So I was planning on doing my student teaching this Fall 2009. It was going to be financially tight and stressful, especially with my son due to be born in November, but we'd be through the tunnel and on the other side of this mountain by Spring 2010. However, as the numbers were not matching up to get us through the Fall financially, I asked my academic, financial, and teaching advisers at the University of Phoenix about what I would need to do if i switched my student teaching to the Spring of 2010 instead. In a nutshell, my financial adviser decided that this was the right time to let me know that I was going to have to pay for my student teaching out-of-pocket. Apparently, since the student teaching is not scheduled before hand, it is not covered by the financial aide, even though it falls in the school year.
Once I got over my initial anger, I looked at the pros of doing my student teaching in the spring. I don't want to go into why a teacher, who is not paid much anyway, has to spend about 3 months with no income, or working a two jobs just to be underpaid as a teacher. I don't want to blog about why a Master's in Ed. get's you about the starting pay as any blue-collar job. I'm not going to mention how the teaching profession needs men, but is set up for women whose husbands can fully support them. I won't go into detail that the male teachers I know drive "practical" cars, and the women teachers I know, whose income is extra, drive Jags, Lexus, etc... They wonder why they have trouble getting men to work in the schools, but they tell you to be broke and intern for three months before you can ork somewhere that there will probably be a strike when the school year starts.
Anyways, back to what I was talking about. student teaching in the Spring may work out, but my only issue is filling the working gap between now and March. I have few possibilities, and hopefully one of them works out. It's hard o feel like a man when you can't support your family, but they will be my first priority... whatever happens.
