week 4 of the football season and nearly 2 days without a single post

I'm going to play out the rest of the year, apply for any jobs that really interest me- teaching or not- and see what happens. The outside world doesn't seem too interested in snatching me up, so I may just be stuck.

I haven't checked with TRS. I don't think a decent retirement- if it still exists in 12-14 years- is worth that much misery.

Once you get 20 years in, I believe you get close to 50% retirement. Based on "Average salary is the average of the four highest consecutive annual salary rates within the last 10 years of creditable service". You won't get this until you are 55 though. While a 50% payout is not near as attractive as 75%, it still would provide a nice little supplement to some social security benefit you should be able to earn from your previous careers + the next 20 years.

https://www.trsil.org/members/retired/guide/chapter-eight-retirement-benefits

SIFBCoach, you are right as long as there is soc. sec. there to supplement it. Part of the reason I went into teaching, albeit the wrong reason, was that I remember having a class discussion in history in HS about how soc sec wasn't going to be there when my generation retired. So I made the mistake of not exploring something that I might have been better suited for and got lasered in on teaching, which looked amazing on paper with summers off, retire at 55. But wow I got steamrolled by the crap that comes with it and the changes that have been made in the last 10+ years.

HI, Let's say you got offered something at an awkward stopping point in the year. Let's say you interviewed and a company calls you up in in the middle of a quarter or semester. What do you do? I'm in the same boat as you as I'd drop the student/crappy parents aspect of it in a heartbeat, but my district and the adults I work with have been very good to me. Jobs don't just operate on teacher time where you make your move in the summer only.

Outdoors wrote:HI, Let's say you got offered something at an awkward stopping point in the year.  Let's say you interviewed and a company calls you up in in the middle of a quarter or semester.  What do you do?  I'm in the same boat as you as I'd drop the student/crappy parents aspect of it in a heartbeat, but my district and the adults I work with have been very good to me.  Jobs don't just operate on teacher time where you make your move in the summer only.

When I interviewed for the cemetery job in October, I was going to go then. Was fully intending to have a conversation with the school, see what they needed from me- 2 weeks, until the end of the quarter, etc- and then go ASAP. And the cemetery was willing to work with me, but I didn't get the job. As we got into November and December the plan was to go at semester if I got offered. That didn't happen either. At this point I haven't applied anywhere since around Thanksgiving and haven't been contacted about any of those, so I'm pretty much here for the remainder of the year. I don't know that outside the job driving a truck where my dad works that I'm going to have many opportunities outside education. No one really seems all that interested in a 42 year old, 20 year teacher to do manual labor- that was one of the jobs I applied for and didn't get a call for.

I will say the job is far more tolerable without the 25-30 hours, 7 days a week added onto it by football.

Got an email from a mom at 9:45 last night asking if there was any way her Senior son could get extra credit so he could pass my class. Kid hasn't turned in a homework assignment since October 19th- the end of 1st quarter.

Oh, PS- all "homework" is completed in class.

Oh, PS, PS- kid has a note that he can be on his phone at all times because of a "diabetic app".

that trucking job not looking so bad after all! Frkn Walmart hiring drivers at $90k.

illinipete wrote:that trucking job not looking so bad after all! Frkn Walmart hiring drivers at $90k.

My dad makes about $120k+.  I wouldn't make that because his is all almost commission that he's been able to negotiate over 40 years (he started selling flowers and the regular driver had a heart attack and my dad filled in.  There were 4 companies selling gas then.  He's the only one now and hauls about 2-2.5 million gallons a year.  He's usually top 5 in the company every year and some years he's #1.  He's the only one outside the Chicago area that doesn't haul pretty much semi trucks only in the top 10.), but it would probably be a significant raise.  The two best benefits I could see to them hiring me is- 1.  I'd need less training since I've been riding along with him since I was in a car seat and 2. All his customers would probably stay with me given I can keep up the level of service.

He's not real sure what they're going to do with him getting close to retirement and the other driver having just passed away.  Right now they have some fill in guys.

I've considered the truck driving route as well. CDL courses seem almost alarmingly easy to get when they had classes where I used to work in college, but there's no way the wife would let me do the long hauls being away from her & kid for 2 weeks at a time. I read about a HS kid who grew his mowing business up to 100K/yr and for some reason still enrolled in college. If I had a 100K/yr mowing business w/ room to grow, I'd be like a hog in slop!

Also, I'm a bit leery of trying to get on at major insurance companies. Just like schools, the visionary presentation puppets told them it's the 21st century, so they're changing anything & everything to say they're changing for the sake of making a change...and just like education, implementing bogus practices within their workforce with bogus evaluations which only create disgruntled workers. Luckily, the admin are finding out the hard way that our district is somewhat of a ground zero with teacher shortage & haven't been bushwhacking us w/ Danielson lately. But it sure would be nice to have a job where you are graded based on reality and work ethic & not on theory that has no business being tried with high-poverty/low student-motivation schools.

One thing I've always felt was weird was this- I've never had any school contact me about applying or a job they had open there- Head Coaching jobs. I know everybody says they've had someone call them about a job they have open, and a lot of that is probably BS, but I know a lot of guys actually get those calls.

I've never had that happen. Now, I know I'm not Nick Saban, but I've had above average success.

Not a big deal, just a thought I had today as apparently I'm on HC job #2 of this off season I applied for I'm not getting an interview.

Head Idiot wrote:One thing I've always felt was weird was this- I've never had any school contact me about applying or a job they had open there- Head Coaching jobs.  I know everybody says they've had someone call them about a job they have open, and a lot of that is probably BS, but I know a lot of guys actually get those calls.

I've never had that happen.  Now, I know I'm not Nick Saban, but I've had above average success.

Not a big deal, just a thought I had today as apparently I'm on HC job #2 of this off season I applied for I'm not getting an interview.

I never had any school contact me about applying.

Head Idiot wrote:One thing I've always felt was weird was this- I've never had any school contact me about applying or a job they had open there- Head Coaching jobs.  I know everybody says they've had someone call them about a job they have open, and a lot of that is probably BS, but I know a lot of guys actually get those calls.

I've never had that happen.  Now, I know I'm not Nick Saban, but I've had above average success.

Not a big deal, just a thought I had today as apparently I'm on HC job #2 of this off season I applied for I'm not getting an interview.

I know schools contacting happens, because I know for a fact that we actually made the first contact to the guy who is our current head football coach.  But...I hear it so much that in a few cases it has to be BS.  I've been asked to apply once in my life and it was for a teaching job, but it was simply out of desperation:  it was a week before school started, maybe even a few days before, and a school saw that I was teaching SPED but certified in Language Arts, so they were curious to see if I would be interested in their language opening.

Truthfully, I've grown very tired of the paperwork and meeting load that goes with SPED, so I would have had it not been a $15,000 paycut.

wolverine55 wrote:

Head Idiot wrote:One thing I've always felt was weird was this- I've never had any school contact me about applying or a job they had open there- Head Coaching jobs.  I know everybody says they've had someone call them about a job they have open, and a lot of that is probably BS, but I know a lot of guys actually get those calls.

I've never had that happen.  Now, I know I'm not Nick Saban, but I've had above average success.

Not a big deal, just a thought I had today as apparently I'm on HC job #2 of this off season I applied for I'm not getting an interview.

I know schools contacting happens, because I know for a fact that we actually made the first contact to the guy who is our current head football coach.  But...I hear it so much that in a few cases it has to be BS.  I've been asked to apply once in my life and it was for a teaching job, but it was simply out of desperation:  it was a week before school started, maybe even a few days before, and a school saw that I was teaching SPED but certified in Language Arts, so they were curious to see if I would be interested in their language opening.

Truthfully, I've grown very tired of the paperwork and meeting load that goes with SPED, so I would have had it not been a $15,000 paycut.

I legitimately have no idea how, or why SPED teachers do it.

I don't know if Illinois has the equivalency of these or not but we have "Area Education Agencies" in Iowa that basically run SPED stuff. Problem is, the pay for these services comes from the individual school districts. I swear they change stuff just to change it to justify their existence.

wolverine55 wrote:I don't know if Illinois has the equivalency of these or not but we have "Area Education Agencies" in Iowa that basically run SPED stuff.  Problem is, the pay for these services comes from the individual school districts.  I swear they change stuff just to change it to justify their existence.

Macon County used to have a cooperative to do that kind of stuff. Technically the SPED teachers were hired though DPS so they earned their pay- which was WAY higher than CG. Eventually the small districts decided to get out and hire their own SPED teachers. Saved them close to 75k IIRC.

And ya, a lot of education is about doing things just to justify existence.

Head Idiot wrote:
And ya, a lot of education is about doing things just to justify existence.

this also applies to other government agencies

ging wrote:

Head Idiot wrote:
And ya, a lot of education is about doing things just to justify existence.

this also applies to other government agencies

It applies to probably the majority of jobs in public or private sectors.

Head Idiot wrote:One thing I've always felt was weird was this- I've never had any school contact me about applying or a job they had open there- Head Coaching jobs.  I know everybody says they've had someone call them about a job they have open, and a lot of that is probably BS, but I know a lot of guys actually get those calls.

I've never had that happen.  Now, I know I'm not Nick Saban, but I've had above average success.

Not a big deal, just a thought I had today as apparently I'm on HC job #2 of this off season I applied for I'm not getting an interview.

Try Wearing a Visor and White pullover. Will increase your Coaching Street Cred to the level of a Sean McVay. The phone calls will roll in then.

Bighitter11 wrote:

Head Idiot wrote:One thing I've always felt was weird was this- I've never had any school contact me about applying or a job they had open there- Head Coaching jobs.  I know everybody says they've had someone call them about a job they have open, and a lot of that is probably BS, but I know a lot of guys actually get those calls.

I've never had that happen.  Now, I know I'm not Nick Saban, but I've had above average success.

Not a big deal, just a thought I had today as apparently I'm on HC job #2 of this off season I applied for I'm not getting an interview.

Try Wearing a Visor and White pullover.  Will increase your Coaching Street Cred to the level of a Sean McVay.   The phone calls will roll in then.

I saw Sean McVay on TV and have met both Lorton brothers, you'd think that would at least get me an interview.

So, as is probably the same in every other school, Juuling is huge here. I've caught one kid doing it in class previously in the year and I'm pretty sure I have some others as we'll get random smells in here throughout the day. Question is, I guess, how the heck do you catch kids doing it outside seeing them put it up to their mouths?

PS- reason # 3,026.

I give up.

What is Juuling?


Googled it. You meant vaping.

Teetime wrote:I give up.

What is Juuling?


Googled it. You meant vaping.

If you ask the kids, there's a distinct difference.  What it is, I can't tell you.  

I think, and again, I'm not sure, you see something come out of the mouth with vaping, not so with Juuling.

Teetime wrote:I give up.

What is Juuling?


Googled it. You meant vaping.

It's the same thing. "Juuling" refers to vaping with a Juul. The advantage of the Juul is that it allows users to vape more or less surreptitiously.

At least that is my understanding.

It's an understatement to say that this is a poor lifestyle choice. Apparently there is a pretty big black market for this as to legally purchase one needs to be at least 21 years old. According to this study it's even more harmful for those with still developing brains.

http://www.center4research.org/the-dangers-of-juuling/

OSUBucks wrote:It's an understatement to say that this is a poor lifestyle choice. Apparently there is a pretty big black market for this as to legally purchase one needs to be at least 21 years old. According to this study it's even more harmful for those with still developing brains.

http://www.center4research.org/the-dangers-of-juuling/

Good thing the majority of those using this stuff don't have those to harm.