Becoming a Career Switcher

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.