Open Cover Letter

To whom it may concern:

I am an ATR (Absent Teacher Reserve) in New York city 2009-2010 school year.

I am looking for a position of a Science or Math teacher at a New York City public middle or high school. I have two NYS and two NYC licenses to teach Chemistry and General Science and Mathematics. My licenses allow me to teach students from 7 to 12 grades.
I am a veteran NYC teacher with 22 years experience working at two South Bronx public schools: one was Martha Neilson School (Bronx site of the Program for Pregnant and Parenting Teens) and the other New Schools for Arts and Sciences. I am out of job for no other reason than closing of my schools by current city administration. I am one of those bad teachers who worked at those bad schools and who deserve to be out on the street without pay according to the city proposed new contract.
Let me tell you how bad I am and how bad were the closed schools.
I was the only science teacher at my school, so I taught all science courses required by the state. I can teach and I was teaching all of the following: Living Environment, Earth Science, Regents Biology, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Physics – all Regents high school courses, in addition Foundation of Science and Physical Science for 8th Graders, Foundations of Math, Math A, Math B. I also taught science and math for special ed. students. After being in my classes the students were passing State Tests, but more importantly they had more positive attitude towards learning and education in general. Many of them were first generation in their families with a high school diploma. I am very proud of each and every one of them.
I am also very proud to be a colleague of so many other bad teachers who worked at my bad schools. They all were and are devoted to the job and the kids. They are my heroes. I love them and I am one of them. We really made a difference in so many lives. We were not just people who delivered some info for the test; we delivered a better life, sometimes in a form of food or clothes, sometimes in a form of shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen. We helped to file job and college applications. We took them to museums and theatres, to parks and to Washington D.C. Yes, our students talked to the congress people and to the senators, to superintendents and judges.
All our students were computer literate. They could, of course, type a paper, but they also could create great Power Point Presentations, Publisher Brochures, Blog online, make glogs, take tests and quizzes online, search Internet, and get around the city blocking (the latter they did on their own). Our students kept their work in virtual portfolios in digital format. The same applies to the teachers: all bad teachers were computer literate, all teachers used either Dell or Apple computers or both for the instructions, and all of us used Smart White Board.
Yes, I am one of these bad teachers from the bad schools that deserved to be closed.
I am looking for a job. I want to continue teaching for another 3 or 4 years. I know I can do a good job teaching for the test because I have nothing against the tests. I know that new schools will be open to replace the closed ones and new young teachers will be as bad as we were. I also know that the city students didn’t suffer too much when I lost my job. I am nobody special, just a bad teacher from a bad school.
I am looking for a job for me. I don’t want to lose my house – I love it. I want the security of a twice a month paycheck so I could do something I love – teach the kids science and math. I want to keep doing the bad job.

Respectfully,