Reject!

I got another rejection letter from a private school today.  When I got the first one I told a friend, "It doesn't matter; I just need a handful to interview me and one to hire me."  Which is still true, technically, but I've been at this for a month and a half and so far, no joy.  I told my principals that if I'm at my current school again next year, it won't be a consolation prize, and that is true; I love my students and I love my job.  But the fact is that it's part-time and every year I stay there is another year I have to defer my student loans, meaning that my time there is four years total, max (I began this job a year before I finished grad school).  I would much rather find a job this year than next (or, Flying Spaghetti monster forbid, the next) because I don't want to run up against an enormous deadline like that.

My dream scenario is this (consider this my vision board): I get a job this year at a tony boarding school that pays me more than twice what I'm making now and free housing (these schools do actually offer this stuff; it's not entirely a pipe dream).  I take half that salary that I'm not accustomed to making, and pay off all my student loans in 4 years, maybe less.  Even better would be getting a job at one of the schools that offers travel stipends.  Hey, I didn't win the Powerball last week; I gotta start dreaming somewhere.

I'm sure the fact that I did undergrad and grad school at the same (state) school gets me the boot at lots of places, but I do have a really good résumé, with lots of subbing, teaching, and freaking student-teaching in China, for crying out loud.  I've worked at coed schools, single-gender schools, public schools, private schools, classes with seven students, classes with 70 students... and I know a lot.  Not to toot my own horn, but that's what job searches are all about.  I got my current job based on my vocabulary in the interview; I'm also good at grammar, usage, punctuation, content area knowledge, and I've become pretty adept at teaching writing.  I'm not perfect, by far, but I'm always in pursuit of better methods and practices, and I work hard to make sure my students learn.

This has gotten weird.  I feel like I'm treating you as if you might have a teaching job to give me.  Which, if you do, hit me up.  I'm really not so bad.  Teens love me, and they learn from me.

But really, is a full-time job so much to ask? Maybe it is.  It took me two years out of undergrad plus three sub jobs to land this job so maybe my dream job is going to ask much more of me.  I'd be willing to give it, if I knew exactly how much it wanted of me.  If I knew that, after three years of part-time teaching plus an MA would get me my dream job, I'd patiently wait it out until next year.  Without that certainty, though, I just have to keep pounding the "pavement" and pushing.

Time.