EduMagic E64: It’s about the story that you share: Remote teaching opportunities
This is a jam-packed episode full of tips for teacher candidates as you navigate through the remote teaching journey. Hello, edumagians, and welcome back to another episode of the edumagic podcast. Welcome to episode 64. This has been a long-awaited episode. All of you have voted for this topic, and it’s all about virtual teaching opportunities this summer, and how to help you guys navigate the job search in the fall.
I have an amazing guest on her name is Erin Lewis she’s from Clarion University. You may remember her from, the EduMagic podcast episodes 10 and 11 (Job fair like a boss Part 1 Featuring Erin Lewis 10 and Job Fair Like a Boss Part 2 – with Erin Lewis 11) These episodes are all about the job fair search and we’ll be talking about that later in the episode, but how to prep for an online job fair. Today we are discussing how to search for remote positions in the summer as teacher candidates, we’ll be talking about how to navigate the virtual job search for fall teaching. Let’s just get this party started Erin, welcome to the show.
I am currently a certified teacher, but I’m not teaching in the traditional sense. I currently serve as a NACE certified career coach at Clarion University and I work with education majors. I also specialize in working with our online students and online career services.
So that’s one of the things I’m hearing from a lot of the students that I work with too, like, “Oh no, what do I do now?” I think the big thing to think about is it doesn’t matter what you do.
I’m going to kind of come back to that comment. As you think about navigating this process and, and how do I transition from a summer camp? That’s going to give me experience with students in some similar classroom-related experience. Don’t think in terms of it has to be the same, think in terms of what transferable skills am I going to gain and how am I going to be able to talk about this someday? Because the ultimate thing to think about is everyone’s going to see summer 2020 and know about, Oh, COVID.
So as you think about searching for positions for the summer, and maybe you’re thinking about some remote positions because you do want to work with children in some way, the usual job search sites are still helpful. It’s just, we changed the wording that we use. So maybe instead of summer camp counselor, maybe we are searching for remote camp counselor positions because some summer camps, some YMCAs, some of these programs are taking the programs that are in person and trying to transition them to online.
Those of us who are teachers know it’s not the same, but it can be done equitably and it can be done well. You as a young professional, who has experience in technology and is really comfortable with it, you are exactly what they’re looking for. So using the term remote position, remote teacher, remote counselor, remote tutor, all of these things, some of these companies that do in-person work are transitioning to online because they want income as well. They need people, they can rely on to provide that service. So use the word remote when you search for things like Google, LinkedIn jobs, monster, all of those things. But the other thing to think about that’s kind of lost art is actually networking with friends and family to see if they know of anybody who is hiring online positions and online tutors in particular. Ask if they’re looking for, summer reading programs and summer library programs, a lot of these things are moving online. So ask around, see, who knows what. You never know what can come about from that and nd it can be a really beneficial tool.
The other thing that, I’ve just been learning about in the last couple of weeks is online child care. And, and that sounds kind of weird, right? As a mom, who’s working from home with three school-aged kids. I was intrigued by this when I saw it on the news. So basically these individuals are providing online childcare through zoom or Skype or FaceTime. They are doing arts and crafts with kids, reading, games. The same things that you would do with somebody face to face, but you’re doing it virtually as more and more parents are still working from home. And as online schooling is letting out for summer now, it’s like, what do I do with the kids? That’s a great story to tell like I normally babysit in the summer, or I normally work at a childcare center, or I normally work at my local YMCA and those programs don’t exist. So I did a little research and I found this online childcare opportunity. Oh, well, it’s not the same. I did build skills. I did gain, the experience of doing this.
I think as we think about the situation we’re in now and moving forward, we’re not going to go back. We can only move forward. And so you’re only going to build your skillsets. I love all that. I love it’s, it’s not about what you do specifically. It’s about the story that you tell, and that is absolute.
Well, first of all, I have to give them kudos and congratulate them for even thinking about doing something like that. And that’s part of the battle, right? Is here’s the box and I’m going to think outside of it – that’s a great story to tell. The next best tip I can give you is to consult your local small business development center. They have people there who specialize in small business development and that they can generally walk you through the process from start to finish. We are, we’re very fortunate at Clarion University ours is located right on campus and I work pretty closely with those people. So they’re going to be really glad that I gave a shout out, to them. The other thing I will say is to do some research,
Listen, teachers are amazing people. We want to help. We want to teach other people, which is why we are in this field, right? So seek out, the knowledge and generosity of people, but truly your small business development center can help you navigate all of the technical ends of things, like taxes and liability and all that stuff that I certainly do not understand, nor do I want to understand, but there is somebody there who does, that’s an amazing resource.
One final piece of advice that I can share is to remember that everybody is navigating this situation from school administrators, HR personnel, your professors, your cooperating teachers, and summer jobs. You don’t have fear about your student teaching experience, it wasn’t what you thought or your summer job experience wasn’t what you thought. Honestly, none of us thought that we would be here, navigating these waters, but we are. So again, just like I said, in the beginning, it’s not about what your summer experiences, it’s not about what you did during student teaching at this point.
It’s all about the story that you tell. Did, you take the initiative to try to do something this summer, maybe you’re working at a grocery store because you couldn’t find anything else. Are you taking the opportunity to educate people about where certain procedures are and well, here’s how you have to do this? Now, we’re always teaching no matter where we’re doing it, we can take the opportunity to teach. If you’re working in the foodservice business, maybe you’re teaching customers to know how to navigate that process. Maybe you’re teaching your coworkers how to navigate something. Or maybe you just have to tell the story. I really wanted to do something in education, but unfortunately COVID happened. And so I needed to find something that provided income. And so that’s what I did. And I focused on building my communication skills and strengthening my teamwork skills.
Every employer is going to understand that. Take action. Do something because some action is better than no action. And think in terms of what did you do? What did you learn? How did you make the best lemonade possible out of the lemons that you were given?
Connect with Erin Lewis on Instagram @ErinLewis13
Hi! I am Dr. Sam Fecich, I am a professor of education at Grove City College. I work with future teachers in areas related to special education and educational technology. I am also the author of EduMAgic: A Guide for Preservice Teachers and a podcast designed just for future teachers, called EduMagic. I am a huge fan of pumpkin spice lattes (PSL) and binging Netflix shows like The Office. I look forward to connecting with you!
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www.sfecich.com
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Samantha Fecich