Would I prefer...
- stable year-round income, or having to pine each term for jobs?
- improved benefits and retirement plan, or keeping our current benefits and creating a budget to save for retirement, investments, and dental/vision appointments?
- to have to work my ass off in all aspects of my life, or maintain a more leisurely pace? (Sadly, this one holds a lot of weight. I'm not proud of it, but I am easily frustrated by small stresses, and often find myself wanting to simplify, simplify, simplify. Full-time would not be simplifying!)
- to view work as most important in a given day or to view my family as top priority?
- to handle students and their parents through conferences, emails and phone calls or just handle students?
- to become a part of a team where I participate to support interdisciplinary efforts, overall school improvement, setting and attaining standards, and aligning curriculum, or just do what I can to teach 6 chapters of Spanish as best I can via internet?
- to have my yearly calendar set for me, or make my own decisions on appointments and vacations?
- paid tuition assistance to advance professionally or instead having to access the Bank of Croghan?
This is actually a pretty hard decision for me, not made any easier by the fact that I've already been in contact with the principal from Westside High School. As far as she knows, my intention is to return to Westside already next fall. But how do I tell her that maybe I need one more year (at least) before returning to a full-time secondary position? The field of online education is only growing. Watching Linked In job postings, also other Technology in Education sites, I wouldn't be surprised if some pretty decent salaried positions opened up where I could work right from my own computer. It is an exciting time for me, as I watch the world of online education exploding in popularity among both teachers and students. Time will tell, and blogging about it hasn't seemed to make the decision any easier to make.
