Deep Water

So the school district I work for is in trouble right now. All school districts are in trouble, actually, but my district is in so much trouble it made the news in cities hundreds of miles away. We have a 30 million dollar deficit in our budget, and the board recently made some decisions on how to handle it. Apparently, people would rather fire 250 employees than pay 12 extra dollars in taxes each month. We're increasing class sizes, reducing the number of aids, secretaries, counselors, etc in the school, and eliminating teaching positions. So far my school has laid off 4 of our teachers for next year, one of which is a CTE teacher who has seniority over me. The only reason he's going instead of me is because I'm certified to teach the Technology and Engineering classes and he's not. Basically, my job next year depends on kids signing up for Exploring Technology.

I've spent a lot of time in my dark place this year, for various reasons, but most recently for all the crap at school. It's a lot harder to have a good attitude when all I hear about from my colleagues is program cuts here, layoffs there, blah blah doom and gloom/pain and misery. I was doing great yesterday until I had lunch in the faculty room where the other teachers reviewed all over again who was losing their job and what programs we cut and how elective classes with tiny enrollment (like mine) would most likely be dropped. I think I'm going to stay in my office for lunch today.

So today after my department collaborated (ie had another whinefest), I sat down and made some goals for myself. I've decided to go back to school for a Master's degree. I used to think I ought to get a Master's in Tech and Engineering Education (both USU and BYU offer such programs, and I already know and love the people in the TEE program at BYU), but now I'm thinking I need a teaching endorsement in another area--make myself more marketable. The truth is, my tech program is dying. I'm still fighting for life, but next year I may not get to teach CTE Tech, which is how I get the 7th graders interested in Exploring Technology. We have 5 CTE teachers right now--1 careers, 1 business, 1 FACs, and 2 (me and the shop teacher) Tech. Next year we'll only have 4 CTE teachers, and as of right now, I get all the career classes, and the shop teacher gets the tech classes. So, if I have to teach "careers" (and what the heck would I even teach?!), how exactly am I going to promote my program?

Thus, a Master's degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Science. Take the Science Praxis test and a half dozen science classes, and I've got my Science endorsement and a pay raise to boot.

So the last several weeks I've been grocery shopping for the best Master's Program--I've looked at BYU (won't let me hold a full time job if I'm a grad student), UVU (...I really don't want to go back to Orem/Provo anyway), U of U (they have a Science Teacher's Master's Program, but you have a BE a science teacher with 3 years+ experience and all their other MeD programs are SpEd research related) and USU (which is far away). USU is looking like the best possibility because they have a Distance Learning center in Salt Lake City, AND they have a Secondary Ed Master's program where you choose your specialty. And it looks like there's more emphasis on the actual teaching and curriculum, rather than research and special ed like with other Master of Education programs. AND they don't have an application deadline--they accept applications at all times, meaning I could take the GRE in April or May, get my application in by June, and possibly start school in Fall 2010. Maybe. USU is also a good choice because, should the worst happen and I lose my job (I'm sick just thinking that), I can move to Logan with my parents and attend grad school full time, locally.

So, here are my goals/schedule for the next six months:

Today - 3/12:	Study for the Praxis PLT!
3/13:	Take (and PASS) the Praxis PLT for my Level 2 license
March, April, May:	Study for GRE
Late April/May:	Take GRE
	Get 3 people to write letters of recommendation
Early-Mid June:	Submit grad school application
June 15 - 16:	Technology and Engineering Conference (ie Nerd Convention)
Date Undetermined:	Training for Creative Learning Systems (2 weeks) (tentative)
Late August:	Start 3rd year teaching
Late Aug/Sept:	Hopefully start grad school!!!!!!

I also want to squeeze in visits to California, New Jersey, and (probably) Minnesota in there somewhere. Looks like I'm going to have a full summer. Again.