Public, Private, or Charter

I know most of my posts have been related to my experiences in my classroom with my glorious students, however, as the year is reaching its close for me, I have been heavily devoted to applications, resumes and cover letter edits. Some questions have arose from this process, the biggest being, "should I be applying to all three; public, private, and charter schools or be focusing on just one?" I have found through my research that while charter schools are completely different from public schools, they seem to be hiring more than public schools and they seem to have different requirements as well. For example, some positions require a couple years of experience in the classroom, and although I do have a year in kindergarten as an assistant teacher and a year in 2nd and 5th while I was student teaching, I do not have three years as head teacher under my belt. Some of these charter schools do seem to have an appealing curriculum, unbeatable resources, and an outstanding philosophy, however, I know few people who have worked for these charter schools, which makes me wonder what it is really like.

Along with the charter schools, many private schools are posting on craigslist, which opens yet another avenue for me to apply to. I have been looking into a few private school positions, which I have little experience with, yet am amazed and astounded by the resources that these schools have to offer. At a time when programs such as art and science are being cut and forgotten in the public schools, many of these private schools focus on subjects such as these and have the resources to support the teaching of them on a regular basis. This is a very appealing concept for me, the idea that I could teach things that are not being aloud in other environments of teaching.

Overall, I have always wondered what these different school setups have to offer a person such as myself and as I have been researching and applying I am finding that I could be successful in all three environments. Regardless of whether a school is public, private, or charter, the students are still open to the education and teaching that I have to offer them and that is what makes it all worthwhile, the students. In the conclusion of all my research, I have found that although some schools' mission statement or curriculum may seem more appealing to me, I am completely open, driven, and excited to work with all students I am able to touch. A really great teaching quote I found says this, "Teachers plant seeds that grow forever," I don't believe that these seeds have jurisdictions about where they are to be planted, they will grow anywhere, no matter public, private, or charter!