For the first installment, click here.
* * *
So far, somewhat worse than expected.
The first module required by the online Intensive Pedagogical Training Institute is called Teaching as a Profession.
The initial hour of the ITPI slideshow / lecture covers the entire long-term process for obtaining and maintaining licensure. I learn that Ohio has a four-tier system of licensure, and that someone going into the teaching field can expect the Department of Education’s persistent, career-long harassment as he attempts to go about his business, which is to say—teaching.
The ITPI lecture is comprehensive. Nothing is missing—except for basic information about how the ITPI is actually graded. A good deal of abstract verbiage is dispatched about effective assessment of students in the classroom setting. As for my assessment, God knows. Cancel that. Not even God knows.
Indeed, so much is so wrenchingly unclear that I phone the Department of Education. Sadly, the one person in the Buckeye State qualified to answer my questions is having her lunch.
In the meanwhile, I check my email to discover that a local independent school is keen to hire me as a substitute teacher. Unfortunately, a State of Ohio Substitute License is required.
Back to the DOE website. The License costs $25—something of an insult, given that I’ve just paid $200 to take the ITPI.
In order to begin the ITPI, I had to pass an FBI background check, which cost me $60. DOE regulations essentially mandate that individual schools do their own background checks. The schools can’t just phone the DOE and ascertain that a background check has already been undertaken.
Therefore, in order to substitute, I’ll have to pay enough up front that it’ll take quite a few subbing gigs to break even.
(Most background checks, I should add, are done by private firms. I can’t imagine they object to a would-be teacher showing up repeatedly for the non-service of having it verified, yet again, that he’s not a criminal.)
Lunch. Tea. Banjo.
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