Do I Have Time for That?

I'm thinking about getting a Master's Degree in some sort of educational capacity.  I know that to permanently get out of the classroom I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get one.  I just don't know when to start and in what direction I need to go.  A friend of mine keeps telling me to get my ed leadership degree, but I have absolutely NO intentions of being any kind of administrator.  I am not cut out for that.  Besides, everyone and their mother want to be an AP/Principal.  I'm kinda leaning towards guidance because let's face it, I'm a fixer.  I just don't know if I have the fortitude to put in those long hours with no pay bump what-so-ever.  Right now, technically, I can work to my contract.  (I don't ever as I'm here early in the morning and usually stay late in the evening.)

I know you're probably wondering why the hell I got into teaching if I don't want to go back in to the classroom.  Well, in the few short years that I have been in education it has changed drastically.  Public school teachers are enemy number one these days.  Everything is blamed on us and we usually shoulder the majority of the burden of our respective districts.  Classroom teachers feel like circus performers having to jump through so many hoops that our state and local government place on us.  There is no authentic teaching going on these days, all we do is teach to a test, whether it be FCAT, EOC's, AP tests, etc.  Kids aren't learning English, Math or Science these days.  They are learning test taking strategies and how to guess correctly by process of elimination.  Those aren't necessarily bad things, but they definitely should not be the main focus in education.  Creativity has long gone out the window and we shove material down the throats of our students in an effort to cover all the standards that are going to be tested on the (insert test here).  Not to mention that these tests are given in April so now it's the teacher's responsibility to prepare 2 months worth of lessons that most students are going to blow off.  (School is over in June.)

I'm tired of being beat up in the classroom.  If little Johnny fails my class, it's because I'm a bad teacher, not because little Johnny never-comes-to-class-or-has-materials-when-he-does-so-he-tries-to-sleep-and-curses-me-out-when-I-wake-him-and-then-I-call-home-his mother-says-he's-my-problem-from-7-2-and-his-administrator-is-so-backed-up-that-he-suspends-him-because-that's-the-easiest-thing-to-do-with-the-limited-resources-we-have-available-and-it's-what-little-Johnny-wanted-anyway-because-he-doesn't-want-to-be-in-school-anyway.  *sigh*

Maybe I'll just go back to the corporate world.  At least I can leave work behind me when I clock out at night.