After just about two months of searching for full time work here in Jackson I finally found it. Well sort of. I will be working full time, as in I will be putting in 40+ hours of work each week but those 40+ hours won't be doing the same thing.
As I have come to find out that folks of my generation (hardworking, tech savvy, innovative, and resourceful), pardon my French, are getting the shit end of the stick. I am finding that we are doing work we are overqualified for, a lot more is expected of us, and we are expected to do it for peanuts. But we can't complain because at least we have a job right?
With that rant out of the way I will say exactly what I am doing. I am currently subbing at Jackson High School. A while ago I met the school's English as a Second Language teacher in the teachers lounge. He overheard one of my old teachers talking to be about my time in Morocco and asked me if I spoke Arabic. I said yes, the Moroccan dialect of it at least. He told me that he had a student from Yemen and that he could not find anyone to speak Arabic with him. I said I'd love to meet him and see what I could do, but I was apprehensive that my dialect would not match up with his.
The next day I met the 16-year-old sophomore and I was shocked to realize that he understood much of my Moroccan Arabic. The ESL instructor immediately saw me as what he had been looking to find. I never in a million years expected to use my Moroccan Arabic in Jackson, MI. To wrap this story up I have been hired by Jackson High School to work with this student 12 hours per week in his health, algebra, and English classes. With my three years ESL experience I am confident I can improve his English somehow.
The administration at Jackson High is also determined to help me have work in the hours that I am not working with the Arabic student. I have been taken on as a building sub, which will mean that I will come in everyday and rotate in classrooms if a sub is needed and can't be found. If variety is the spice of life then this work will be pretty spicy.
I am also working part time for Jacksonopolis.com. Writing some stories and working as a community manager helping to direct the right stories to the correct writers. This is great because I am getting some experience that will keep my on track with my career goals.
I'm proud that I am paying my own bills and saving some money. I'm still holding down the fort at my parents house, but I really can't complain about free rent.
I still don't know what is next from here. Come summer I won't have a job with the school anymore obviously and this is not something I hope to continue doing in the fall. But right now I am just embracing the chaos.
As I have come to find out that folks of my generation (hardworking, tech savvy, innovative, and resourceful), pardon my French, are getting the shit end of the stick. I am finding that we are doing work we are overqualified for, a lot more is expected of us, and we are expected to do it for peanuts. But we can't complain because at least we have a job right?
With that rant out of the way I will say exactly what I am doing. I am currently subbing at Jackson High School. A while ago I met the school's English as a Second Language teacher in the teachers lounge. He overheard one of my old teachers talking to be about my time in Morocco and asked me if I spoke Arabic. I said yes, the Moroccan dialect of it at least. He told me that he had a student from Yemen and that he could not find anyone to speak Arabic with him. I said I'd love to meet him and see what I could do, but I was apprehensive that my dialect would not match up with his.
The next day I met the 16-year-old sophomore and I was shocked to realize that he understood much of my Moroccan Arabic. The ESL instructor immediately saw me as what he had been looking to find. I never in a million years expected to use my Moroccan Arabic in Jackson, MI. To wrap this story up I have been hired by Jackson High School to work with this student 12 hours per week in his health, algebra, and English classes. With my three years ESL experience I am confident I can improve his English somehow.
The administration at Jackson High is also determined to help me have work in the hours that I am not working with the Arabic student. I have been taken on as a building sub, which will mean that I will come in everyday and rotate in classrooms if a sub is needed and can't be found. If variety is the spice of life then this work will be pretty spicy.
I am also working part time for Jacksonopolis.com. Writing some stories and working as a community manager helping to direct the right stories to the correct writers. This is great because I am getting some experience that will keep my on track with my career goals.
I'm proud that I am paying my own bills and saving some money. I'm still holding down the fort at my parents house, but I really can't complain about free rent.
I still don't know what is next from here. Come summer I won't have a job with the school anymore obviously and this is not something I hope to continue doing in the fall. But right now I am just embracing the chaos.