I am very depressed....

My neighbor who is a retired teacher had her principal look at my resume....he said 'why would I ever want to hire her when I have 200 already certified teachers to hire?'

He suggested I volunteer with kids to get experience or substitute or get a few part time jobs to gain experience. I am fine with that, I'm just nervous $ wise.

I attended Catholic school my whole life so I was thinking of applying locally and then if I get hired, getting an 'after school job' or something to supplement the $.

Sigh...wish it was easier.

First, a lot of .
Don't let this bring you down, You will find something soon.
Maybe in the summer time, if you have days off you can work in a summer camp.
There has to be teaching jobs out there, just look for them and don't give up.

Are you not ceritifed? My friend was able to teach full time at a Catholic High School on LI while she was still getting her Masters for teaching (I don't think she was certified) - and it was in lieu of student teaching. Can you maybe do that so you don't have to student teach and you would get payed?

If you want full-time paid work you may have to accept something in a less-than-great area, but you just need that year for full certification, right?

Inner city schools are a bit dicey, of course, but I have found it to be a great experience. I've learned a lot and some of those kids are wonderful.

I did a leave replacement for a year (non tenure track) and had to switch districts when the first teacher came back after her maternity leave, but it really helped.

See if you can get a catholic school position, or a leave replacement or a subbing position... it was so much easier the second year to get a job, the first year all I heard was, 'well, we hired the person with experience, too bad you don't have any, maybe next year' It was so frustrating!

But the year of 'paying my dues' really paid off...

Keep your chin up, there is a position for you! It may not be your dream job, but do what you can, learn from either subbing or being in the caholic school system, and then you will be SO much more marketable next year!

Good luck!

Send your resume all over L.I. (if thats where you are). Now I think is when districts are hiring for Sept.
I am not a certified teacher, but I have some friends in the field and I know what they went through.
Good Luck

Dont let that comment get you down.
Do a mass mailing to all the schools in LI.
Best of luck

i understand the frustration. on li, there are districts that won't even look at resumes of people without a lot of experience. that is one reason why i am trying to put in some time in the city. my advice...get some experience. sub at some schools, tutor, try to get a job at a district that may not be the best, but sometimes those are the areas that you get the best experience in. don't lose hope!!! it takes time, i know it. but remember this...any job is better than no job, so keep looking!

Thanks guys I am not on LI (i'm in NJ) but I will certainly take your advice. It's just very frustrating. Someone told me full time Catholic school positions pay $20k a year - can that be true? I was thinking it was more like $30-$35k? Maybe I'm wrong.

I have no idea what Catholic schools pay... but I did send my resume out to just about every single school district on Long Island...

it's such a bizarre thing... a lot of it is luck, timing, depends on the person opening up the resumes and the staff that they already have--it might not even be you, it could just be that they prefer to have a man, or someone who has something different to offer, to keep the dept. diverse.

But the more districts you send to, the more chances you have. I have heard of my dept chair talking to other dept chairs about prospective applicants, and giving each other resumes if they dont' have an opening...

Network a lot... do you know any other teachers in the area? Maybe they can talk to their colleagues and their dept chairs... a lot of teachers tend to know each other from conferences and inservice classes... I got my current job because the social studies teacher at my old school knew the social studies teacher at my new school, and they were talking about hiring a new teacher, and my name came up. I don't even teach social studies, but my dept shares a hallway with them. You never know who will have a connection. The principal at my new school's secretary happens to be the mother of the teacher who shared my room at my old school!

Good luck and keep your spirits up.

Oh, and I got both of my jobs in the summertime... don't give up!

In the past you didn't have to be certified to teach in a catholic school but I believe you have to be now. I teach in a catholic school and I know the school boards are being really critical about who the principals hire with all of the decreasing enrollment and all the other issues with the catholic schools.
ETA: Can you be a teacher's assistant with out certification? You should look into that...its a great way to get your foot in the door of a great district. Good luck :)