Well I'm one week away from being finished my university career and I can't help but wonder on some small level what I've gotten myself into.
Sure, there are few if any jobs around, so it's going to be rough going for the first few years. That was to be expected, but I'm not tied to any one place in particular so that affords me some options that others don't have. I'm also interested in teaching in the Catholic school board, which would open up a few opportunities as well. These are things that I won't have to worry about immediately as I've agreed to a contract to go over to Korea for at least a year.
The thing that I find most frustrating isn't the job prospects but now that I've been in a number of schools I'm not sure if I've ever met a more consistently whiny or overly self-congratulatory group of people in my life.
I sit in the various staff rooms and I can't help but think of how petty, egotistical and self-involved far too many teachers are. I sit in meetings and listen to them congratulate each other on being able to achieve a 50% success rate. For some reason these people seem to think that only getting half of their students to reach provincial standards is a sign of their superiority and success.
No, it's not every teacher that I've met, but these ones seem to be the most vocal and accordingly the most annoying.
Recently the local school board announced that there would be the loss of approximately 70 full time positions for the upcoming school year. To listen to these teachers, especially the ones that have been teaching for 20+ years and are in no danger of losing their job, you would think that this is a calamity. There seems to be a false sense of entitlement that just because they got their B.ed. degree that they should be guaranteed a lifelong career. It's just so absurd.
I enjoy being in the classroom. I enjoy working with the students. It's just the other teachers that I can't stand.
***
To Do List - update
1. go camping
2. go paintballing
3. visit Diane
4. take a trip to Toronto
