The Great Alaskan Teaching Debate

For those of you that don't know, I am looking into pursuing alternative employment for next year.  My position is grant funded and the likelihood of losing our funding is pretty high.  As much as I would love to stay in Alaska, some questions and tough decisions have come up in regards to what I should do next year.  Basically, we've got three options to choose from.

Option 1: Move back to the midwest.  I have my teaching credentials in a couple of midwestern states.  Fortunately, I have my credential in Michigan.  Western Michigan, as well as the upper peninsula,  is my ideal location in that area of the world.  I've been applying and interviewing for various teaching positions throughout the western portion of the state.  No offers yet, but I've made it past the first round for a couple of them.

Option 2: Stay in Juneau and pursue alternative teaching options.  This is also a viable option.  I could wait to see what opens up with the school district here.  I could also look into additional Head Start classrooms, work with the department of education, or some clerical-type position.  I worry that none of these non-teaching options will pay enough to keep us in our current quality of life though.

Option 3: Pursue a teaching job elsewhere in Alaska.  This is a huge option and a very real possibility.  There are many great school districts in Alaska and I would be lucky to teach at any number of them.  Cody and I originally planned on living more rural (read about it here) and this may be the opportunity that we are looking for ideally.  I actually have two job offers on the table from Bush districts and I am highly considering this possibility.

These are all very real possibilities for us next year.  While we wait and see how our lives will play out, we are actively applying and interviewing with multiple districts and hoping to land the right position.   Stay tuned for an update…I assume that we will be deciding sometime in the next two weeks :)