that I can go back later, makes the bad feelings less. Not everything has to be decided in terms of "never going back".

I have to do this from time to time with various hobby lists. As my interests change, some email list or forum participation drops off. It doesn't mean I'll never do it again, just that its not my focus /now/. I used to beat myself up for not sticking with things forever. Now I just see it as part of a natural cycle.

[lhamo]

ZG,

You ARE still in education, even if you aren't a classroom teacher. What you are doing now is really important, in some ways maybe even more important than what goes on in those kids standard classrooms. You don't have to be held to the NCLB silliness, so you can set up an environment where they can really learn and actually have fun doing it. I bet there are many kids in your programs for whom those before and after school hours are the highlight of their day. You are also learning important management skills that will serve you well in the long run. It has been so great to see you leap into this new position and take on the challenges and start to rebuild your self-esteem. That is important work, too. So stop being so down on yourself! If keeping up with the classroom teaching oriented stuff is overwhelming or painful, by all means put it aside for awhile. But have confidence that you are doing valuable, important work that is making a difference in kids lives. It may not have the same prestige level as a regular classroom teaching job, but that doesn't mean it isn't significant.

lhamo

[iris lily]

sure, give it a rest. Enjoy your job and concentrate on doing well at that. You wouldn't have got the job if you didn't have schooling and training in education. And this job has some transferable skills for a classroom teaching job, if that's what you still want after a few years.

Get off all of those silly email lists. You can always find scads of lesson plans and creative ideas when you need them.

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you all, I just realized today that it was stressing me out to keep on getting these emails. I have a hard time actually getting off lists once you are on but I will try to unsub instead of having to delete like crazy. And according to my counselor that I rarely see, I am very very hard on myself.

I guess I still feel like there is a club I wasn't invited to join and that is the leftover crap. But then I hear some stories about people who have jobs and I am glad to be where I am. I have a new supervisor and so there is lots to do and look forward to for the next year. Also over the summer we do camps and I get along great with the camp director. I did spring break and winter break camps for her and had a blast. She found out that I work weekends too and said that after working for her on the summer hopefully I can quit (the camps are additional pay).

This may be a little silly, I think I am getting pushed in another direction in life. I am trying to pay attention to the 'flow' instead of trying to run the show so much.

[Yppej]

I've been trying to switch jobs for awhile now - it really is the economy - nothing you can do about it - so you're wise to give yourself a break from concentrating on it so much.

[Madsen]

> another way to think about it (from a friend raised in a Quaker school): You can just "put it down" for a while. Awesome concept! I think this could be so useful to people in general. Might even be able to apply it to "bad" habits --- no need to stress over giving up something forever, just put it down for a while and try something different.

[Bastelmutti]

Good for you! I recently put most of my e-mail lists on hold to see what I missed - not much is the answer. I like to be up on the news in my profession, esp. my little specialized corner of it, but I can do that by catching up once in a while without wasting energy skimming and deleting 20 e-mails a day that were of little relevance.