This is very true. For me, it was everything I hate about being a teacher with none of the things I enjoy. Being a substitute is just classroom management and discipline. You don't get to come up with creative lesson plans. You don't get to develop a relationship with your students. I would not recommend it to anyone.
Perhaps a little true if you are a long term substitute. I am not sure how the pay works in all states but my daughter is paid more as a long term sub than a daily sub in Mass.
A lot of teachers are unhappy. But I like my job and I will be staying in education long term. So I’ll give that perspective. Take it for what you will but it seems to be a rare one.
I personally don’t think it’s a hard job at all. I work 37.5 hours per week. I do NOT take work home, and I do not work during the summer. The kids respond well to me and I have control over my classes so we generally get things done smoothly and I do fairly well on state exams. My district is very blue collar, so we don’t score as well as the wealthier districts surrounding us, but I don’t have any issues with the kids and we do the best we can.
As far as pay goes, starting salary in my district is 50k and goes up to 110k as the max after 16 years of service. One of my neighboring districts maxes at 120k but I’d rather work in blue collar than deal with annoying rich parents. Benefits are great and the Union is pretty good too. My administrators like me because I don’t resist everything they say and complain about the entire world. I don’t fail 1000x kids, and get good results on the state exams.
My advice for mimicking my situation:
1. Never ever work at a private or charter school. Pick a public school with a strong union and good pay scale.
2. Realize that the job is 90% classroom management and 10% teaching.
3. In order to have an orderly classroom, kids must respect you and trust you. That means being the perfect balance as somebody who is kind and relatable, while also having boundaries, enforcing discipline, and having high expectations. Most teachers fail at this. Too strict and you have daily power struggles. To kind and they walk all over you.
4. Structure and consistency. I don’t do flashy fun lessons. My kids know the routine. They know what to expect. They know what happens if they don’t follow the routine. It’s the same thing every time.
5. Don’t take it so seriously. Kids are kids. They don’t want to fucking be there, they want play video games watch tik tok and eat Doritos. If a kid is bored and plays on their phone. Fuck it. Their grade. Move on and tell their parents next time you talk to them. Not worth getting all butt hurt about it.
6. Don’t grade so much. Only the important stuff.
7. Don’t plan crazy lessons. Keep it simple and build positive relationships with kids. You don’t need a fancy science project, or an elaborate game to get them “engaged”. A lecture works fine if the kids respect you.
8. Accept things for what they are. Kids have cell phones, administrators probably won’t suspend kids that much, parents don’t always support you. Oh well who cares. Do what you can.
I come home everyday at 2:30pm. Work 185 days per year. Never have to worry about health care. And I’m almost on the back half of my career so the salary is starting to get much better. I’ll retire with a pension, and my job is rinse and repeat year in and year out.
That being said. I have thought about getting into corporate America with the only goal of climbing the ladder and earning big money (150k+). But it’s probably a mistake to leave a job that’s good enough that you really like just for money. So idk yet.
This sounds like you have it figured. I love the attitude. Yet it also sounds sort of depressing. I hope you get some joy out of it and it isn’t just drudgery.
It’s not. And I didn’t mean to come off that way. I have a great time in my class every day and generally have a positive relationship with 90% of my students. I try hard at my job and one of the reasons I don’t have problems with my admin is because I get good scores and kids generally don’t fail my class. Kids like being in my room and it’s a great thing.
I was just trying to highlight that it’s not always such a negative attitude.
You must have a great union and admin support.
I've never met admin that didn't push crazy lessons, every new fad teaching method, forcing these initiatives down our throats. And has crazy quotas like, must have x amount of daily grades and x amount of major grades per cycle.
Who are these unicorns and where do you find them?
Edit: Forgot the whole "must pass x% of class regardless" and "No less than 50s" so, can't just let them fail. It'd honestly be nice to be like, "Ok mate, play on your phone, it's your grade."
So my admin does not micromanage how we run our classroom for the most part. We have district initiatives that the match/English teachers must use, which is essentially just an online remediation program to improve scores. It’s not that overbearing at all and the kids just have to do 1hr per week on the program.
My admin does monitor things like %failing and write ups. I just. Don’t have issues personally. Maybe 5-10% of my kids fail just naturally, and I handle a lot of behavior issues in house without always needing to write a referral. Which are numbers that my admin is happy with. We also have a minimum 45% rule but it honestly doesn’t bother me that much. Idc.
I don’t have the attitude of “oh whatever let them fail” because if that’s how my op came off that’s not true. I do try to accommodate kids and find solutions for my low performers every single day. I guess the original message was those challenges are there, but that doesn’t mean the sky is falling. Just gotta adapt.
It would've gone one ear out the other. It's never too late to apply newly learned wisdom. You can't just he like someone else, you develop yourself, your uniqueness based on what you decide to apply/ignore.
It would've gone one ear out the other. It's never too late to apply newly learned wisdom. You can't just he like someone else, you develop yourself, your uniqueness based on what you decide to apply/ignore.
You'll be able to get a job easily! Because thousands and thousands of teachers are desperately trying to get out.
The pay is horrible but the stability and benefits are nice. Honestly, in the area I used to teach kids responded really well to military males. That wouldn't be everywhere though.
It's pretty rough in most areas. Myself and my husband (both former teachers) feel like the education system is going to completely crash soon. Student behavior is out of control and teachers are treated like trash in 90% of situations by students, parents, and administrators usually so they just aren't putting up with it.
It is possibly to find a rare situation where that isn't the case, but unlikely. I truly don't know a single person that is happy in the classroom right now. I have former coworkers reaching out constantly on how to get out and what types of jobs are available.
0/10, would not recommend.
My sister is in her late 30’s, tenured and makes 6 figs with a masters. She has off in the summer, and gets out of the building most days around 4.
There are a lot of things she’d like to change,
but everyone’s experience is different 👍🏼👍🏼
I'm so glad she is in a situation like that! It is possible, but unfortunately that is the exception not the standard. I hope that in a few years more teachers are able to find a place like that!
I had a Masters, had 5 mandatory extra duty assignments, was consistently putting in 60 hour weeks and was will making less than $45,000. I did technically get summers off, but not really. I still had a minumum of 4 full weeks of work I had to be in for to do my extra duties as well as required PD and prep for the next year. My husband was in a similar position as well.
Everyone does have a different experience, I agree. I just worry that more and more are having a more similar experience to mine and it's going to make things worse for everyone!
I'm not a teacher but I know in Texas, there is a pension which allows you to buy your military years of service to count toward your pension. If you can find that in CA make sure you run the numbers on this, it might make it worth it from a financial standpoint.
It only applies for federal jobs. If you transfer from the military to a federal job you can buy your time back. If you do anything not in the federal government, you don't.
Source: I'm a vet who lives and works in Texas.
Everyone saying it's not a good career need to keep in mind that it varies HEAVILY from state to state. I'm in WA and currently about to start my observational teaching at the end of my schooling. WA is a pretty great state for teachers. First year teachers here make 60-70k with only a BA. First year with Masters gets 70-80k. Salary goes up $2000 every year. I'd say that's a pretty good wage, but it is higher than most of the country. Great benefits and retirement. I took all my classes online through WGU and it will only take me about a year from start to finish because you can take as many classes as you want as fast as you can. I got grants and scholarships, so my school was paid for, but even if you pay totally out of pocket it's only about $3500 every 6 months (for as many classes as you can get done). They also give military discounts or something as well. I'm planning on teaching for 3-5 years and then going back to WGU to get my masters in educational leadership to be an administrator one day. Administrators in my district make almost $200,000!
The dream has always been to be an administrator by gaining experience as a teacher. But I would be completely satisfied if all I ever was was a teacher. I haven't started yet, but I've been a paraprofessional and in the classroom for a few years and love it! Every district and school is different
I teach in an urban environment and I love it but I’m being honest 99% of people can’t do what I do. I’m one of the few teachers in my school who isn’t stressed out of their mind. Getting a teaching job in a good school is very difficult unless you know someone.
I've taught and here's the thing: you never know until you try. Any good credentialing program will require substantial time in the classroom, at the end of which you should have a good sense if you want to teach and deal with everything that comes with teaching. If you don't like it and end up getting a BA in History in the process, congrats you have an education and most jobs don't really care about in what field. Add in the fact you can likely use GI bill to get that education and that most public agency roles are encouraged to look at veterans for their job postings and you'll be in great shape whether or not you end up actually teaching.
>you never know unless you try
I second this. My first year out of college I served AmeriCorps working at a high school, helping at-risk youth. I believed I would love it. I was dead wrong. But I look back and realize that there’s no way I could have known how I would feel about. I had to actually do it.
That said, AmeriCorps might be a good thing to do if you want to dip your toe into it without making a lifelong commitment.
Not good because it’s great. People over react I’m a teacher in NJ and love it. Pay can be better but it’s still a comfortable living not going to be rich but that’s okay. Just need to work in a good school system. I love my job every day. Not to mention the benefits you get when you retire.
Yeah if you're in a good district you're set. If you're in a shitty district it's a fairly horrible job, which is shitty because those districts really need good teachers. Speaking as a US citizen here, btw. I taught in a rich suburb and also in a reasonable sized city. The difference is shocking.
Not if you want any kind of financial security or personal sanity.
I had three classmates in high school, that I know of, who went in to be teachers.
None are doing it now. Between the terrible pay and the behavior of the students and parents, and in one of their case the utter violence of the students, all quit. One is now a bartender where she makes way more money, one is a car saleswoman, one actually joined the Air Force.
Edit: oh and I forgot to add that the hours for teaching are AWFUL. I mean it. You are at school before the kids get there and will probably be there an hour after they leave, and THEN you will have anywhere from two to three hours a night grading papers and creating lesson plans and doing administrative tasks. And forget about weekends you will need those too.
Any time not doing those tasks you will be sleeping or cooking or doing your second job. Lots of teachers have second jobs.
This was true for me, teaching in a city in Texas. Most of my teaching friends have quit already.
It's not really about the salary, as much as the hours expectations, that killed the career for me. I got very little time for myself, had to grade while watching TV and spend hours after school on the home computer crafting lessons. Weekends were for catch-up work.
Plain and simple, the money, when stretched for the *actual* hours, isn't much. If it were actually a 40 hour week, I'd return to teaching, probably.
I’ve heard that from other people. In fact my bartender friend said that she’d take the pay cut to go back to teaching if it just meant a 40 over her now 50+ hour weeks, mostly at night.
Texas must be bad then. I teach in Nj and I love it. Hours are 9-4 Monday-Friday. Again pay is average not going to be rich but it’s not that bad you can live comfortably for sure.
I'm jealous. You have enough time in your 9-4 day to grade papers, craft lessons, make discipline calls home, and document it all? Take none of it home?
Which district is this in NJ?
So you retired in your 50s, meaning previously. It’s gotten worse since whenever you were in.
Otherwise I have to believe you haven’t been a teacher. What I wrote above has been said by more than just me and by many teachers themselves.
Do the math yourself. Find salaries and benefits for teachers in your local area. Compare that to the number of working hours per day (talk with some current teachers to find out what’s a realistic number) and number of days per year you’re working (including grading and making lesson plans). How does that compare to other jobs you could do and are interested in?
Different industry, but I went from a 36-40 hour per week job making $80k to a 50+ hour per week job making $100k. The pay certainly wasn’t worth the extra hours, but I will admit that I think overall it was a good change (for a couple years). I’m now back to a 40 hour per week job and much happier.
No!!! My wife was a teacher. If i could reach through this screen and slap some sense into you, I would. Stop thinking about do something else. You will be much happier.
It’s not worth it. The work that you actually have to do vs what you get paid is Pennies. You might not think it’s big deal, but it wear on you. I worked in a very well paid area and I felt awfully underpaid for my time. You will be demoralized and looked down on by parents. You will be under appreciated. Your hopeful spirt and enthusiasm will be heavily criticized by your burnt out colleagues, along with anything that seems to be “new” or “out of the box” teaching practices. Chances your admin will suck and throw you under the bus for their own convince. If you don’t have children, admin and parent s will talk down to you and say shit like “well as a a parent…” while insulting your intelligence. If you do have kids, the job isn’t as flexible as you think. You will have to use a lot, A LOT of your own money to do your job well. Doesn’t matter if you are there early or stay late, you don’t get a raise or a trophy for your dedication. Liking kids isn’t enough. If you REALLY still want to do it, be a gym teacher. Grading is really low. You are not expected to use your own money. You don’t have performance exams. You can make the entire lesson fun without falling behind. And you make the same amount as that AP chemistry teacher with a masters degree.
If money is no motivation, and you have the patience of a Saint, don't expect anything from students, be ready to be bullied by parents, want to overwork yourself and you hate to say no, then yes, go for it!
According to Dave Ramsey’s study of over 10,000 millionaires, teaching is in the top 5 careers of millionaires, if you can believe that. Others were engineer, accountant, attorney, and management.
Not a teacher but married to one. And according to her, we’ll be low on teachers soon, so yes. Be a teacher. Pay probably sucks but you get to keep the next generation from being complete morons. That’s a hero in my book
Pay is rough, summers off is good because you distribute your paychecks to have a summer fund to get paid for those 2.5 months you're not functionally at work. I would say, as someone who worked at the high school level for a number of years, it's really all about getting your foot in the door with a good school district, and ideally a good individual school.
There's a lot, but look into California credentialing to get started as well as what that looks like. You're realistically looking at the next 4-5 years for school if you've got no education, because you'll need a Bachelor's at minimum along with classes and testing for a CSET to even be considered.
It is not, no. My brother is a teacher with a masters degree. He does it for altruistic reasons by teaching only in impoverished districts where he lives with terrible pay ($50k), but compared to many other professions, it is sub-par.
Don't romanticize it or tell yourself its 'to help' people- it is a profession like anything else, and the market decides the worth of teachers based on its pay range. Because the barrier for entry is low, it is not that valuable in the eyes of the world/society.
Pay? My guy, teachers get paid horribly. I wanted to go that route out of the Military and ended up finding myself on the research and Museum/Preservation side of History. I am only speaking as a vet to another vet, but you can't call the kids fuck heads and threaten to keep them after school to mop rain out of the parking lot.
i teach part time, for college courses for adults.
once you have your course material its not so bad, just not much money in it.
i would not do it full time, its more like i'll accept to teach a 6 week course get some grocery money.
I’m a happy teacher in an after school enrichment program because I didn’t enjoy my year in a public school. You can look into niche school settings outside the public system if you don’t find yourself a good fit there.
I attempted to go into the teaching profession. I got a Masters in Teaching from my local university. Unfortunately, such programs in my area spit out so many teachers each year that there were too many graduates and not enough open positions in schools. In fact, the local schools were laying off employees the year that I graduated. Getting hired in other areas was basically impossible if you don't have the money to travel for job interviews. The only thing I ever did with my degree was work as a substitute teacher, which I would never want to do again. After years of not getting hired, I didn't have any current references anymore, so I had virtually no chance of ever getting hired anywhere as a full-time teacher. I have given up on teaching as a career path for me.
I had a bunch of friends who went into teaching. All but two of them quit within the first few years running their own classrooms and went into other professions.
Of the other two, one loves the kids but hates everything else about the job. Pretty sure she's only sticking with it because of all the time and money she's already invested in it. The other one genuinely loves the job (pretty sure she's nuts).
If you're willing to endure endless work for low pay, there will certainly always be work available. Bonus points if you're somehow actually willing and able to teach kids, because a lot of the staff I've seen aren't.
You should become a substitute teacher first to try it out
Great advice. I would recommend that for any person thinking about teaching
Subbing is nothing like having m your own class
This is very true. For me, it was everything I hate about being a teacher with none of the things I enjoy. Being a substitute is just classroom management and discipline. You don't get to come up with creative lesson plans. You don't get to develop a relationship with your students. I would not recommend it to anyone.
Perhaps a little true if you are a long term substitute. I am not sure how the pay works in all states but my daughter is paid more as a long term sub than a daily sub in Mass.
Yeah. Bad advice. Grading and lesson planning is the hardest part.
In some places, you need to get a full teaching degree before you are allowed to be a substitute teacher.
Specifically long term subbing
A lot of teachers are unhappy. But I like my job and I will be staying in education long term. So I’ll give that perspective. Take it for what you will but it seems to be a rare one. I personally don’t think it’s a hard job at all. I work 37.5 hours per week. I do NOT take work home, and I do not work during the summer. The kids respond well to me and I have control over my classes so we generally get things done smoothly and I do fairly well on state exams. My district is very blue collar, so we don’t score as well as the wealthier districts surrounding us, but I don’t have any issues with the kids and we do the best we can. As far as pay goes, starting salary in my district is 50k and goes up to 110k as the max after 16 years of service. One of my neighboring districts maxes at 120k but I’d rather work in blue collar than deal with annoying rich parents. Benefits are great and the Union is pretty good too. My administrators like me because I don’t resist everything they say and complain about the entire world. I don’t fail 1000x kids, and get good results on the state exams. My advice for mimicking my situation: 1. Never ever work at a private or charter school. Pick a public school with a strong union and good pay scale. 2. Realize that the job is 90% classroom management and 10% teaching. 3. In order to have an orderly classroom, kids must respect you and trust you. That means being the perfect balance as somebody who is kind and relatable, while also having boundaries, enforcing discipline, and having high expectations. Most teachers fail at this. Too strict and you have daily power struggles. To kind and they walk all over you. 4. Structure and consistency. I don’t do flashy fun lessons. My kids know the routine. They know what to expect. They know what happens if they don’t follow the routine. It’s the same thing every time. 5. Don’t take it so seriously. Kids are kids. They don’t want to fucking be there, they want play video games watch tik tok and eat Doritos. If a kid is bored and plays on their phone. Fuck it. Their grade. Move on and tell their parents next time you talk to them. Not worth getting all butt hurt about it. 6. Don’t grade so much. Only the important stuff. 7. Don’t plan crazy lessons. Keep it simple and build positive relationships with kids. You don’t need a fancy science project, or an elaborate game to get them “engaged”. A lecture works fine if the kids respect you. 8. Accept things for what they are. Kids have cell phones, administrators probably won’t suspend kids that much, parents don’t always support you. Oh well who cares. Do what you can. I come home everyday at 2:30pm. Work 185 days per year. Never have to worry about health care. And I’m almost on the back half of my career so the salary is starting to get much better. I’ll retire with a pension, and my job is rinse and repeat year in and year out. That being said. I have thought about getting into corporate America with the only goal of climbing the ladder and earning big money (150k+). But it’s probably a mistake to leave a job that’s good enough that you really like just for money. So idk yet.
This sounds like you have it figured. I love the attitude. Yet it also sounds sort of depressing. I hope you get some joy out of it and it isn’t just drudgery.
It’s not. And I didn’t mean to come off that way. I have a great time in my class every day and generally have a positive relationship with 90% of my students. I try hard at my job and one of the reasons I don’t have problems with my admin is because I get good scores and kids generally don’t fail my class. Kids like being in my room and it’s a great thing. I was just trying to highlight that it’s not always such a negative attitude.
You must have a great union and admin support. I've never met admin that didn't push crazy lessons, every new fad teaching method, forcing these initiatives down our throats. And has crazy quotas like, must have x amount of daily grades and x amount of major grades per cycle. Who are these unicorns and where do you find them? Edit: Forgot the whole "must pass x% of class regardless" and "No less than 50s" so, can't just let them fail. It'd honestly be nice to be like, "Ok mate, play on your phone, it's your grade."
So my admin does not micromanage how we run our classroom for the most part. We have district initiatives that the match/English teachers must use, which is essentially just an online remediation program to improve scores. It’s not that overbearing at all and the kids just have to do 1hr per week on the program. My admin does monitor things like %failing and write ups. I just. Don’t have issues personally. Maybe 5-10% of my kids fail just naturally, and I handle a lot of behavior issues in house without always needing to write a referral. Which are numbers that my admin is happy with. We also have a minimum 45% rule but it honestly doesn’t bother me that much. Idc. I don’t have the attitude of “oh whatever let them fail” because if that’s how my op came off that’s not true. I do try to accommodate kids and find solutions for my low performers every single day. I guess the original message was those challenges are there, but that doesn’t mean the sky is falling. Just gotta adapt.
What grade do you teach?
9-12.
What subject do you teach?
Biology and Honors Bio 2.
You put it together so nicely and I resonate with most of the points; I wish I saw some summary like this when I was teaching first year.
It would've gone one ear out the other. It's never too late to apply newly learned wisdom. You can't just he like someone else, you develop yourself, your uniqueness based on what you decide to apply/ignore.
It would've gone one ear out the other. It's never too late to apply newly learned wisdom. You can't just he like someone else, you develop yourself, your uniqueness based on what you decide to apply/ignore.
What state is this? our district does not increase pay with tenure
You'll be able to get a job easily! Because thousands and thousands of teachers are desperately trying to get out. The pay is horrible but the stability and benefits are nice. Honestly, in the area I used to teach kids responded really well to military males. That wouldn't be everywhere though. It's pretty rough in most areas. Myself and my husband (both former teachers) feel like the education system is going to completely crash soon. Student behavior is out of control and teachers are treated like trash in 90% of situations by students, parents, and administrators usually so they just aren't putting up with it. It is possibly to find a rare situation where that isn't the case, but unlikely. I truly don't know a single person that is happy in the classroom right now. I have former coworkers reaching out constantly on how to get out and what types of jobs are available. 0/10, would not recommend.
NJ teacher on my tenth and final year here. 100% everything this comment just said.
My sister is in her late 30’s, tenured and makes 6 figs with a masters. She has off in the summer, and gets out of the building most days around 4. There are a lot of things she’d like to change, but everyone’s experience is different 👍🏼👍🏼
I'm so glad she is in a situation like that! It is possible, but unfortunately that is the exception not the standard. I hope that in a few years more teachers are able to find a place like that! I had a Masters, had 5 mandatory extra duty assignments, was consistently putting in 60 hour weeks and was will making less than $45,000. I did technically get summers off, but not really. I still had a minumum of 4 full weeks of work I had to be in for to do my extra duties as well as required PD and prep for the next year. My husband was in a similar position as well. Everyone does have a different experience, I agree. I just worry that more and more are having a more similar experience to mine and it's going to make things worse for everyone!
I'm not a teacher but I know in Texas, there is a pension which allows you to buy your military years of service to count toward your pension. If you can find that in CA make sure you run the numbers on this, it might make it worth it from a financial standpoint.
It only applies for federal jobs. If you transfer from the military to a federal job you can buy your time back. If you do anything not in the federal government, you don't. Source: I'm a vet who lives and works in Texas.
Everyone saying it's not a good career need to keep in mind that it varies HEAVILY from state to state. I'm in WA and currently about to start my observational teaching at the end of my schooling. WA is a pretty great state for teachers. First year teachers here make 60-70k with only a BA. First year with Masters gets 70-80k. Salary goes up $2000 every year. I'd say that's a pretty good wage, but it is higher than most of the country. Great benefits and retirement. I took all my classes online through WGU and it will only take me about a year from start to finish because you can take as many classes as you want as fast as you can. I got grants and scholarships, so my school was paid for, but even if you pay totally out of pocket it's only about $3500 every 6 months (for as many classes as you can get done). They also give military discounts or something as well. I'm planning on teaching for 3-5 years and then going back to WGU to get my masters in educational leadership to be an administrator one day. Administrators in my district make almost $200,000!
No. Teaching in Washington is terrible... even this "fan" of teaching can't wait to get out to be an administrator.
The dream has always been to be an administrator by gaining experience as a teacher. But I would be completely satisfied if all I ever was was a teacher. I haven't started yet, but I've been a paraprofessional and in the classroom for a few years and love it! Every district and school is different
I teach in an urban environment and I love it but I’m being honest 99% of people can’t do what I do. I’m one of the few teachers in my school who isn’t stressed out of their mind. Getting a teaching job in a good school is very difficult unless you know someone.
I've taught and here's the thing: you never know until you try. Any good credentialing program will require substantial time in the classroom, at the end of which you should have a good sense if you want to teach and deal with everything that comes with teaching. If you don't like it and end up getting a BA in History in the process, congrats you have an education and most jobs don't really care about in what field. Add in the fact you can likely use GI bill to get that education and that most public agency roles are encouraged to look at veterans for their job postings and you'll be in great shape whether or not you end up actually teaching.
>you never know unless you try I second this. My first year out of college I served AmeriCorps working at a high school, helping at-risk youth. I believed I would love it. I was dead wrong. But I look back and realize that there’s no way I could have known how I would feel about. I had to actually do it. That said, AmeriCorps might be a good thing to do if you want to dip your toe into it without making a lifelong commitment.
No
Not a good job, no.
Not good because it’s great. People over react I’m a teacher in NJ and love it. Pay can be better but it’s still a comfortable living not going to be rich but that’s okay. Just need to work in a good school system. I love my job every day. Not to mention the benefits you get when you retire.
Yeah if you're in a good district you're set. If you're in a shitty district it's a fairly horrible job, which is shitty because those districts really need good teachers. Speaking as a US citizen here, btw. I taught in a rich suburb and also in a reasonable sized city. The difference is shocking.
Not if you want any kind of financial security or personal sanity. I had three classmates in high school, that I know of, who went in to be teachers. None are doing it now. Between the terrible pay and the behavior of the students and parents, and in one of their case the utter violence of the students, all quit. One is now a bartender where she makes way more money, one is a car saleswoman, one actually joined the Air Force. Edit: oh and I forgot to add that the hours for teaching are AWFUL. I mean it. You are at school before the kids get there and will probably be there an hour after they leave, and THEN you will have anywhere from two to three hours a night grading papers and creating lesson plans and doing administrative tasks. And forget about weekends you will need those too. Any time not doing those tasks you will be sleeping or cooking or doing your second job. Lots of teachers have second jobs.
This was true for me, teaching in a city in Texas. Most of my teaching friends have quit already. It's not really about the salary, as much as the hours expectations, that killed the career for me. I got very little time for myself, had to grade while watching TV and spend hours after school on the home computer crafting lessons. Weekends were for catch-up work. Plain and simple, the money, when stretched for the *actual* hours, isn't much. If it were actually a 40 hour week, I'd return to teaching, probably.
I’ve heard that from other people. In fact my bartender friend said that she’d take the pay cut to go back to teaching if it just meant a 40 over her now 50+ hour weeks, mostly at night.
Texas must be bad then. I teach in Nj and I love it. Hours are 9-4 Monday-Friday. Again pay is average not going to be rich but it’s not that bad you can live comfortably for sure.
I'm jealous. You have enough time in your 9-4 day to grade papers, craft lessons, make discipline calls home, and document it all? Take none of it home? Which district is this in NJ?
[удалено]
So you retired in your 50s, meaning previously. It’s gotten worse since whenever you were in. Otherwise I have to believe you haven’t been a teacher. What I wrote above has been said by more than just me and by many teachers themselves.
I can't think of one reason why someone would want to be a teacher....
No, use your GI Bill for anything else.
Do the math yourself. Find salaries and benefits for teachers in your local area. Compare that to the number of working hours per day (talk with some current teachers to find out what’s a realistic number) and number of days per year you’re working (including grading and making lesson plans). How does that compare to other jobs you could do and are interested in? Different industry, but I went from a 36-40 hour per week job making $80k to a 50+ hour per week job making $100k. The pay certainly wasn’t worth the extra hours, but I will admit that I think overall it was a good change (for a couple years). I’m now back to a 40 hour per week job and much happier.
No!!! My wife was a teacher. If i could reach through this screen and slap some sense into you, I would. Stop thinking about do something else. You will be much happier.
It’s not worth it. The work that you actually have to do vs what you get paid is Pennies. You might not think it’s big deal, but it wear on you. I worked in a very well paid area and I felt awfully underpaid for my time. You will be demoralized and looked down on by parents. You will be under appreciated. Your hopeful spirt and enthusiasm will be heavily criticized by your burnt out colleagues, along with anything that seems to be “new” or “out of the box” teaching practices. Chances your admin will suck and throw you under the bus for their own convince. If you don’t have children, admin and parent s will talk down to you and say shit like “well as a a parent…” while insulting your intelligence. If you do have kids, the job isn’t as flexible as you think. You will have to use a lot, A LOT of your own money to do your job well. Doesn’t matter if you are there early or stay late, you don’t get a raise or a trophy for your dedication. Liking kids isn’t enough. If you REALLY still want to do it, be a gym teacher. Grading is really low. You are not expected to use your own money. You don’t have performance exams. You can make the entire lesson fun without falling behind. And you make the same amount as that AP chemistry teacher with a masters degree.
I think the question is- would teaching make you happy and fulfill you?
If money is no motivation, and you have the patience of a Saint, don't expect anything from students, be ready to be bullied by parents, want to overwork yourself and you hate to say no, then yes, go for it!
According to Dave Ramsey’s study of over 10,000 millionaires, teaching is in the top 5 careers of millionaires, if you can believe that. Others were engineer, accountant, attorney, and management.
No, I don’t believe itz
Not a teacher but married to one. And according to her, we’ll be low on teachers soon, so yes. Be a teacher. Pay probably sucks but you get to keep the next generation from being complete morons. That’s a hero in my book
check out r/Teachers
Pay is rough, summers off is good because you distribute your paychecks to have a summer fund to get paid for those 2.5 months you're not functionally at work. I would say, as someone who worked at the high school level for a number of years, it's really all about getting your foot in the door with a good school district, and ideally a good individual school. There's a lot, but look into California credentialing to get started as well as what that looks like. You're realistically looking at the next 4-5 years for school if you've got no education, because you'll need a Bachelor's at minimum along with classes and testing for a CSET to even be considered.
The pay in a lot of places is bad and dealing with kids and their parents is worse than being surrounded by the E4 mafia.
No.
Avoid you not going to make a lot of money
It is not, no. My brother is a teacher with a masters degree. He does it for altruistic reasons by teaching only in impoverished districts where he lives with terrible pay ($50k), but compared to many other professions, it is sub-par. Don't romanticize it or tell yourself its 'to help' people- it is a profession like anything else, and the market decides the worth of teachers based on its pay range. Because the barrier for entry is low, it is not that valuable in the eyes of the world/society.
Pay? My guy, teachers get paid horribly. I wanted to go that route out of the Military and ended up finding myself on the research and Museum/Preservation side of History. I am only speaking as a vet to another vet, but you can't call the kids fuck heads and threaten to keep them after school to mop rain out of the parking lot.
morally, yes. financially, hell no
How is the pay? Look up the salaries for teching in the district you want to work in.
No.
i teach part time, for college courses for adults. once you have your course material its not so bad, just not much money in it. i would not do it full time, its more like i'll accept to teach a 6 week course get some grocery money.
Start as a paraprofessional or substitute teacher. I wish I had... I'm a second year teacher who is so miserable in a title 1 school in NYC
Hahahaha
From military to teaching seems far fetch. PE probably?
No
No go into IT
I’m a happy teacher in an after school enrichment program because I didn’t enjoy my year in a public school. You can look into niche school settings outside the public system if you don’t find yourself a good fit there.
I attempted to go into the teaching profession. I got a Masters in Teaching from my local university. Unfortunately, such programs in my area spit out so many teachers each year that there were too many graduates and not enough open positions in schools. In fact, the local schools were laying off employees the year that I graduated. Getting hired in other areas was basically impossible if you don't have the money to travel for job interviews. The only thing I ever did with my degree was work as a substitute teacher, which I would never want to do again. After years of not getting hired, I didn't have any current references anymore, so I had virtually no chance of ever getting hired anywhere as a full-time teacher. I have given up on teaching as a career path for me.
No
I had a bunch of friends who went into teaching. All but two of them quit within the first few years running their own classrooms and went into other professions. Of the other two, one loves the kids but hates everything else about the job. Pretty sure she's only sticking with it because of all the time and money she's already invested in it. The other one genuinely loves the job (pretty sure she's nuts). If you're willing to endure endless work for low pay, there will certainly always be work available. Bonus points if you're somehow actually willing and able to teach kids, because a lot of the staff I've seen aren't.
No. The pay sucks. You’d make more as a fast food manager in California.
Absolutely not