To Write an Objective or Not to Write an Objective

Writing my resume has been hard. Deciding what to include and what not to include has been even harder.

My father says that my resume must have an objective. My friends and husband disagree and my coworkers arent even sure what an objective is (which was confusing in its own way). I've heard some say that your cover letter should serve to do what an objective would do.

Ultimately, I went with Dad's advice. And, I let him help me write it as well. As of now, I think it sounds good, but a little stiff.

Now that I have a resume written, I think I can start to think freely and try to get my voice into it more.

Reasons to Stay

A graduated student came to visit today. He graduated three years ago. At his graduation I could barely muster up a congrats - I was too busy trying to figure out how he was there.

When did he actually make it to class when he was in the suspension room all the time? He wasnt one of those polite students who did the wrong thing. The ones who are bad but you know that their heart is good. The kind that set fire to the garbage can on the 6th floor and maybe dont admit it to you but dont call you a fucking bitch liar when you catch them either. He cursed at all the deans, all the time. We must have suspended him a million times, a million and one maybe. But it didnt matter. What more is suspension for the trouble maker than a get out of class free card or another excuse for their failure?

About four years ago, this kid laid on the floor in the suspension room, face down for hours. Well, maybe not hours, but at least a couple of periods (at least it seemed to us). And refused to respond to our demands to get up. Refused to even speak. It wasnt until we had the phone in hand, dialing 9-1-1 that he stood up, looked us in the eye and nonchalantly sat in a chair.

And today, he came back to visit.

And his visit is what makes teaching worth it.

He's a sophomore at John Jay College and planning to continue onto law school when he graduates. And even more important is the good energy that exhudes from him. He just glows from within.

And, though he didnt apologize for the curses or all the work he put us through (we've had a few of those) he did come in to visit to show us that he's become a man.

And thats even better.

The Realistic Job Search

What do English/Theater teachers become after leaving the classroom?
I havent figured out what I want to do. But, I am sure of what I dont want.

I dont want to work for a publisher. I'll never actually become the publisher and I cant edit. And, I'm not going to pretend to be a professional writer whose looking for an in.

I dont want to work for a testing company or a test prep company. I hate making, giving and grading tests now. Why would I base my career around them?

I dont want to work for an after school youth theater company. For a little while, I need to get away from kids; not deal with them in a less structured environment than the class room.

I dont want to work for a nonprofit. Going down in pay is not what I have in mind.

I dont want to be a grant writer. I dont know how, I dont want to pretend to know how and I dont really want that responsibility for somebody else's brainchild.

I dont want to work for the regional offices of the Department of Education.
I dont want to work for a private school.
I dont want to work for a charter school.
I dont want to work for a college/university.

I didnt want to teach anybody anything.

Realistically though, what else am I trained to do?

First Draft of the Resume

I finally wrote the first draft of my resume. I wrote it at 3am this morning. I couldnt sleep - still jetlagged from my honeymoon. I guess that is a good thing cause who knows when I would really ever get around to working on it.

I used my colleague's resume as a template. The only problem is that she has no intention of leaving the education field and I do.

I sent draft 1 to my father at 5:45 am. For feedback. His first response was that I should have spellchecked it and as an English teacher I should be ashamed of myself. Who spellchecks at 5:45 am? Didnt he notice the time on the email and think of what a dedicated daughter he has?

His second response was that I need to include an objective. And, use the wording from relevant job postings in my resume. Of course, he phrased that much better than I am.

His third response was that I should include results. I wondered at first if he was just thinking more business than education but then after brainstorming with a colleague we decided that I may be able to include statistics: students passing the regents, attendance statistics, maybe passing and graduation rate, amount of students served, etc. Assuming that these are all good. I'll have to go to my Assistant Principal to get that information (they track everything now!) but how will I explain why I need it?

All of Dad's suggestions were great. And, I'm on my way to a second draft.

Except, I have no idea what my objective is because I dont know what kind of job I want. How can I look for jobpostings? I dont even know what to fill in the fields on sites like idealist.org, monster.com, or indeed.com.