Seeking a Teaching Job
 

I am actively searching for a new teaching job in either middle or high school. I got laid off at my current school of two years because enrollment was low at my school and I was the last one hired! It sucks!

I am currently in Florida, but I looking at moving to any place in the South. Right now I am looking at either Tennessee or Texas.

Any tips, suggestions, job leads?

Please don't come to Ohio :D

I'll be out searching for a teaching job next year and all of my professors talk about NC and Texas if we can't find a job here.

I don't know why people always say to go to Texas.....people here are getting laid off just as much as other places.

I'm sorry to hear about you being surplussed (that is what we call it here) Thetagirl. Do you all not have courtesies for surplussed teachers? Like here if a teacher is surplussed (also called an involuntary transfer) they are guaranteed a position at a school w/ an opening. If they don't find a job, then there are placed somewhere (like maybe in the bookroom of a school) and they keep their teacher salary.

I'm in the same boat, looking for a job. The only bad thing is i'm not a contracted teacher, so I have to wait for all the surplussed teachers to find a job before I can get interviewed/hired for an open position.

I have had friends who worked in inner-city and schools with high-risk student populations, often in exchange for forgiveness of school loans. Whether or not that is an issue (loans), there are teacher shortages in these type of schools. Another place to look are private schools (religious or otherwise), but the religious-based schools are typically lower paying.

I also have friends in New England whose schools have cut the number of classrooms in half, eliminated non-academic programs, and increased the number of subjects and class periods that middle-school teachers must teach (versus teaching a fewer number subjects/classes per day).

Areas that are in dire shortage in many districts are teachers with special education or specialized skills/experience (occupational, speech, hearing, language impaired, to list a few), as well as in the typical subject areas.

Try this list for examples of shortage areas (geographic and focus):

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/lis.../tsa.html#list

(The list goes through 2011 but I am sure that there are other similar lists. The fact that you are willing to move might give you an advantage.)

Good luck! Teachers and nurses are two of the most important jobs in the world, yet the pay, benefits and respect is rarely commensurate.

So I was watching TXCN the other night (it's the "Texas News channel" lol) and apparently Houston wants to hire teachers from outside of the state. It doesn't matter that there are good teachers in Texas, but the Superintendent of HISD wants to get the "talent" from elsewhere.

So if you all are looking to move to Texas, you might want to apply in Houston.

Seriously? That's so weird.

Yep, and very. What he was essentially implying was that the best teachers, the ones who are the most innovative, come from outside of Texas. He did say that there were many qualified teachers in Texas, but he wanted "the best" and for that he would have to look outside of the state---like California (which is a state he mentioned).

I wonder if he knows that California teachers aren't certified in Texas. That is one state where the certifications don't cross over. But maybe one of the "better" teachers will tell him that....eventually.

http://www.usreap.net/

This is a good website to look for some teaching jobs. It covers about 10 states, including Texas. I have checked it out from time to time when I think about moving back to Missouri.

Just to let you know, the starting salaries for teachers in the DFW area are $45,000-$49,000 range. But, cost of living here is a bit high.

Edited to add: Almost forgot, there is a lot of competition for teaching positions currently. Plano had over 2000 people come to its teacher's job fair.

I don't know anything about Texas but I find it hard to believe that there aren't innovative teachers who come from Texas?

Right? And I like to believe there are innovative teachers here, especially considering I like to consider myself innovative. But whatever they want to believe so that they can say they don't have to hire anyone from Texas. :rolleyes:

I have a friend who's been looking for teaching jobs in NC for a couple years now, and no luck. She's moving back to NY in a month, hoping for better luck there.

IDK how much luck she's gonna have in NY. Word is here that around 12K teachers were laid off, with some more cuts coming. In fact, the principal at the school i'm at now was sent to NY as one of the representatives of our school district to interview 'displaced' teachers. The situation in NY is pretty bad from what I understand.

Good luck to your friend though, you never know what might happen. She might be one of the lucky ones to land a job for next school year.

It's a sad time for a teacher to be looking for a job I think.

That's what I am, HS English. I'm hopeful that I'll have a little better luck since I'm totally open to teaching in a Catholic or private school but I'm still not optimistic. Just have to hope for the best!