Graduate School Musings

[cookderosa]

I am a homeschooling parent who graduated all of my students.  I teach violin in my home and am a homemaker and my in laws have some health challenges,so it is good that I am available to help, but am thinking of what is next for me.  My 50th birthday is in 2019, so there is that, as well!

I have a Masters degree in Rehabilitation Counseling that I earned the year before my oldest son was born, but I never directly used it in the workforce. I have also taken all of the Poetry in America courses that were offered so far, and am currently enrolled in the two courses for the Spring semester beginning in January.  

So, my thoughts on what is next involve trying to become an Adjunct faculty member at my local CC or a small college nearby.  I will have 20 hours in Poetry in May, but have considered supplementing that with a course in Teaching Writing, because that is where the need is usually at a CC.  I have also considered pursuing the ALM in English at Harvard Extension School.  However, we have been living on one income for 20 years and although we are very frugal with our money, we have one son in college and one looking at Graduate schools.  So, cost is a HUGE barrier. 

Another thought is of a school here in Kentucky that has a PhD program in Leadership, University of the Cumberlands.  This may be a good fit for my interesting combination of Educational experiences.  Their online tuition is $375 per credit hour,and is roughly half of the University of Kentucky, and they may accept the HES courses.  

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice?  I have discovered while homeschooling, that I love teaching!  I taught for years in a homeschool co-op setting and loved it.  I have also considered going back to become a certified teacher at the High School Level.  However, since I already have a Masters, it is easier to qualify to become an adjunct.  

Basically, I am trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  I do know that only I can do that.  I have also discovered that I could happily be a professional student.   

There are also the Micromasters programs from EdX that may be a good fit for me cost wise.  The Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement is the one that interests me the most.

I'm so excited for you - go Mom.

For those of us who love education, teaching is a great vocation. Even when I wasn't being paid to teach, I've always been a teacher - even as a kid. I do believe some people just gravitate toward those kinds of opportunities (and many end up homeschooling too) so it makes perfect sense to me that you'd work as a teacher.

I have experience teaching post-secondary (after high school graduation) for adults, not secondary (high school) however my brother is a secondary teacher, so I have often compared the differences between the two. I don't know ALL of them obviously, but I believe that getting your first FT job in secondary is probably easier than a FT job in post-secondary, but getting an adjunct is probably easier in English than either because colleges offer zillions of sections of English (especially developmental) so there is a lot of work to go around.
Is full time an eventual goal, or would you be happy teaching a few days per week? Secondary is almost always 5 days per week (180 days give or take) and really no flexibility, where postsecondary is uber flexible.
I worked as an adjunct through all my babies and breastfeeding, never had an issue. If I needed a semester off, or more classes in a semester, was always an option.
As an example of a FT post-secondary contract, my husband's contract at his university is only 108 days (he is paid year round). He has multiple opportunities all year to cover someone else or teach a summer class- all of that comes with extra pay.
Secondary teachers are generally paid on a scale, so coming in as an adult doesn't give you as much time to get traction in terms of income, while adjunct are all paid the same, so you're getting the same on day 1 as the adjunct who has been there a decade. Good or bad depending on how you look at it.
Finally, college teachers have a lot of academic freedom - again good or bad depending on how you look at it, but public school secondary teachers really have none. The district will direct most of what you teach, so there is the element of how important autonomy is to you.

A lot to think about, but I'm so excited for you whatever you end up doing!!