About work...

“I am an English as a second language teacher in a small (900 pupils), rural high school in the southwest corner of Quebec, Canada, about ten miles north of the New York State border. I teach Seniors (the graduating class).

At this moment I am sitting in the library participating in TT, researching my Denali project and organising two ice climbing courses for the Montreal Section of the Alpine Club of Canada.

My kids are working quietly and well on a travel project I have given them to do before Christmas. It's a pre-college type of thing with all kinds of research on the place, how to get there (orbitz.com), how to travel and what to see when they're there, et c.

As I've always said, 'If I'd wanted to work, I wouldn't have gone to university.'.

Just wanted to share.

You there, Artex?”

“You are very fortunate!

My wife has been teaching for 16 yrs and comes home wiped out everyday!”

“Yep, enjoy it gremlin.”

“MDS, I bet she still has a ton of school work to do at home.
Just curious does she talk about school stuff all the time.”

“Yeah, I come home exhausted soemtimes, but so do most pêople. It's a life, not a job. What bugs me is that so many teachers waste their lives complaining. Also, I wanted to be a little smug and have a little fun.”

“Ewker: Back when Deb and I both taught.. it seemed our entire lives revolved around school and teaching and kids. Every event, every friend, every discussion somehow was linked to teaching as a career. At the time, I thought it was completely normal.

Now that Deb and I have grown in perspective, I left teaching back in 84, and she has moved into a Librarian role.. we have both discovered that stereotypically (although certainly not exclusively) teachers tend to be a clickish, strange set of shallow minded and strong willed individuals.

** wow.. why did I post that? **

Gremlin: Good the hear that you have found such a nice relaxing position for your life's work. It's great to hear when there are folks who are NOT stressed out by the life that working often demands.

MDSHiker: I hear ya bud. I remember those days.

Sassafras: Hi.”

“Gremlin - hey there, I'm here, under a more holiday version of my name until Christmas is over.

Funny you should post this thread.. I'm currently down in Florida seeing family, and my father is a school teacher. He knows I'm working on jumping careers and becoming one as well, so he invited me to his class yesterday to observe and show me what he does as far as lesson planning and such.

It was a very cool experience and I'm even more motivated. I've already been exchanging emails with the Dept. of Education in Maine and gathering information. I hope it all works out! :-)”

“Gremlin - I know what you mean. I don't like to make a big deal about my 4-day work week and 19 weeks off each year (and occasional paid sabbatical). On top of that, I enjoy being in a classroom with a group of college students about as much as any work I have ever done. Mature adult students are the most stimulating--and definitely the most demanding.

Then again, I probably put in more hours/week as a teacher than I ever did as a full-time engineer. Plus, 13 years of college and four degrees has to be figured into the equation...spread that out somehow.

Well, back to grading papers (the worst part of the job IMHO).

BTW. I do have a sabbatical coming up. Including summer break I will be off from March 24 - September 20 to write a book.”

“I've been thinking of going into teaching.....”

“2 are teachers. Within 20 minutes everyone is talking about school. After two hours, only the teachers are still talking.:-)”

“I was a sub in NYC (Brooklyn) for a year. You couldn't pay me enough to do that again.”

“Start a new job the first of December. It'll be the first time I've worked for anyone but myself in over 30 years. It's a local company that makes dioramas and models for museums, nature centers and the like. I'd done some subcontracting for them and told them to keep me in mind if anything came up. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and I'll be getting a weekly check for the first time in years. Plus, there a pretty laid back bunch of folks, so it shouldn't cut into bping too much. So here's how I make my living - I build models, I draw pictures, I maintain a local hiking trail, and in my spare time I'm a firefighter. It'a like I finally get to be 12 years old and get paid for it. Life is good!”

“I hear ya- I work in a school in Bed Stuy- These kids are animals, and our teachers are even worse. I wouldn't mind teaching, but not in a school like mine.”

“Teaching college is a cakewalk compared to K-12. I taught drafting at my son's junior high school many moons ago an those kids had me going pretty good. My hat is off to our K-12 teachers.”

“Fritz - I'm interested to hear how/if you make the leap. What would you teach as far as subject and grade?

I too have pondered teaching college level business classes, and Phil makes it sound even more alluring.

Phil - any hints on the subject of your book?”

“you guys are good, very, very good and maybe Steiny has an edge.”

“big coop - The book will be based on my doctoral dissertation which was: "An Assessment of Executive Awareness and Corporate Use of Statistical Methodologies in the American Automobile Industry". It will be a book for executives, managers, and engineers about what they should know about statistical methodologies (e.g. such as SPC, DOE, Regression Analysis, robust design, gage R&R studies, capability indices, etc.) and quality tools (e.g., FMEA, Pareto Charts, etc.). It will have a heavy Deming/Senge emphasis.

The target audience will be executives who want to read something on their own and as a supplemental textbook for upper division and graduate school classes for MBA and Engineering students.”

“I know that to many folks that might sound a bit dry. But I ran into the need for a similar book about Business Stats recently. I did a fairly involved statistical analysis about testing sales building initiatives for my company. I bought a book - something like "The Idiot's Guide to Understanding Business Statistics." I got quite a refresher on a few tests that I hadn't used since grad school - and it helped me explain my results to the executives.

Good luck Phil! I'll be interested to hear the progress.”

“big coop - Your probably used a two-sample t-test of some kind. I just finished teaching that to my statistics class.

I'll keep you posted somehow.”