By the way, can you tell I’m avoiding some work (grading and Alice).
But on Twitter tonight, I mentioned to someone that I got into teaching high school because of dog obedience. And yes, that’s true.
I had been working in computer science (mostly financial system) for over 10 years when I realized that I had more unsatisfying job experiences than satisfying and the current was the living end. I didn’t care for my boss and it got worse the longer I worked for her. Didn’t care for my job assignment nor thought much of the company I was working for. I was genuinally unhappy with my life and I knew something had to change. I realized that I had been working since I was a young teenager and wanted some time off, so I walked out of my job when they decided to put me on call. That was NOT part of the job description.
So I decided to hang out and see what I really wanted to do with my life, but I did need some money to show my dogs with, and some money to support them. I had appreciated with a dog obedience instructor before quitting computer science and was pretty well respected as a dog trainer. One of my dog friends was giving up her dog obedience gig at a local community college and she suggested I replace her.
I did and ended up doing very well at it. All my classes filled and the community college asked me to teach more classes. It didn’t pay enough to live off of, but it was enough to pay for the dog shows. I also got some private training jobs. Plus, the same friend that gave me the training get, hired me to bath dogs.
I soon found out I wasn’t suited for either dog obedience or dog grooming as a full time position. I’m a bit too smart for that. However, as I was experimenting and figuring out what to do, I had some teachers taking my class. I asked them about teaching high school computer science and they were VERY encouraging and pointed me to Texas Woman’s University.
At the same time, I was thinking about nursing and occupational therapy — nursing is something that I almost wanted to do all my life. I did like the idea of the hours. I was also exploring occupational therapy as I had been volunteering at Baylor Rehab as a pet therapy dog handler. The occupational therapists there really involved us in the training.
But when push came to shove, it looked like teaching was the most cost effective of the three occupations. In fact, a lot of people suggested that I go the emergency certification route and I even had a school that wanted me, but Dallas has done one of their stupid tricks and had hired too many teachers at the time they are processing me, so they couldn’t justify the emergency certification to the state.
I’m glad that didn’t work out, as the teaching certification was really the right route for me. It has given me a much better teacher experience and having formal training has helped, especially when it comes to teaching math.
And yes, teaching dog obedience helped my classroom management skills and prepared me for Dallas ISD, as having 20 students means that you have 20+ thing to watch. Because you have your demo dogs, dog and handler pair, and often an extra family member.
And yes, I’ve had more than 40 students in a math classroom before, with no computers to entertain us. That’s a different story.