Mrs. Gadziola enjoys her current job at PHS, but her previous jobs included working at a pizza place, babysitting, and working at a law firm. Photo by: Nicole Snare
By Nicole Snare
Before entering the field of education, teachers had a variety of jobs. The jobs varied from working at a pizza place to serving in the military as a policeman.
Spanish teacher Mrs. Gadziola shows this example by working four different occupations before starting her teaching career. At thirteen years old, she began babysitting as one of her first jobs. As she grew older, she worked at a pizza place, a law firm, State Farm, and finally, Bremen Public School Corporation. After working all these jobs, Mrs. Gadziola became inspired to be an educator. She said, “I finally decided to take a leap of faith and get my teaching credentials when I was questioned by students at a presentation I was giving. I came to the realization during that presentation that all my previous jobs involved teaching—-just not in a classroom setting.”
Like Mrs. Gadziola, other teachers explain the numerous amount of jobs they had before their teaching career. Science teacher Mr. Koops worked many odd jobs in high school and college, in the state of Michigan where he grew up. He was also a carpenter, lumberjack, and a farm hand. He still incorporates these things into his part time summer job working for Pioneer Seed. Mr. Koops believes educating differs from his other careers because, “teaching is a job you can’t seem to get away from, you take work home, what you’re doing in class this week, next week, next month is always on your mind. Other jobs start and end at work and sometimes that is nice.” After all these years of experimenting with his previous jobs, Mr. Koops decided that teaching is his favorite. The most important thing he learned from this experience is to, “do what you love!”
Mr. Koops keeps memories of his old jobs by keeping this detasseling shirt. Photo by: Nicole Snare
Mrs. McCollough, FACS and child development teacher, said that she had eleven jobs before she began in the field of education. She said most of them were in the service area: food service, retail, interior decorator, landscaping and maintenance, child care associate, and lastly, she worked in a trucking company as a dispatcher and an office manager in Chicago, Illinois. She wanted to have a career as a caretaker and child education teacher, and she accomplished that. Mrs. McCollough said, “I wanted to be a part of sharing my experiences in managing a household, providing nutrition for better health, and all facets pertaining to health and family.”
Not only did he serve in the British Military as a policeman and manage a 3,300 acre cotton farm, social studies teacher Mr. Masson explains in detail how only two jobs got him to where he is currently today. In North Carolina, he explains how his cotton farm was the largest producer in the entire state. There were advantages and disadvantages to this certain job. Mr. Masson said, “Great being outside and I loved being on the farm but it was a terrible strain on my back.” After he realized this business could potentially hurt his physical being, he invested in back surgery and decided to look for a new job choice. Mr. Masson said he learned, “The body is not as strong as you first thought!” Now he has landed a job at Plymouth High School and said it is his favorite one out of all of his previous career choices!
Along with Mr. Masson, business teacher Mr. Skirvin worked on a farm when he was younger. This is not the only job he had; he also pumped gas and worked in a foundry. At about thirteen or fourteen years old, he began working numerous jobs in order to pay for his education throughout the years. Mr. Skirvin said, “In the foundry we poured hot metal to make different parts.” He describes this labor as physical and dirty, which is partially the reason as to why he left. As he grew older, he realized the one thing he truly wanted to do: work with people. There is a difference between teaching and all of the other jobs Mr. Skirvin has experienced. He said, “All of them are different, but teaching is working with people. At the foundry I did not have much contact with a lot of people. We produced a given product. Teaching produces a product that is much harder to measure. Sometimes in teaching you don’t get to see the end result of what your work accomplished.”