Decision Time

They offered me the job on the spot, and want a decision by noon tomorrow.
It pays $400/class/month. I'd be teaching two sections of Algebra II, one section of Algebra I, and one section of tenth grade Chemistry. If I taught four classes both terms, I'd be making 20K/year, no benefits. If I take a study period both terms and babysat them, I'd be making 24K.

The good news:
-My schedule would be noon-3, Monday through Friday. I am free to do my lesson prep, grading, etc. at home.
-Class size averages 12 and caps at 16
-Although the school is orthodox, most of the students are not -- they are russian immigrants taking advantage of their Jewish heritage to get a private education, on financial aid. Because of that, the vast majority are highly motivated. What's more, about half of them are competitive ballroom dancers at a local studio I had not previously been aware of called Genesis. I kid you not.
-I will not have to move my January trip around at all... well, I may need to move the flight there by a day... as it coincides with their final exams from first time and someone else can proctor the exams.
-There are lots of holidays: January I would be working 66% of business days, February 80%, March 100%, April 50%, May 80%, June 50%, and July and August not at all. So even if we assume that I do 5 hours of prep time for every 3 hours of class time, I have some percentage of my time free without crossing the 40 hour mark all months except March.

The bad news:
-Because most of their students are on financial aid, they are sometimes late on paychecks 6-10 days
-Orthodox, so I have to wear skirts, cover my knees, cover my elbows, etc.
-I have to pick up the nightmare the previous teacher left behind after leaving suddenly after thanksgiving (but they understand that the remnants of fall term will be fudged for reasonable grades etc.)
-30 minute bus ride from Market
-Teaching high school students is very different from MIT freshmen, children, and figure skating students... young children are handled differently, adult students and MIT freshmen are very motivated and respectful. I'm a little scared of it.

There are three things I wanted out of my job:
(1) covering my rent, monthly bills, and food -- this does that before my loans come out of deferment; we'll see what happens when they do come out of deferment
(2) Not be a sucky telefundraising or admin assist job I hated -- this probably satisfies that requirement -- and be in the city -- again, satisfied
(3) Leaves me enough time to write -- I'm not sure because I have no idea how much time I'll spend prepping... It seems unlikely that it will average substatially more than one hour per hour I teach, but maybe I'm on crack.

So I'm leaning towards yes. But if anyone who teaches can speak up in the comments with their thoughts, it would be appreciated. If you know someone who TEACHES math and chemistry in high school, if you would put me in touch with them I'd appreciate it... feel free to forward this info to them. And anyone can feel free to respond to my poll...

[Poll #222342]

Organizing thoughts

Questions I need to ask them:

• Are there any time commitments beyond in class time, lesson plan prep, grading, and test/homework prep, such as extracurriculars, parent-teacher interviews, office hours, etc.?
  
• Is there a study period available for me to teach this term?
  
• Will I be paid a full month for June, or a half month?
  
• Is it possible to designate this as a full time job without benefits? Are you a private non-profit? (If yes to both I qualify for loan defaults, more every year I stay with them)
  
• Do any of the students have trouble communicating in English?
  
• Will you be monitoring my lesson plans? Grade book? How often should I be testing them? How often should I be assigning homeworks? How often will you be visiting my class to monitor my teaching?
  

Misgivings I have:

• Will I be able to properly "handle" the high school kids in the battleground environment?
  
• How long will the lesson prep time take? Given that, will the amount of time I'm putting into it be worth the amount of money I'm getting out of it?
  
• How long will the lesson prep time take? Given that, will I have adequate time to freelance?
  

The last time I was unemployed, I ended up telefundraising for the SF Symphony for $8/hour, 16 hours/week. I expect that el crappo job I could count on getting would pay $10/hour. So the point at which this job reaches the $10/hour threshold is if I ended up working 9 hours/day I worked. If I end up working 6 hours/day I work, it will be equivalent to getting paid $15/hour. So its not great pay, but it isn't hugely shitty. And if I get to teach a study period, the numbers change... the first number will be if I wind up working 11.5 hours/day, and the second number would be $19/hour.

I'm hella stressed out over this decision. Nay sayers seem convinced its the wrong decision, everyone else thinks I should take the job, except for perhaps coffeekitty and guhrrl who both reserved judgement but had intelligent questions.

Thank you everyone for helping me through this decision. Even if I have dismissed your input, it was extremely helpful because it enabled me to address the possibility.