Getting My Masters While Teaching

I know

            I know I’m a first year teacher; this is a bad idea right? However, I’ve been thinking that if I am able to handle a part-time job*, then if I quit I should be: (1) less tired, since I no longer have to stay up to eleven and (2) less stressed and I can fill that void with the stress of grad school. Still doesn’t sound like the best plan? Let me explain further. Since I’ve restarted teaching I’ve only been available Friday nights and Saturday days. Most of the time, I only work one of those. Even if I were working both, then I still wouldn’t make as much money as getting my masters will bump up my pay.

Reasons for Now

            I know most school districts don’t want to hire inexperienced teachers with masters degrees so I’ll still keep teaching and racking up more experience. Since the masters program I’m looking at will by my estimation take a max of 2.5 years. I will have accrued three years of experience and have my masters. Plus I’ll no longer be a new teacher and schools won’t have to deal with working me through an induction program and all the things that come with that. I calculate it will take no more than 2.5 years, because it’s 30 credits, which equals 10 classes. When looking at degree programs, I really focused on those that I could take without having to go to classes. I don’t mind attending instruction through online lectures or watching recordings, but driving to and from would be too much on top of my 3 hour round trip commute.

Limiting Options

            Another requirement for my masters program was that it wasn’t one of the universities that stereotypically targets older learners, i.e. those who are returning to school for my education and not straight out of high school or undergrad. While I believe people should get ore education if they want/need it no matter what age they are, there have been several prominent scandals dealing with those type of universities that has turned me off from them.  That severely limited my options, which I was ok with because I’m not overly concerned with where I get my masters. Though I was certainly concerned where I received my bachelors degree, I realized it where I earned my degree didn’t matter as much as whether I earned my degree. Also Penn State didn’t have an online ESL masters or TESOL masters program and they’re too expensive anyways for grad or undergrad, in hindsight.

Method of Obtaining

            All of this leads to where I’m actually applied for my masters, Liberty University. Back when I was in high school, I had briefly considered attending Liberty, but the on-campus option was too far for my first independent steps, in my mind, and the online didn’t seem like enough independence. It was too eerily similar to my high school experience, very Christian and very home-based. While I really appreciated my high school education, I wanted a taste of something else, which is why I ended up at Penn State. Though I regret the student loans, I don’t regret the time I spent at Penn State, and not just because I met my fiancé there. It was genuinely a good experience.

Why and Why This

            However, I’ve had that experience now. Plus I’m gaining more through my full-time job as a 10^th grade English teacher. Therefore, I would like to stray a bit back into my comfort zone for my masters. Throughout my time at Penn State, I wanted to take an applied linguistics course called World Languages, but it never worked. I believe I’ve mentioned I was originally a linguistics major, but I switched when I realized I was more interested in the people speaking the languages rather than the nuances of the languages themselves. Now that I’m getting my masters in Teaching English as a Second Language, with hopes of getting my ESL certification, I will have come full circle. I was able to merge my personable linguistics interests with my love of literature. God sure has a sense of humor sometimes

What About You?

            What are you thinking of getting for your masters? What did you get? What factors made or broke your decision for which grad school to pick? Let me know in the comments.

Notes:

*Did I mention I’ve still been working at target?

Sources:

Image credit: “untitled” by mamir_k94