unbelievable | ADHD Information
thanks everyone for their kind words... i feel better already!!!Y'all obviously don't live in California. Lotsa money for schools, not enough teachers. State law passed mandates "X" number of students per teacher, limiting classroom size, and there was an immediate need for double the teachers...
I was offered /hr to teach science in college as a substitute teacher. Forgot to apply...maybe next semester... I'm with the majority here on this one Brookie, sounds like you're over-qualified. That's sad. Everyone wants the fresh college grads cos they'll work for pennies and do what you tell them to get their foot in the door. Someone with extensive education and experience sounds like money they don't want to pay, or don't think they would be able to pay you what you're worth. Hang in there girl, you'll make it, you are one of the most intelligent people I e-know :P
I had the same problem with the school district. It's all about money! They would have to pay you more when they can get a new graduate cheap. Forget about quality... I don't think the school districts want it that way and even less principles but they can't change a system that won't give them enough money to teach children the way they deserve.
Need I say more about our educational systems here Brookelea.
Hang in there because the window will open somewhere and it will be a breath of fresh air.
glen, what do you do now???
gymrose, thanks 
My mom said she used to get denied jobs because she had to much experence. All she wanted was a job to pay bills.
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LOL - reminds me of a tough time when me and my exgf were out of work. I applied to 7-11 (convenience store), and they told me I was overqualified and were sure I would not work out. Even me promising I would give them a minimum of 1 year didn't do it. I found that ludicrous - and told them that's why they always have idiots working there. After that I felt bad - I didn't mean it really there are lots of nice smart people there but it felt like I was in a catch-22 for sure.
If a tree falls in the forest - does anybody care?hey glen i only just noticed your sig! yes, yes I DO....... viz:
Amazon rainforest vanishing at twice rate of previous estimates
· 6,000 sq miles lost a year as valuable trees removed
· Selective logging causing 25% greenhouse gas boost
Alok Jha, science correspondent
Friday October 21, 2005
The Guardian
A man on Lagoa dos Reis paddles across a blanket of dead and dying fish. Photograph: Marcio Silva/AP
The Amazonian rainforest is being destroyed at double the rate of all previous estimates, according to research published today in the journal Science. The destruction is leaving the forest more prone to fires and allowing more carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere, according to scientists.
A new analysis of satellite images of the Brazilian part of the Amazon basin, which forms part of the largest contiguous rainforest on Earth, shows that on average 15,500 sq km (6,000 square miles) of forest is being cut down by selective logging each year. This is besides a similar amount clear-cut annually for cattle grazing or farming.
Conservationists have been able to monitor large clear-cut areas using satellite images. But the extent of selective logging, where individual trees of high value, such as mahogany, are felled and smuggled out of the forest, had been unclear, the effects being masked from satellites by the forest's dense canopy.
"People have been monitoring large-scale deforestation in the Amazon with satellites for more than two decades, but selective logging has been mostly invisible until now," said Gregory Asner, of the Carnegie Institution, Washington. He tackled the problem by developing an analytical method named the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System, which allows each pixel of an image to be scrutinised for the amount of forest left to determine the overall ratio of forested to deforested land.
Natalino Silva, of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, said: "We can now see what's happening from the top of the forest all the way to the soil. We have a whole new picture of the Amazon region and selective logging."
The analysis revealed some surprising facts. "We discovered that annually an area about the size of Connecticut is disturbed this way," said Professor Asner. "Selective logging negatively impacts many plants and animals and increases erosion and fires. Additionally, up to 25% more carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere each year - above that from deforestation - from the decomposition [of plant material] that the loggers leave behind. Timber harvests are much more widespread than previously thought."
Using images of the Amazon basin taken from 1999 to 2002, Prof Asner studied the five states that account for 90% of deforestation. The extent of selective logging was found to be between 4,685 and 7,973 square miles each year.
Michael Keller, of the US Forest Service, who was the co-author of the research, said: "We expected to see large areas of logging, but the extent to which logging penetrates deep into the frontier is much more dramatic than we anticipated."
A large mahogany tree can fetch hundreds of dollars at the sawmill, making it a tempting target. "People go in and remove just the merchantable species from the forest," said Prof Asner. "Mahogany is the one everybody knows about, but in the Amazon there are at least 35 marketable hardwood species, and the damage that occurs from taking out just a few trees at a time is enormous."
About 400m tonnes of carbon enter the atmosphere every year because of traditional deforestation in the Amazon, and Prof Asner estimates that an additional 100m tonnes of carbon occurs through selective logging. "When a tree trunk is removed, the crown, wood debris and vines are left behind to decompose, releasing carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere," he said.
A thinned canopy also makes the forest more dry and prone to fire. "On average, for every tree removed, up to 30 more can be severely damaged by the timber harvesting operation itself," said Prof Asner.
Brookelea,
When I was teaching I was desperately trying to find a public school job as they paid twice as much as the catholic school that I was in. I had a master's degree which the state required you had to have by 5 years after you began teaching. You'd think that since I met the state requirements they would want me. Nope.
The fact that I had more schooling meant they had to start me off at a higher salary. so, sometimes it's not you, per se, but more of a financial thing. Also, they see younger people as more flexible and pliable to their rules and standards. Someone they can shape. If you have more experience and are older they think you might be more rigid. Ridiculous, I know.
I'm not sure how things work in your country and even geographic region, but I know where I lived, for every one opening they'd get over 2000 applicants. You had to be connected to even get interviewed. I was well connected (my father taught in the area for 30 years) and still couldn't get an interview.
I went from teaching to being a center director of a Learning Center (Hungtington, competitor of Sylvan) and that's when I realized I liked training adults. I networked, got a higher paying job giving motivational customer service seminars and now do all my training online via eLearning.
So, Glen's right, keep an open eye and you never know what can happen.
[QUOTE=chjones]If a tree falls in the forest - does anybody care?
hey glen i only just noticed your sig! yes, yes I DO....... viz:
Amazon rainforest vanishing at twice rate of previous estimates
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Woah - bummer. 
I don't worry about the rainforest - life is so unbearably sad if you let it be. With my uncontrolled ADHD I wept at the planet.
Now with ADHD in check I am reminded of George Carlin's sage and smart words on the state of the planet.
"Are we THAT arrogant to think that we are going to be the top of the food chain forever? When mother nature is tired of us she'll shake us off of her like a flea off a dog - when she's pi**ed off enough."
People tend (both environmentalists and republicans) to think we are separate from nature. That's impossible - all things in the world are in nature by it's meaning. So if we are not a meaningful part of the chain - we're going to get out-evolutioned by a virus, bacteria whatever.
I just re-read my post and to read it, you'd think I should be so happy. It sounds so impressive doesn't it? Yet, I am bored with my job again and that's why I went and put my family into severe debt to open my own gym. Now I'm still working my full time job and trying to get this business running and losing interest, losing patience, losing money, ideas and self esteem.
Why can't we ever be happy with what we have? I wonder what it's like to be that way? I'm not sure I'll ever know.
I agree some people don't get Ld really means Learning difference.I think it's cause it's a style difference which some are foreign to. We know a lady who can't get a job where she lives cause they want people there now who are more active in the schools. She is a degreed Dyslexic teacher. Job refused. Her kids home school. BrookeleaI'm so sorry the interview didn't work out, but you know what? There are so many interviews out there, and you're so smart and kind..
I don't know what to say.
When I was looking for a job coming out of college, I had MAJOR problems finding one, because in my late teens I was a drug addict, and spent a bit of time in rehab+jailtime-- the works.
You can't get a teaching job with that kind of history, no matter how well you reform.
And I wanted to be a teacher so badly. I was rejected numerous times. No test scores, GPA's, community service hours...could get me a job.
After being rejected from the public school system numerous times, I teach at a small private school. It does not pay much, but I love what I do. Have you looked beyond public schools?
You have lots of experience, intelligence, and warmth. Don't let a bad interview, or a few bad interviews, make you humble.
You're in a better place than you think.
,Friz
[QUOTE=valzap]
I just re-read my post and to read it, you'd think I should be so happy. It sounds so impressive doesn't it? Yet, I am bored with my job again and that's why I went and put my family into severe debt to open my own gym. Now I'm still working my full time job and trying to get this business running and losing interest, losing patience, losing money, ideas and self esteem.
Why can't we ever be happy with what we have? I wonder what it's like to be that way? I'm not sure I'll ever know.
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Well - welcome to the NORMAL world! Everybody seems to be in that state ADHD or otherwise. How else do you explain all the bankrupcies, infidelity, divorce, illegal drug use, alcoholism, etc. We can't ALL make up the high percentages! People used to know what to do in life. You had God and family first, town and country second, then whatever attention you had left was your own.
Nobody goes for God, Queen and Country anymore. We don't know where to go or what to do. But that's the thing - outside things can't give us happiness for long! It's like a kid with a Christmas gift - half the time it loses it's lustre fast and the kid ends up enthralled with the box it came in!
I know I come off here as oversimplifying and glib sometimes but it's as simple as look IN for the happiness not out! A job can give you satisfaction (some) and money. But can it fill the holes? No.
And when we get into a relationship and we are half of what we could be - they can't complete the rest of us though we try.
That's why I always recommend therapy. Until your house is finished you can't really be part of the neighborhood in total!
Glen, I wonder if you were a philosopher in your past life? Didn't I read about you in College? Wait, I didn't read anything in college.
valzap38660.4855324074Me? A philosopher?
I borrow from what I read as a young man (and never got it then either LOL), what my sage older cousin used to debate with me (he was a big influence though I didn't know it then), and my reading during my quest for a religious center many years ago. I read buddhist texts, philosophy, bible/koran, etc. Some of it made sense and I kept with me what did.
I've always seen things at a different angle - and used to have people telling me I was full of it. Now I know it was them not me. So - when here where you all are so much like me I feel free to share what I know because other than the painful in the arse reality I don't get flack for what I share!
My mom said she used to get denied jobs because she had to much experence. All she wanted was a job to pay bills.
[QUOTE=Brookelea]
glen, what do you do now???
gymrose, thanks
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Now I work in manufacturing - I make potato chips (crisps for the euros) for Frito Lay. So different from my history and training, and yet so freeing.
Sometimes you have to turn right around to find what you were looking for.
hey brooks, hmmm seems you are just gonna have to up and start your own school... a brooketessori (sounds a bit like a dinosaur)???what about if your husband is working and wants to go fishing --- could you hold off on working and be a SAHM for a while, while continuing to put the CVs out there? then he still gets to do the fishing thing.... and you get to wait to find just the job you want.
or would it not work, financially?
perhaps smaller schools? i know my friend moved from a huge state school to a tiny school for the deaf (she had to learn signing) but she ABSOLUTELY loved it. loved working with such small class sizes and all the rest...
good luck, brookels! we never had 22 year old teachers in our schools so if all else fails you'll just have to come and teach in England (hahahahaha - not if you value your sanity, you won't! our education system is a NIGHTMARE specially state system, 30 kids in your class 22 of whom English is a second/third language, some just been in the country five minutes and another 4 who are Quaker kids and so advanced that the disparity between the levels is unconquerable! and the other six abused or other behavioural issues... woo-hoo not.)
but good on ya for being a teacher. more than i could that's for sure - so all credit to you, i'm sure it might take some time but perserverance is the key (that's what Steven Spielberg told me - yes, i met him!!!!!!!! oh, worshipful one - was completely tongue-tied couldn't think of a thing to say. very nice man too).
chjones38660.3862268519
auntie, i have done that!! they seem to give these jobs to young 22 yr old graduates..
i can't even get interviews and my resume is far more impressive.. for teaching there is a stock resume that you need to fill out online so basically they can't fault my resume because it is theirs!! i'm far more qualified that the vast majority of the applicants and yet not even an interview..
next january i will be registering for emergency teaching positions but again that is difficult because the commonwealth games are going to be held here and the school term is shortened right down..
thanks glen (and sorry auntie, i forgot to thank you!!)
you are so right about doors closing and new ones opening.. i guess i felt the stress and disappointed because my dear husband was not sympathetic at all.. he was just angry that he might not be able to go on his fishing expedition during summer holidays...
i'm so happy it worked out for you.. and yeah, i'm going to follow your advice and stretch out!! a change will suit me well!!
Do try!!
Ask me 4 years ago where I'd be today and there's no way I'd tell you I'd be happily making potato chips for the masses. Sometimes happiness is where you find it!
I have done so many types of work. Once I started to find happiness in other ways than work it was enormously freeing. I used to - as you do now find all my joy and pride in my work. I still do to a point but know that I'd be happy doing anything as long as they pay me and I feel like I'm doing my best!
It will be FINE - I know it!!
Brookelea,
My nephews wife is a school teacher and was having the same problem as you. She'd think she nailed the job in the interview and then didn't get it time and time again. Finally she made an appointment with the last person who had interviewed her and flat out asked her why she didn't get the job. This person gave her some good insight. Just a thought...something you may consider trying.
I know it doesn't help but I am awful at interviews. But in my case I know the exact moment I blow it.
Ah - you know you can always vent to us!
Just remember that old adage "when life closes a door on us - it often opens a window." Keep trying on jobs - it's when you least expect it that you will find what makes you happy.
I know what you mean about rejections. When I moved to this area I applied to several dozen offices, labs and the like. They all said on the app - "we only phone if you are on the short list". Not ONE called me back. It was only when I stretched out and tried for my present job that I got that call back.
It's their loss. Perhaps it's a time in your life to try a parallel job - one that includes what you are educated for but not necessarily in the classroom per se? Maybe as a private tutor, consultant - or something even more out of what you would expect? I've done pretty much every job but beer tester and court stenographer - sometimes just closing your eyes and leaping off that cliff can be the most freeing thing you could do!
Either way - I am sorry you didn't get the job you wanted. But don't worry - I'm sure that you will find something that will make this all a distant memory soon.
i feel so despondent..
had an interview last week and just found out that i did not get it.. the school did not even bother telling me.. i was sent an email from the education department instead 
i have no idea of what public schools are looking for.. i have a double degree, a masters and a soon to be phd and yet i can't seem to land anything for next january.. i have a much greater understanding of learning disabilities and issue and are this means that i will have to work at summer school and thus 'ruining' my dh's holidays because he won't be able to go on his long fishing trips - looking after dd.. dh is already cheesed off with me because he can't go boat fishing for the weekend because i will be working..
between the schools, dh and my self esteem, i'm losing my confidence and my will to even teach.. it just really aggrevates me that so many teachers have no backbone, no real concept and understanding of pedagogy and very little compassion yet are employed..
sorry for my vent.. my dh won't even acknowledge my pain - instead he whinges about having to take dd to sport and that he can't go fishing whenever he feels like it..
also i can't vent to any of my friends or family because the last thing i want from them is pity..