Should I teach high school auto shop? Pros and cons, please!

I had an English 11 and 12 teacher who was amazing. Bill McKittrick, he was the football coach and just had everyone call him Coach.

I had managed to squeak through my english classes with a C- for most of my school career

I managed to get As in his class. 

He didn't suck the life out of English literature and make it boring as hell. My English 9 and 10 teachers managed to do that. Hamlet was absolutely dreadful, so was Faust and just about any kind of poetry.

I started enjoying plays, poetry, all of it. We read (and watched Kenneth Branagh's) Henry V, I LOVED Richard III, Julius Caesar, Othello, read Walden, all of it.

Mustang50 said:

Good decision not to try to be a teacher this late in life.  

This is very true.  Fortunately for me I had been an automotive instructor before.  The tech school job is somewhat similar to the current CC adjunct position.  Teaching for an OEM was the best at that time.  The students were all working techs and I knew their service manager.  It wasn't very often but we would have someone step out of line in training.  Road testing cars at 100 MPH, disruptive, etc.   I quick call to their service manager had them sent back to work and at least 50% of the time, fired.  It was understood that you had to be professional in the training class.  I miss that in the current CC gig.  

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

As a retired administrator, a couple of things that come to mind; finding auto shop teachers is almost impossible nowadays. Admin will be eating out of your hand. Elective classes (auto shop) can be dumping grounds where counselors place extra kids who don't actually want to be there. If you can prevent that, it should actually be fun. Just make sure that they stay off of their smartphones. Trust me on that. 

In reply to Brett Tower :

My dad came from industrial instructing, to high school Vo-Tech. The Administrator was a good guy. He retired, and was replaced with a bean counter that , well not so good. His replacement was worse, so Dad took early retirement. Sad. 
Can definitely be a good job, under a good admin. Hope your one!

ShawnG said:

I had an English 11 and 12 teacher who was amazing. Bill McKittrick, he was the football coach and just had everyone call him Coach.

They made our football coach teach middle school geography.

I remember in 7th grade having an argument with him that there was a country between France and Spain called Andorra.  He didn't believe it.

ShawnG said:

I remember the kind of know-it-all punk I was in highschool.

I'd rather take a beating with a brick stick than teach a classroom full of my former self.

Yes this!

bump because i never did put this idea out of my mind. so today I shadowed the instructor for a two-hour class. he told me the program is not available as a one-semester elective, rather it is a 3-year program from 10th to 12th grade, with the end goal that these kids pass the ASE general cert as part of their graduation requirements.

i also toured the entire CTE (Career and Technical Education) department, which includes culinary, pre nursing, building arts (framing and plumbing, it seems), welding, and obviously Auto Mechanics. this school is very much centered on getting these kids into careers, not just pushing them out the door.

there are 40-ish students in the program. the class i observed has 12 students enrolled, 9 showed up to class today. of those 9, every single one of them was engaged in the class work, which was about 5 minutes of cleaning up the shop area, followed by about 5 minutes of "OK, today we're gonna diagnose a car with complaint that the brake pedal is low", followed by the teacher bringing the car into the shop and positioning it on the 2-post. from there, he acted only as a reference / resource as the kids wrote up a work ticket, asked questions, made visual observations, discussed for a few minutes with the teacher, then positioned the lift pads and raised the vehicle, did more observation, removed wheels and tires, measured rotor thickness and looked up min spec, removed pads and measured their thickness, etc. in the last 10 minutes or so, they wiped down and put away all the tools, cleaned up the work bay, and discussed the list of parts needed to get this car back on the road.

it was cool. this opportunity is now a solid "maybe", and i am on the school's radar.

 I like what I'm hearing so far and likely because it follows some of what I wrote earlier in this thread:  

John Welsh said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Go back to your "lady in charge" at the school and offer to be a guest speaker, subject matter expert.  Prepare a few days of presentation.  My guess is they are not going to get or be willing to pay someone as knowledgeable as you.  The person they do hire could use some help.  

Go in for a few days.  Do it for free.  You never were doing it for the money.  Also, since you are taking nothing, you owe them nothing and they will not be in a position to make demands on you.  Think of it as a slight trial run to the bigger deal.  However, I think you will be more effective as a supporting cast member.  

Think of friends in other disciplines who also might be willing to come in for a day.  Real access to real people actually doing it or who have done it will bring real value to the classes.  

I have all the expectation that you will do well with the kids but as I also wrote, "its the adults that you will come to hate."  

If the shadowing is going to continue I recommnd that you spend one day of shadowing looking past the kids and focusing on the adults.  Heck, you might just say, "my friend says its the adults that I'll come to hate."  Please explain to me the following...

What is your interaction with:

• the other teachers
• the front office
• the district office
• the parents

Keep in mind the person you are asking the questions to may know you are a friend of "lady in charge" so try to read if he is tempering his answer to you if you ask about her.  

Is this a teachers union school?  Not that I dislike the unions, I don't, but ask how that has an affect on your role.  

Who's running the program now?  What happens to that person if you join on?  Will they stay and help?  Will you be the #2 and they remain the #1 (which may be the best situation) or are you given the whole ball and told to run?  

Will you need a teaching certificate?  Will that cost?  

John Welsh said:

All good so far.  

Wife with 29 years of elementary teaching experience...

 

My summary is you'll like the kids.  You'll come to hate the adults.  

Maybe (maybe) I'd say yes if it was Community College Shop since you can actually tell the students, "too f'ing bad."

 

It amazes me that public school teaches are surprised to find out how much of their day is politics.  The job itself is the very definition of politics...public service...with some of the good and all of the bad that comes with that.  

ShawnG said:

um.  That gear configuration would definitely NOT work

(100% not sure if that joke was intentional or not, because internet.)

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

That sounds like an AMAZING class, and something I would have benefited from as a kid/young man.

Im almost three months removed from teaching. Was in the classroom for a decade.

I just cant recommend it anymore.

I dont know, maybe it depends on where you are. But I was at a 'good' school and it just got worse and worse since COVID.

For me, some of the biggest issues was a lack of support from admin or other teachers.

No rules.

Several teachers, including myself, had been accused of 'grabbing' students by the arm etc...it was all on camera, or, rather, WASNT, as it never happened...and nothing happened. Zero punishment for the kids when it was proven that stuff never happened. That's horrible to deal with and the kid gets NOTHING.

Do a good job or terrible job - just dont steal or touch kids and you'll keep your job. Sucks. Your yearly salary is determined purely by how many years in field not your abilities.

I miss some of the kids

I miss some of the interactions.
I had a blast doing, but just got worse and worse.