Earlier I wrote about my experiences transitioning from a flagging radio career to a new career as a teacher. Here are some of the challenges I faced in getting to this point.
The Cost: Entering Old Dominion's Career Switcher Program costs about $4,000.
The Tests: To enter the program, an applicant must pass at least two tests (elementary teachers have to pass three). One test involves the content of the subject the person wants to teach; in my case, middle school social studies.
The other was a literacy test that was actually fun to take. Why? Because of the two writing assignments. In one, I had to re-write and condense an essay to about half-size, which is I had been doing for 20 years as a radio reporter. The second was an essay arguing for or against public funding of the very medium I worked in, radio.
Since being accepted into Career Switchers, I have passed two additional content area tests to earn endorsements to teach middle school science and earth science.
The Drive: The trip from my neighborhood to ODU's Tri-Cities Center in Portsmouth is, at its shortest, 21 miles, but only if you are willing to drive through the heart of Norfolk, the Midtown Tunnel, and Portsmouth. The quickest route, over the High Rise Bridge on I-64, is, at over 30 miles, the longest.
The Traffic: Night classes, which met Tuesdays and Thursdays, began at 6pm, putting my drive to class in the middle of rush hour.
The Road Work: When driving home from my first night class, I was stunned at the amount of road work underway at night. And the location of the road work would vary. Some nights it was near the Highrise Bridge, other nights, the Downtown Tunnel. More than once, I got stuck in backups due to road work.
The Sleep Deprivation: Going to night class while continuing to work as a morning show radio announcer was probably the hardest part of the whole process. I often didn't get home until after 10pm. The alarm to get me up for work would go off about five hours later.
The Job Market: It's no secret that the economy is forcing many school divisions to cut back on hiring. I was fortunate that Virginia Beach Middle School created a position in my two areas, science and social studies, to fill out a team overcrowded with students.
Finally, The Car: The 16 year old car I alluded to in the earlier post was a 1996 Ford Contour with 120,000 miles on it. It had been becoming less and less reliable in recent months; it even overheated on occasion. Driving home from class one night, the temperature needle spiked into the red about four miles from home. It sputtered and coughed its way over those last couple of miles but it somehow got me back to the house. We replaced the Contour the next week.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
I Am a Career Switcher
"I can't afford to pay you." Those words were delivered to me by my boss more a than a year ago, when he announced he would be cutting me to part-time. They were the same words another superior said to me two years earlier, the first time my job was cut back.
Following the Great Recession and the slow economic recovery, I had been vacillating (that's how the boss put it) between full-time and part-time, with varying levels of responsibility. And it hit me one day: I was a 45 year old man driving a 16 year old car to a part-time job at 4:00 in the morning. Something had to change. And that made me stop vacillating and reconsider my entire radio career.
But what could I do? What career could I pursue with the skills I have? Those skills: good story teller; excellent at compressing news stories into three-line nuggets; expert keyboardist; experienced at Internet editing; self-motivated. Copy writing? Public relations? Maybe. However, I had nothing but a college degree in physical education to show I was certified in any of the fields I was applying for. So after much consideration, my wife and I decided it was time for me to get certified in something: education.
I entered the spring session of Old Dominion University's Career Switcher Program. Ten weeks to earn a teaching license. Classes were all day Saturday for ten weeks, plus the really tough part: night classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I attended class from 6pm to 9:30pm. With the 35 mile drive from Suffolk's Tri-Cities Center, I usually wasn't home until after 10pm, with a wake up time of 3:40am the next morning for my part-time job. If any of my radio colleagues noticed I was listless last spring, they now know the reason why.
It was a crash course in education. Classes focused on designing an effective learning plan, reading for any curriculum, at-risk students, dealing with parents, SOL's, and classroom management. I was also required to observe working teachers in the classroom for a certain number of hours, and I had to make my own lesson plan and present it to my classmates.
Five months after completing Career Switchers, I have just been hired as a 7th grade teacher in science and social studies at Virginia Beach Middle School. I learned a lot in Career Switchers, but one thing I wasn't prepared for was the need for making split-second decisions a hundred times an hour. "Can I go to the bathroom, Mr. Long?" "What are we doing?" "He took my pencil!" It's busier than even my wife, a 23 year veteran teacher, has ever described it.
It's busy, alright, but I'm not looking back at 20 years in radio broadcasting. I'm looking ahead at a new career as an educator. I am a career switcher.
Following the Great Recession and the slow economic recovery, I had been vacillating (that's how the boss put it) between full-time and part-time, with varying levels of responsibility. And it hit me one day: I was a 45 year old man driving a 16 year old car to a part-time job at 4:00 in the morning. Something had to change. And that made me stop vacillating and reconsider my entire radio career.
But what could I do? What career could I pursue with the skills I have? Those skills: good story teller; excellent at compressing news stories into three-line nuggets; expert keyboardist; experienced at Internet editing; self-motivated. Copy writing? Public relations? Maybe. However, I had nothing but a college degree in physical education to show I was certified in any of the fields I was applying for. So after much consideration, my wife and I decided it was time for me to get certified in something: education.
I entered the spring session of Old Dominion University's Career Switcher Program. Ten weeks to earn a teaching license. Classes were all day Saturday for ten weeks, plus the really tough part: night classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I attended class from 6pm to 9:30pm. With the 35 mile drive from Suffolk's Tri-Cities Center, I usually wasn't home until after 10pm, with a wake up time of 3:40am the next morning for my part-time job. If any of my radio colleagues noticed I was listless last spring, they now know the reason why.
It was a crash course in education. Classes focused on designing an effective learning plan, reading for any curriculum, at-risk students, dealing with parents, SOL's, and classroom management. I was also required to observe working teachers in the classroom for a certain number of hours, and I had to make my own lesson plan and present it to my classmates.
Five months after completing Career Switchers, I have just been hired as a 7th grade teacher in science and social studies at Virginia Beach Middle School. I learned a lot in Career Switchers, but one thing I wasn't prepared for was the need for making split-second decisions a hundred times an hour. "Can I go to the bathroom, Mr. Long?" "What are we doing?" "He took my pencil!" It's busier than even my wife, a 23 year veteran teacher, has ever described it.
It's busy, alright, but I'm not looking back at 20 years in radio broadcasting. I'm looking ahead at a new career as an educator. I am a career switcher.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Tracking the Space Station
Spotted something interesting this morning in Google News Reader, which I use to track various media outlets from the Outer Banks to Richmond. Richmond TV station WTVR reported that the International Space Station would be visible over Richmond tonight. I checked and found the station will be seen over Hampton Roads, as well.
According to NASA's spaceflight page, the station will be over Virginia Beach for about four minutes, beginning at 7:36pm. It will pass roughly WSW to NE.
If you've never seen a sky transit by the station, it's worth checking out. The ISS is visible with the naked eye as a rather bright star passing quickly overhead.
To check upcoming ISS transit dates and times, click here.
According to NASA's spaceflight page, the station will be over Virginia Beach for about four minutes, beginning at 7:36pm. It will pass roughly WSW to NE.
If you've never seen a sky transit by the station, it's worth checking out. The ISS is visible with the naked eye as a rather bright star passing quickly overhead.
To check upcoming ISS transit dates and times, click here.
Friday, October 5, 2012
How Much is Your Degree Worth?
How much of a return will you get on the $40,000-plus you invested in your (or your child's) education in a Virginia college? A new tool can help you figure that out.
The State Council of Higher Education has launched a new online database comparing the incomes of degree recipients from various universities. For example, people earning associate's degrees from Tidewater Community College between 2008 and 2010 had an average income of about $34,000.
Officials behind the database caution it is still a work in progress, making direct comparisons between similar degrees from different universities unreliable.
The database is a collaboration between the Council of Higher Education, the Department of Education, the Virginia Employment Commission, the Virginia Community College System and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. It is made possible by a $17-million federal grant.
On the web:
http://research.schev.edu/default.asp?select1=Reports
The State Council of Higher Education has launched a new online database comparing the incomes of degree recipients from various universities. For example, people earning associate's degrees from Tidewater Community College between 2008 and 2010 had an average income of about $34,000.
Officials behind the database caution it is still a work in progress, making direct comparisons between similar degrees from different universities unreliable.
The database is a collaboration between the Council of Higher Education, the Department of Education, the Virginia Employment Commission, the Virginia Community College System and the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. It is made possible by a $17-million federal grant.
On the web:
http://research.schev.edu/default.asp?select1=Reports
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Give Blood, Visit Nauticus for Free
Norfolk's Nauticus museum is holding an American Red Cross blood drive this Monday, October 8th, from 10am to 4pm. Donors will receive a free 4-pack of tickets to visit Nauticus at a later date. Donors will also be entered for a drawing to win a $1,000 American Express gift card.
To schedule a blood donation appointment, visit www.RedCrossBlood.org and use the sponsor code NAUTICUS. You can also call 1-800-RED-CROSS
To be eligible to donate, a person must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in generally good health. A person can donate every 56 days. I last gave August 12th, so I had to check to make sure I was eligible to donate and get free Nauticus tickets. October 8th will be 57 days since my last blood donation, so I'll be at Nauticus on Monday!
On the web:
www.Nauticus.org
www.RedCrossBlood.org
www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html -- Useful for counting days between donations.
To schedule a blood donation appointment, visit www.RedCrossBlood.org and use the sponsor code NAUTICUS. You can also call 1-800-RED-CROSS
To be eligible to donate, a person must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in generally good health. A person can donate every 56 days. I last gave August 12th, so I had to check to make sure I was eligible to donate and get free Nauticus tickets. October 8th will be 57 days since my last blood donation, so I'll be at Nauticus on Monday!
On the web:
www.Nauticus.org
www.RedCrossBlood.org
www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html -- Useful for counting days between donations.
Name That Snowstorm
The Weather Channel has just announced it will starting giving names to major snowstorms this winter, just as hurricanes are named. The cable channel has already picked out an inaugural list, which includes names from Greek and Roman lore: Brutus, Caesar, and Zeus.
Officials with the Weather Channel say giving a blizzard a name will help people identify with the threat it poses. I can't say I can argue that logic. Who can forget the names of Hurricanes Andrew, Camille, or especially Katrina, which we all watched on TV as it bore down on the Gulf Coast in 2005? Giving a storm a name makes it easier to talk about and prepare for.
The Weather Channel does seem to get that the move would generate some snickering. In a voice over for the online video announcing the new naming system, the Weather Channel's Al Roker says, "it may seem gimmicky and fun, but the reasoning behind it is anything but that."
Gimmicky, yes. I can already imagine the catchy graphics on the Weather Channel this winter..."Et tu, Brute?" or "Zounds, it's Zeus!" Because if there's one thing we Americans do really well, it's assign catchy names to things. Snowmageddon, for example. Snowtober. Carmageddon. Brad-gelinna. RG III.
I am sure that if we get to Rocky the Blizzard this year, the introductory music will be the rousing theme song from the film, Rocky. Or, at the very least, the theme from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The next blizzard covered by the Weather Channel will be named Athena.
On the web:
www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/why-we-name-winter-storms-20121001
Officials with the Weather Channel say giving a blizzard a name will help people identify with the threat it poses. I can't say I can argue that logic. Who can forget the names of Hurricanes Andrew, Camille, or especially Katrina, which we all watched on TV as it bore down on the Gulf Coast in 2005? Giving a storm a name makes it easier to talk about and prepare for.
The Weather Channel does seem to get that the move would generate some snickering. In a voice over for the online video announcing the new naming system, the Weather Channel's Al Roker says, "it may seem gimmicky and fun, but the reasoning behind it is anything but that."
Gimmicky, yes. I can already imagine the catchy graphics on the Weather Channel this winter..."Et tu, Brute?" or "Zounds, it's Zeus!" Because if there's one thing we Americans do really well, it's assign catchy names to things. Snowmageddon, for example. Snowtober. Carmageddon. Brad-gelinna. RG III.
I am sure that if we get to Rocky the Blizzard this year, the introductory music will be the rousing theme song from the film, Rocky. Or, at the very least, the theme from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The next blizzard covered by the Weather Channel will be named Athena.
On the web:
www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/why-we-name-winter-storms-20121001
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The Great Southeast Shakeout
Drop, Cover and Hold On. That's the advice of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management for responding to an earthquake. Virginia will join Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland and the
District of Columbia in holding the first-ever "Great Southeast Shakeout," a multi-state earthquake drill, on Thursday, October 18th. Government officials are encouraging schools,
businesses, organizations, government agencies, communities and families
to participate.
In a public service campaign, shakeout organizers point out that running to an open area or under a doorway is not necessarily the best idea. Earthquakes can shake so violently that running is impossible. Their advice is to drop immediately to the floor, crawl under something sturdy like a table, and hold on until the shaking stops. Drop, Cover and Hold On.
Such preparation would have seemed unnecessary if not for the East Coast earthquake of August 23rd, 2011. The quake was a moderate 5.8 on Richter Scale but was felt over most of the eastern U.S. In fact, it is believed that more people felt last year's earthquake than any other in history.
For information on the Great Southeast Shakeout, visit www.VAEmegency.gov
In a public service campaign, shakeout organizers point out that running to an open area or under a doorway is not necessarily the best idea. Earthquakes can shake so violently that running is impossible. Their advice is to drop immediately to the floor, crawl under something sturdy like a table, and hold on until the shaking stops. Drop, Cover and Hold On.
Such preparation would have seemed unnecessary if not for the East Coast earthquake of August 23rd, 2011. The quake was a moderate 5.8 on Richter Scale but was felt over most of the eastern U.S. In fact, it is believed that more people felt last year's earthquake than any other in history.
For information on the Great Southeast Shakeout, visit www.VAEmegency.gov
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