Wow, I haven't posted on here since the summer...and that is largely attributed to the fact that I was finishing my last semester at UVic. My 8-week practicum was a fantastic experience: I taught 3 Grade 10 classes at a wonderful school with awesome mentors and equally awesome kids (or teens, I should say). It was actually quite a whirlwind this time around- I thought at the beginning that the 8 weeks would drag on, but by the last week I was shocked that it had been 2 months! I had 4 other student teachers there with me, and I got the chance to get to know some pretty fantastic (and overwhelmingly funny) people that will be great teachers. Practicum ended at the start of December, and I subsequently enjoyed a month off, minus 8-ish hours/week of work at the pool.
January: I am working more than 8 hours/week (luckily, otherwise I would go insane), but I still have most of my daytime off- minus sporadic appointments. In all this time of lounging, I've realized that school took up a LOT of my time! Not having to get myself back and forth to class, actual class time, homework...when that is no longer there (and a 9-5 job hasn't taken its place), there is a lot of time left in the day. I'm still waiting for my teaching license- which has helped me procrastinate in applying anywhere- but I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for the next couple years. I loved my practicum school, but unfortunately it was in the smallest district in Victoria- and the least likely to open up their TOC list on account of their shrinking student population. I've been told that I could possibly still get hired if I really pursue it (ie. keep asking admin and continually visit the school to keep my face familiar), but that the Victoria district is the largest- and the only one that is officially hiring. Unfortunately, I don't have any connections whatsoever in the Victoria district, so I'd be starting at square one in terms of even getting calls for TOC work. Combine that with that ever-so-lovely statistic of "7-10 years on a sub list in Victoria" that we were continually told at UVic, and it's not looking so good.
Now what?
At this point, I am considering a couple options.
1) Apply for a Victoria district, get on a sub list. Keep working at the pool to maintain a stable income. Please excuse the improper description, but essentially I would need to whore myself out to all the schools in order to get my name out there, and hope that eventually the calls would start coming in. Advantage: My name gets known= more work, hopefully a contract one day!
2) Leave Victoria, go somewhere smaller where I could actually get some teaching experience. I'd get to live somewhere new, meet new people, have a completely different experience than the one I've had here for the 26 years I've spent in Vic. One of my good friends from the teaching program said she would be willing to move to, and I think we would have a great time living somewhere new- and it makes the idea of leaving here and going somewhere totally new a bit less scary (yes, I know it would only be somewhere else in BC- but for someone that's never lived anywhere else, it might be a shocker for me) Disadvantage: I would get experience, but if I was to return to Vic, my name wouldn't be known and I could essentially be back to where I am right now.
So that is where it stands-- and this is the mental debate I have on my days off...when I'm not on Facebook or watching episodes of Intervention on my PVR. I've still got some time to figure it out, so I hope that the path becomes clear to me soon!
