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Second time around
By LORRI HELFAND © St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000
The PTA chairman and classroom tutor discovered that the highlight of her day was spending time with children. "If I'm going to go back and do something, what will count at the end of my life?" she wondered. The answer was obvious. She wanted to be a teacher. This fall, she began her first year as a language arts teacher at Carwise Middle School. More and more teachers, like Strickland, are entering teaching from other careers, according to Harriet Konstantinidis Pinellas County School's director of instructional personnel. Their experience outside the classroom is a bonus to the district, she said. "I think they are a great commodity. I would not turn them away," Konstantinidis said. But she urges them to visit the classroom before they decide to start teaching, she said. Such second-career teachers are taking advantage of the school district's certification program. With little or no teaching experience, individuals with college or business experience can jump into the classroom if they meet requirements for temporary certification. After meeting those requirements, they have three years to complete the teaching certificate curriculum. Strickland, 38, needed extra coursework to get her social studies certificate, so she drew on the same determination that helped her work her way up the corporate ladder. When her family moved here from Kentucky last August, she didn't waste any time. Two days later, her husband drove her to the school board to find out the teaching requirements. Then he drove her straight to the University of South Florida to sign up for classes. She plugged away for two semesters, while substitute teaching at Carwise Middle School. She found herself cramming for midterms while hosting a slumber party for her daughter and cramming for finals during Thanksgiving dinner. It all paid off, she said. In the advertising world Strickland was used to immediate rewards: bonuses, gifts and dinners with clients. Her greatest reward now is working with struggling students and watching their improvement. It's not instant gratification, she said, but "it's so much better than any big dinner." "I don't know if I would have been able to handle it if I went into it when I was younger," she said. "I would have been rattled." Steve Fuchs, 36, made the decision to teach after working for five years as a physical therapist. His dream was to work with athletes, but he soon realized that the majority of his work involved rehabilitating elderly clients. He took pride in that task, but it didn't match his ambitions. Besides, he said, he was frustrated that he couldn't spend the time that was necessary to help his clients. "I got tired of working for the bottom line. Worrying more about productivity than the quality of work." This year he made a change. He put his science and athletic experience to work and became a science teacher and football coach at Clearwater High School. Fuchs calls classroom work a "chess game" because he applies different strategies throughout the day. "Every class is not the same. What works in first period sometimes doesn't work in second or sixth period," he said. The most important lesson to Fuchs is teaching his students the importance of education; he wants them to discover that early to expand their opportunities. "A lot of smart kids out here don't try. If they give it a little bit of effort then they'd realize that they can be a success," he said. Jeff Green, 47, decided to give teaching a second chance. Twenty-three years ago, Green was a band director for a high school in Toledo, Ohio. Two years later, he decided teaching wasn't for him. He worked in retail and waited tables while pursuing his musical passion, playing various gigs including stints at hotels. After several years of going "wild," he settled into a secure job with the post office for 15 years. Green was content until he and his wife decided to divorce. They worked together on the same 11 p.m. to 7 a.m shift, and that became awkward, he said. So, he took a leave of absence and decided to return to teaching. The schedule, he admits, was a major factor because he wanted joint custody of his children, Hunter and Chelsea, and as a teacher he knew he'd have more time to spend with them. Green believes he's a better teacher than he was 20 years ago. "When I was first out of college I was heavy into music. Now, I'm heavy into teaching," he said.
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