Teaching at elementary private school during gap year?

[fastfingers]

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Can this be done? I'm very interested in teaching, but I don't want to do teach for america since it's for 2 years. Has anybody know of anybody with experience with agency that places teachers and getting a job in a private school?

 

[alwaysaangel]

I'm not sure how you would be able to write lesson plans, grade papers, and finish application stuff all at the same time (a friend of mine easily works 70+hrs/week when she changes schools and has to write all new lesson plans). Also, how are you going to attend interviews? You can't constantly be calling in sick to go on interviews.

So logistically, no I don't think it will work out.

As far as actually being able to find a job - that also will be an issue. Depending where you live. In a lot of parts of the country (I'm thinking of California in particular) tons of credentialed experienced teachers cannot get public or private jobs right now, let alone some recent college grad who didn't major in education or pass the CBEST.

So unless you already have connections or live in an area with a severe teacher shortage I wouldn't count on being offered a teaching position at a private school.

 

[PSU2013]

Actually i met someone who is currently a 3rd or 4th year at Penn State Hershey, and taught science for elementary or highschool students his gap year. Therefore it is very possible. He said it helped during his interviews because he spoke of how teaching relates to medicine and how his future goals.

 

[loveoforganic]

I've been accepted to med school and am currently applying to private high schools for a gap year job (deferral). http://www.carneysandoe.com/ <== Carney Sandoe was recommended to me by a teacher as a job placement agency (free), so I'm using them in addition to sending cover letter/resume/ps/lor packets to schools of interest.

So you're warned though, I'm a chemistry major, which is honestly probably 2nd or 3rd to physics/math as far as desirability to schools, and I feel like there's probably a 1/8 shot of me getting a teaching position. The teaching job market is very saturated and competitive unless you're interested in very poor inner city or rural schools. Very contingent on currently employed teachers taking a year off (assuming you're open about your desire to teach for a single year... please be... no need to be screwing schools).

 

[fastfingers]

yeah i heard about that agaency too but i'm not sure how successful tehy might be.

 

[loveoforganic]

They're free, so not really much to lose :X

 

[fastfingers]

yeah, but it also seems like a lot of work that may lead to nothing.

 

[loveoforganic]

Are you sure you want to teach? It's like... a 2 hour commitment to fill out the app, beside the stuff you're more or less expected to do anyway. You're looking at writing many semi-personalized cover letters to schools. The relative time commitment is minimal.

 

[fastfingers]

I read more into it. Aren't you required to attend conferences and whatnot? Or if they accept your application, they will most likely be able to place you.

 

[fastfingers]

I'm definitely not worried about the application. but if lets say my limited experiences puts me at a 10% chance of being placed at a job, but I need to travel to 3 conferences in order to have any chance, that may be a lot of time committment for unfruitful result.

 

[loveoforganic]

I don't want to sound like an ad for them. Conferences are optional (I'll be going to one). They just look for schools with openings that match your interests to some degree, pass your file on to them, and let you know (usually) they did so, giving you contact info for the school so you can take it from there.

 

[fastfingers]

alright i'll be sure to check on it. do you know if private schools have contract signing or do they renew contract per year basis?

 

[loveoforganic]

I would think it varies by school. I couldn't say which is more common.

 

[1Q84]

not sure which area you're in so i don't know if this is relevant.

But where I am, (California), private schools don't really have much the strict guidelines compared to public in regards to hiring teachers. (ie. you dn't really need a teaching credential etc). And the thing is that most of them have a grass roots way of looking for teachers (ie. someone on the faculty who knows a lot of teacher friends is in charge of getting subs).

i'd suggest try to get into subbing jobs first by asking any teaching friends if they know of vacancies or to get put on the subs list at their school. since full time teaching may be hard with full-time med school interviewing, maybe you can try to book long-term subbing jobs (this is what I did, subbed for a teacher who went on maternity leave). It's great because you don't necessarily have to write all your own lesson plans since you can base things off of the original teacher, but with long term subbing (ie. maternity leave for teachers can be 6-8 weeks, that's almost a third of the school year), you get a lot of freedom to improvise and tweak the curriculum and lesson plans. The teacher I subbed for gave me a lot of freedom, and i had a great time.

This is also good because tbh, if you only plan on teaching for one year, you don't wanna be experimenting with a teaching style and curriculum. For the students' sake as well, if you go in where there's already some structure, they're more likely going to be able to learn better as opposed to being guinea pigs.

 

[fastfingers]

hmm, i think the only problem with sub teacher is that I won't really know if i'd have nearly full-time work until really late into the year, which is a time I can't get anything else yet.

 

[DrDrummer]

There's probably something better you could do with your time than teach for just one year. I've taught for three before going to medical school this coming fall, and I can tell you that the first year is pretty rough-- and I think this is true even at a private school (which outside of inner-city Catholic schools, you'll have a hard time getting hired at), and doubly so if you're also dealing with classroom management issues.

I can't imagine very many principals wanting to hire you if you were explicitly only going to do it for one year. Many are hesitant to hire TFA corps members, and they're trained to teach, supported by the organization, and lead to a relationship with an organization that essentially guarantees their replacement by someone else who is fairly competent or at least a hard worker.

 

[fastfingers]

has anybody had success with carney, sandoe? I've been selected as a candidate, but I wonder how successful it is once selected.

 

[loveoforganic]

Look on your own as well.

 

[Signifier]

Your commitment to teaching sounds weak at best. I wouldn't want you in a classroom.

 

[BOOYA18]

you should check your state or nearby state's requirements to sub. i know in NJ (im from pa) you only need 60 college credits to be a legit sub in public schools. that seems like a better year long job. im a teacher whos going into med school this fall as well, and subs, depending on the district, can make 85-110 a day. (my district is 100 a day) so its not a bad gig to go home and have zero responsibilites afterwards