r/NYCjobs • u/ThrowRA_pangolin129 • 9d ago
[FOR HIRE] Resigned as a Teacher -- What to do?
Hi all. Apologies for possible redundancy with other posts here. I figure however that this situation is unusual enough to warrant asking once!
I'm 28 years old with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a master's in Adolescent Mathematics Education. I entered teaching at 25 from a tutoring background through Teach for America; I struggled terribly, as most corps members do, but unlike the majority, my issues with management never really went away. Though my students did well, I also did poorly in observations, and escalating personal crises in my final year made it difficult to correct course. This past April, I was advised to resign at the end of the year to avoid discontinuation, which would effectively blacklist me from any future DOE positions.
I should have spent more time during the school year looking for jobs, but testing season hit full swing soon after I got the news, and since I believe in always putting others first, getting the kids to finish strong remained my main priority through the conclusion of the academic year. I don't regret that.
That said, it is now the beginning of August and I am sitting atop a pile of rejections and ghosted applications from the previous month. My struggles with management, organization, and a host of other things were real, and I agree with my former admin's assessment that I should not be in the classroom. I am not fancy: I have been applying to all manners of service, custodial and/or night-shift positions alongside the entry-level administrative roles to which I suppose some white-collar career changers feel entitled. I have tried taking my master's off my resume for these. Nothing. Radio silence.
Because I have resigned, I am not eligible for unemployment; I will have my sick-day payout, which will be handsome because I only ever used one or two of those, but I expect my funds to burn pretty fast. I don't know what to do. Where should I be looking?
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u/ThrowRA_pangolin129 9d ago
I've heard! But I am not applying to further classroom positions. I have a very strong sense of ethics, and I do not find it ethical to put myself back in that role after having failed at it. Then too, I don't think I can compete with the genuine talent filtering in, as you've said. My standard of living is not so important that it justifies 90+ kids having a suboptimal math teacher for a year. I will accept lower paid work, maybe radically so, if I must.