Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

Great news!!! I got a job in Nebraska. In the 2007-08 school year, I will be teaching at Gering High School, which is in the Panhandle of Western Nebraska just to the south of Scottsbluff. We are planning to go out there once school has finished here in June to find a place to live and also visit the school and the Principal. I had the phone interview two weeks ago and had begun to give up hope but they called me today and offered me the job

I have to say this job search was tough. I applied to over 40 schools and had only four interviews, In my previous job searches I only filled out 20-25 applications before I found a job. Finding a job as a Social Studies teacher is so hard because there are so many Social Studies teachers and not that many jobs.

Plus, I think that when the people in Nebraska see a person from New York applying for a job way out in Nebraska they assume the person is not serious. In this case, I was serious and, right now, I am happy I found a job. I hope things will go well and that I will stay in Gering a long time

How soon the time goes by. I did not realise my last post here was back in January, so it is high time that I made another post.

We just got back from a week in Nebraska, which was nice, our first visit back there since we left in December of 2000. It has not really changed that much although we did notice that there had been a lot of development to the north and south of the city and some development to the east. Other than that, it was pretty much the same place.

The main reason for going out there was to attend the Educators’ Job Fair that was held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on March 28th. The Job Fair was pretty much as I had expected. I made contact with a few people who I had sent my resume to or had had telephone interviews with, which was good. I think that shows to those people that I am interested in working for their school districts. There were no job offers, but that is normal at these job fairs. Hopefully, my appearance at the job fair will help the employers put a face to the resume/application when they are looking over all the applications they have received.

To be honest, I have doubts about this whole teaching thing. It was not what I expected and a significant number of the kids are disrespectful to say the least. Added to that, the parents and the administrators makes me wish I was in another career. In fact, I have been looking into other alternatives and it would be nice if I could find something other than teaching. Right now though, I am continuing the search for a teaching job, I mailed out eight applications just yesterday and I also mailed out follow up letters to most of the other school districts to which I already applied.

Not much else to report. I have to say that I am not too happy about coming back to Poughkeepsie. My opinions on Poughkeepsie and New York have not changed. I am already not looking forward to going back to school on Wednesday, I have had two weeks off but I REALLY don’t want to go back. One good thing is that I still have 28 sick days left and I intend using as many as possible before the end of the school year in June.

The decision has been made. We will be moving from Poughkeepsie after the end of the school year. The writing had been on the wall for some time and I will not be sorry to leave this area. All I have to do now is find a new job and I hope that will be in Nebraska. With luck I can secure a job in Lincoln Public Schools or one of the nearby school districts. As always, I am alittle worried about finding a job but I am hopeful that I can eventully find a job. Wish me luck

It is almost the end of 2006 and I have to say I am glad it is over. This year was not the best but I am hoping that things will finally start to pick up in 2007. I am also hoping that I am able to get a job in Nebraksa in the Spring so we can get out of this god forsaken place.

What would be really nice is if I could get a job other than teaching but, right now, I don’t think that is possible. I do think things will look up and my general outlook on life will improve if I end up living in a place I want to be and actually like. So, here is to getting a new job and moving to Nebraska in 2007

The good news is that I am now on Christmas break. I don’t have to go back to school til January 2nd, which is nice. The bad news is that, on Friday, our union (which is supposed to look after our interests) sent us a notice that it was going to cut the fee schedule 20% on our dental benefits.

At my school district, our medical insurance is covered 92% by the district and we make up the remaining 8% which is about $89 a month this school year. For some reason, our Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance does not cover dental or vision. Instead, we have something called the Wellfare Trust, which covers all the teachers in the school district. This Trust is run by the union, which gets money from the district each year from the Trust. Additonal money also comes from the union by way of our union dues. Since September, the Welfare Trust has run at a deficit every month, cutting into the trust reserve. So, on the day we begin Christmas break they send us all a notice letting us know of the benefit cut.

The problem I have with this is that the dental benefit provided is already pretty crap. My orthodontic treatment is not covered at all and every time I go for the routine checkup I end up paying a lot of money for the visit. Even worse, they only cover dependents one half what they cover employees, meaning they now pretty much pay nothing for dependents. The result is that Irene cannot go to the dentist and I have to fund most of my own dental care out of my own pocket.

I was all ways told that one of the great benefits of being a teacher was the great benefits. The low pay teachers received was made up for in great health benefits, vacation time, and good retirement package. Since I became a teacher, I have found all that to be crap. What is more is that things seem to be getting worse. Along with all the other nonsense I have to put up with, it just gives me one more reason not to be a teacher. It also give me yet another reason to move from New York.