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title: Back to School
date: 2024-01-04 13:38:00
device: AlphaSmart 3000
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Can you keep a secret?
I applied to a teaching job last weekend.
For the last four years or so, I've been wanting to have more
meaning in my life, so I've been volunteering to teach Computer
Science at different schools in the Denver area. The idea came from
my optometrist in 2020, who told me that his son was taking a
Computer Science class at his high school and was having trouble
with the fact that his teacher was only a few months ahead of the
students in terms of his own understanding of the material.
It's hard to imagine how this sets students up for success, so I
went home and did three things:
1. I signed up for Microsoft TEALS, a program for exactly this sort
of volunteer work.
2. I signed up for Code.org as a mentor and volunteer.
3. I reached out to my neighborhood high school to see what I could
do to get more involved.
This has resulted in some great volunteer opportunities (I've
learned that I love working with high school students, and hate
working with Middle Schoolers), and has rekindled an old desire to
teach.
The thing that has been holding me back, as you can guess, is the
pay.
Hard to justify giving up a well-paying job for one with half the
salary, but for the last few years I haven't been able to stop
thinking about it.
When I was in high school myself, I had the privilege of attending
a local trade school specifically for high schoolers. The program
was 4 hours every day, right after lunch, and supplemented
graduation requirements to allow me to attend.
If it weren't for that Computer Technology program, there's a good
chance I would have never been able to develop my passion for
computers. It's where I wrote my first *real* program, where I
built my first computer, and where I installed Linux for the very
first time (although Gentoo was probably not the best first-choice).
I loved my time there, and through a stroke of luck, the current
instructor for the program (the one who has taught it for the last
20 years) has announced his retirement.
So, I applied to a teaching job, not because I'm necessarily ready
to cut my salary in half, but because the universe gave me an
opportunity to give back to a program that gave me so much; and, if
I'm being honest, this exact opportunity might not present itself
again for another twenty years (although it could be closer to 30
or more if they end up hiring someone close to my own age).
While I feel more than qualified from a technical and industry
standpoint, I also know that the things that have never mattered in
my career (such as certifications) are going to be considered, and
my lack of formal teaching experience will work against me, but I'm
trying to stay hopeful because, for the first time in a long time,
this feels like a career opportunity I am running *towards*,
instead of job circumstances I need to run *from*.
