Any jobs out there for teachers? Who is hiring? And is it only in hard-to-fill slots?
Who is still hiring teachers this year? (AJC file)
A reader sent me these questions about teaching jobs in Georgia, which I decided to post as most of you are far better equipped to respond.
The AJC has reported that some systems are hiring, including Gwinnett, which is bringing in 530 new teachers for the upcoming school year. However, the AJC notes in its news story that Gwinnett has already filled 359 of the 530 jobs, including some through an annual spring job fair that concentrates on recruitment of teachers in math, science and special needs. But the system is still encouraging applicants with those qualifications to apply as jobs remain in those hard-to-fill areas
Here are the reader’s questions:
I recently have moved out of GA, but I still try to keep up with some of the news. I have a good number of friends who have either graduated from university with teaching degrees or will be very shortly who are encountering difficulties with finding a teaching position.
Can you provide some insight (maybe with a blog post) into the hiring situation for teachers? I’ve heard that large systems like Cobb and Gwinnett are hiring a large number of teachers and yet my friends have not found any openings to apply for, nor have they gotten any responses. In particular, I was looking to see if you could answer the following questions:
- How competitive is the market right now?
- Are school systems, due to lower/smaller budgets, looking to hire graduates with Bachelor’s degrees rather than Master’s level graduates because they cost less?
- In line with that, is the best advice now to go ahead and try to get experience either as a private tutor or some sort of teaching experience rather than extend schooling and going for a master’s degree? I feel like many are misguided in thinking that if they get a master’s degree they will be guaranteed a job.
- What advice is there for upcoming graduates and recent graduates to get the much needed experience to land a teaching job?
I hope you are able to address these issues, as I think there are plenty of people interested in the current hiring situation at Georgia public schools. Thanks, and I look forward to your responses.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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107 comments Add your comment
i used to teach
July 29th, 2011
5:16 pm
I would encourage all the newbies to seek teaching jobs in the private school sector where you actually get to teach.
The obvious problem here
July 30th, 2011
2:36 am
If you would like to know the problem with Georgia’s education system, you need only read these comments with a red pen on your hand.
Ole Gal
July 30th, 2011
10:29 am
@ The obvious problem here: Indeed.
@ Ole Guy: I should have added in my earlier post that you also insult all who disagree with you. “Teach” is an insult, akin to addressing a physician as “Doc.”
@MAM: whoever you are. Thank you.
@Bean Counter, and pj: If Ole Guy has in mind inspiring present-day teachers to form teachers’ unions, he should have read AJC, July 18, 2011: “Georgia’s 117,000 teachers don’t have access to unions in the traditional sense, because state law prohibits collective bargaining for them.”
Ole Guy
July 30th, 2011
2:40 pm
Gal, I welcome disagreement…that is, disagreement in accord with the topic of discussion; not the mindless 4th grade level of bullshot which seeps into these “discussions”. Furthermore, I see nothing wrong with the names with which I address some of the participators. The noms de guerre Doc and Teach are, in contemporary society, not at all insulting…unless you want them to be. Rather than display the degree of over-sensitivity which seems to interfere with your focus on the topic du jour, I respectfully suggest we stick to the topic at hand.
I completely understand the trepidation with which the teacher corps approaches the topic of unionization. However, given the nature of the arguements, supposedly authored by teachers, which I see in these posts, the obvious/only answer is organization. You and I, Gal, come from a period of time and history when perceived wrongs were aggressively addressed. Some of the wrongs were, in my humble hindsight, nothing short of “political noise”, while many others were quite valid. We need not discuss those issues, for I do not wish to appear as “long-winded”, however, I am quite sure you, and perhaps some of the readers, who hail from our era, may remember some of those events which, today, lead to some of the “social advancements” which we all enjoy, regardless of our backgrounds, etc.
We might remember, either from our history books, or from our memories, issues which were “prohibited” by law. The society of the time sensed one injustice or another, banned together in unity and changed the law…it’s called “THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE”. Those who choose to cower, if you will, under the perceived consequence of questioning current law more than deserve any and all ills which may befall them…more precisely, if the teacher corps seems to feel that they have little/no voice in the educational process (as seems to be the sentiment), yet chooses to do absolutely nothing of substance about the issue, than one and only one word should prevail…SHUTUP!
Ole Guy
July 30th, 2011
2:58 pm
Bean; PJ…there’s an ole axiom: Tis better to do something, and make corrections as required, than to do nothing at all. Actually, that’s my axiom, modified from the tenets I have always held, however, given what appears to be on-going turmoil within the educational camp, I would have to say that SOMEBODY had better do SOMETHING soon. If the teacher corps fails to take the initiative and chooses to remain silent, than the prevailing “rules of the game” will be, by defacto, the educational law of the land. I do not “live” within “teacherland”, but I do see kids, both hs age and older, who, in a “polite” manner of speaking…don’t know crap! I would think this, alone, is sufficient reason for the teacher corps to be a bit more aggressive in the direction of THEIR profession.
Bean, I fully agree…unionization is not necessarily the be-all/end-all answer(s) to the problems…it just could be entirely the wrong answer. But no one, least of all the teacher corps, will ever know, UNLESS…
DEE
July 30th, 2011
6:42 pm
To No Mas-
The sentence group of words you posted is a FRAGMENT. Watch your sentences!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Walt Haze
July 31st, 2011
12:29 am
Unless youre a woman or a minority, dont waste your time applying to a metro area school. Likewise, unless youre a fishing buddy of someone on the school board, dont waste your time applying to an outlying area. I got a recognition of excellence award from the ETS for my score on the Praxis Exam in a year when 70% of GA’s high school students failed the statewide social studies exam, and didn’t even get a call. Small wonder GA consistently finishes dead last and next to dead last for education nationwide, behind states like New Mexico and California where half the population doesnt even speak English.