Anne Truitt Zelenka

That’s the first question I get at job interviews lately. Yes, I’m looking to high school or middle school teaching — either math or technology — as my second career. You could say it’s my third or fourth career, after software development and then professional blogging/reporting and also stay-at-home mothering, if a career that be.

But my online tech journalism career was really a continuation and expression of my software/web development career. And my mothering career continues — I need a second professional career that fits it better than software or web development did.

High school teaching could be what I’m looking for. But why? Here are a few reasons.

1. Because I love learning and sharing knowledge. Some bloggers like conflict; some engage in it mainly for the conversation; I blogged as one of Malcolm Gladwell’s “mavens” — “those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends.”

2. Because I enjoy coaching people, not in athletics but rather in academics and technology and career planning. As a manager, I enjoyed mentoring people on my team. As a mother, I’m good at seeing what my kids need and directing them towards it. As a book author, I was inclined towards addressing the human side of tech. I did a career assessment exercise recently and it pegged me as a “coach” and a “researcher.”

3. Because Denver’s in need of math teachers. Look at these horrifying results from Denver Public Schools’ high school freshmen. 68% failed the new Algebra I final testing them on what they should know based on state standards. If you don’t get algebra, you are not going to get the rest of math and a variety of interesting and rewarding careers will be forever closed to you. Many of the kids who probably could do fine in math are going to drop out of it before they get any sense of efficacy for that subject.

4. Because my greatest interest right now is education. As my kids get older — my eldest is 12 — education becomes more interesting to me. Should they go private or public? Neighborhood or magnet? What activities should they do in addition to school? And how should they plan for college?

More broadly: what is happening with our neighborhood schools? How can we regain a sense of community? What can be done to raise expectations and achievement for all students? How do we prepare them to be good 21st century citizens, workers, and community members? These questions fascinate me… and I want to spend lots of time investigating them, both through my family and through my work.

5. Because it dovetails neatly with my mothering. I am attracted to the school year work schedule that will allow me to better balance the after-school and summertime needs of my kids. Plus, I want to work on my garden in the summer and spend lots of time hiking and painting.

6. Because I resonate with the ideals of the digital generation. My thumbs aren’t tired from texting — but I totally get and respect the desire of teenagers today to stay connected and to express themselves online. I bring an awareness of how this translates into the world of work, and I hope this means I can serve as sort of an ambassador between teenagers and those adults who haven’t explored tech-mediated connectedness to the same depth I have.

So far it’s not clear what my best path into teaching is. I do know I want to work in Denver Public Schools, both because of my past history (I’m an alum of Denver’s court-ordered busing era) and because it’s our current district too. I am open to math or tech teaching positions and am taking the math content exam tomorrow after having relearned geometry, algebra, trig, calculus, probability, stats, linear algebra, and more in four weeks.

It seems to be a rich vein to explore because I’ve found a bunch of interesting jobs and have been offered interviews to all I’ve applied for. So far none has been a match, but I’m excited about the possibilities.