Thoughts on being a teacher...

[jb12780]

Job security.

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[CMH]

Job security.

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Confused.

No job security or great job security? I already have ridiculous job security where I am.


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[Pared]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

C,

PM me what you do. I may have a position where someone needs to know a lot about video editing, video broadcasting, etc. etc. and if you know what you're doing it may be a positive move for you.

[Chrisksaint]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

Confused.

No job security or great job security? I already have ridiculous job security where I am.


Sent from my mobile device.

Job security used to be great, but in FL at least it's starting to weaken as I believe tenure is starting to be replaced by evaluations based on test scores....

Currently projected to start my elementary education program at FSU in the spring as long as I get accepted, done some work with kids before in an elementary school/aftercare and a lot of teachers in my family looking forward to becoming a teacher despite the grim outlook in FL

[CMH]

C,

PM me what you do. I may have a position where someone needs to know a lot about video editing, video broadcasting, etc. etc. and if you know what you're doing it may be a positive move for you.

Well, the problem is I don't want to do any of that anymore.

I know it's crazy because I've spent five years building myself up to take better positions, but everytime I read over job descriptions of better opportunities, I cringe thinking of how I'd have to do that or this again.

I think I'm burned out on it.


Sent from my mobile device.

[Pared]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

Ah well - guess I can't help ya then!

[sydrogerdavid]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

I don't think I could be a teacher. I was in class with those kids that disrespect teachers and don't learn or do their work. I couldn't handle it.

[Blzer]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

I don't think I could be a teacher. I was in class with those kids that disrespect teachers and don't learn or do their work. I couldn't handle it.

It's frustrating, but there are good students out there, and they are the reason you keep doing what you do.

... also because, somewhere deep inside yourself, you think you can change those who are disrespectful.

[superjames1992]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

You learn tricks that make grading tests and quizzes easy. Scantron answer sheets are your best friend.

LOL, the lazy teachers never graded before Scantrons, either. They just had us check our classmate's work.

I don't think I could be a teacher, BTW. I would totally go off on half the kids in class. I couldn't handle it when kids wouldn't want to do their work. Well, either that or I'd be totally laid back and chill, not giving a hoot whether my kids passed or failed. In either case, that's not a good teacher!

[AUChase]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

I HATE scantrons or anything that requires filling in bubbles.

At one point, I wanted to be a High School History teacher, either World or American Histroy.

[VDusen04]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

I think if teaching was just an impassioned educator imparting knowledge upon others, it'd be a glorious profession. As it stands, there's a number of things that can get in the way. There's surely a lot of great aspects of teaching, but since you're looking only for the things not to like, here's what I can come up with:

1. Compensation: Teachers eventually end up earning a solid wage but for some, 33k per year at the start isn't cutting it. The way I look at it? 33k is a lot better than 0k.

2. Parents: Pretty much the best thing in the world is a parent who believes in a teacher, supports them, and allows them to do their job as trained. Unfortunately, there's many parents who seem unable to fathom the idea that their child is only one of thirty other students in the classroom. Constant phone calls, checkups, emails, and challenges upon whether it's the student's fault he insists upon turning his desk around and singing Afroman to himself (or if it all falls on the shoulders of the teacher) is just a piece of the parent pie.

3. Emerging Theory Regarding Teacher Effectiveness: Teachers in more and more states are beginning to have a portion of their pay or tenure partially decided upon the standardized test score improvements they're able to facilitate. Some folks may feel this is a great step, as they believe student achievement is directly and solely correlated to teacher ability. Others may feel this attempt to value a teacher based off of standardized tests scores is misguided, as a student's growth and ability to learn stems from many, many factors that go beyond anything within the teacher's control. This can be a frustrating and daunting level of measure to hold above educators.

4. The Necessity for Continued Education: I happen to believe in furthering my education as is, but there's something I'm not particularly excited about when states insist upon specific classes teachers must take post-grad that have questionable worth within the classroom. Some schools help pay for further education of state mandated courses, but not all do.

5. Random Things One May Not Think of When Teaching (mostly regarding non-high school students): Tattle-tailing exists right up through middle school, so there's sometimes a stream of kids who'll always want to tell you about the classmate they saw skip a page of reading during quiet time. There'll be kids who always need a band aide, who just want to be home with their mom, who come to school extremely sick then vomit on your floor, but not before infecting two classmates, leading to two more vomit situations, leading to you needing to distinguish whether they're actually sick or if they're just faking because 9 times out of 10, they're faking. Then to top it all off, they get you sick, again.

In high school, there'll be students who have a problem with you as both a teacher and a person, even if you handed everyone all A's. There'll be students who love learning, there'll be students who just want to get by, and there'll be a sizeable amount of students who really couldn't care any less than they already do.

Also, regardless of age or grade, there'll be many days when kids just will not listen to a word you say. You'll have them all in for recess as punishment, or a series of them sent down to the office, or you'll hand out detentions, and yet none of that will make them behave.

6. The Constant Push to Sap More Hours via Training, Meetings, or Preperation: I think this is likely similar to nearly any business job. School systems and administrations always feel as if they must prove to the state that they're always moving forward and evolving in the best way possible. As such, nearly any meeting is a good meeting, and nearly any 6 hour professional development session must be completely worthwhile and awesome. This portion of the job, combined with the medium-sized salary teachers receive, often ruffles some feathers.

7. Conferences: Some teachers like them, some do not. They only happen twice a year, but it's a relatively tough week, likely featuring a few 7am-9pm days (not including the report card prep time that happens prior).

8. The Smell of the Cafeteria

9. The Busy Work: Prospective teachers picture a wonderful life of imparting wisdom. In reality, many classroom settings in modern day revolve around following curriculum to the T, meaning a lot of "teaching" is more or less assigning a reading, explaining things the slightest bit, then having them do a worksheet, which they then turn in and have you grade. Every day. Times 5.

My biggest "issue" when student teaching, according to my mentor, was my tendency to delve too deeply into a topic. For instance, we'd discuss Columbus, so I'd want to talk about Columbus. Maybe I could provide some truths, maybe I could use my computer to show them what the materials he used really looked like, who knows. Instead, what time usually allotted for was 35 minutes to assign a reading, explain the activity that came at the end, then set them loose. On days like that I felt more like a middleman than an educator.

10. The inability to reach some students: It's frustrating when things don't work out how you want them to. You want to go Jaime Escalante all over everyone, but unfortunately, a lot of times it just doesn't work out, and that sucks.

11. Employability: I can speak only for Michigan at the moment, but when I applied for any given teaching job, there likely wasn't any doubt I'd be 1 of at least 200 applicants for that position. In fact, there were e-mails I'd receive from prospective employers who just wanted to let me know that no, I did not earn an interview, but I was 1 of 1,200 applicants, so I could take comfort in that.

Granted, there's a ton of positives, but since you asked only for the bad, that's what I provided.

[CMH]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

It's frustrating, but there are good students out there, and they are the reason you keep doing what you do.

... also because, somewhere deep inside yourself, you think you can change those who are disrespectful.

This is the crazy thing that makes me want to do it.

Maybe I won't be successful, but taking on that challenge is what excites me.

[CMH]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

I think if teaching was just an impassioned educator imparting knowledge upon others, it'd be a glorious profession. As it stands, there's a number of things that can get in the way. There's surely a lot of great aspects of teaching, but since you're looking only for the things not to like, here's what I can come up with:

1. Compensation: Teachers eventually end up earning a solid wage but for some, 33k per year at the start isn't cutting it. The way I look at it? 33k is a lot better than 0k.

Agreed that any money is better than no money. Though, I also understand that it can hurt when you dedicate a specific amount of time and you're not compensated for it because you're salary. My current position is salary and I feel the same way about it.

Are there bonuses? Or does that differ by state?

4. The Necessity for Continued Education: I happen to believe in furthering my education as is, but there's something I'm not particularly excited about when states insist upon specific classes teachers must take post-grad that have questionable worth within the classroom. Some schools help pay for further education of state mandated courses, but not all do.

What is this exactly? Do teachers actually have to take post-grade level courses if their classes don't perform?

I mean, I think I get the point of it, but I didn't know what the "punishment" was for having an underperforming class.

Also, how have you seen this handled in your experience?

For example, if your principal knows you have a rough set of kids and most fail, do they blame you mostly for it, or will they at least look at what improvements were made?

In other words, does administration take a fair approach to measure a teacher's effectiveness or do you think the wrong measures are taken into consideration? What are those measures?

9. The Busy Work: Prospective teachers picture a wonderful life of imparting wisdom. In reality, many classroom settings in modern day revolve around following curriculum to the T, meaning a lot of "teaching" is more or less assigning a reading, explaining things the slightest bit, then having them do a worksheet, which they then turn in and have you grade. Every day. Times 5.

My biggest "issue" when student teaching, according to my mentor, was my tendency to delve too deeply into a topic. For instance, we'd discuss Columbus, so I'd want to talk about Columbus. Maybe I could provide some truths, maybe I could use my computer to show them what the materials he used really looked like, who knows. Instead, what time usually allotted for was 35 minutes to assign a reading, explain the activity that came at the end, then set them loose. On days like that I felt more like a middleman than an educator.

This is the one thing that disheartens me most. When I think back on my education, I realize why in public school lessons felt rushed. Do schools try to offer programs for students that need to play catch-up? Do they allow you, as a teacher, to offer time to those students (assuming you want to make the time and the students are up for it)?

10. The inability to reach some students: It's frustrating when things don't work out how you want them to. You want to go Jaime Escalante all over everyone, but unfortunately, a lot of times it just doesn't work out, and that sucks.

What's your experience with how schools handle these kids? Do they push them up grade levels just to push them? Have you ever felt forced to hand out certain grades or pass students just to meet standards set by the school? (Not to keep your job, but because they enforced it)

Granted, there's a ton of positives, but since you asked only for the bad, that's what I provided.

I'd like to read those as well.

[mgoblue]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

I'd just keep in mind that even at the high end (teacher with lots of seniority and a masters degree) you'll make more money but never a ton. It's not a degree you do to make money.

That being said, my dad was a computer science guy with a MBA and he changed careers after 40 to become a HS math teacher. Do what you enjoy.

Just want to point out that depending on your lifestyle and what your life goals are it may be tough on a teacher's salary.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Thoughts on being a teacher...

In SC, you have to renew your certification every 5 years. So you have to keep going to school or taking classes. The easiest way to get certification hours is to volunteer for those teacher conferences and turn in the paper work when you get back.

Me and 4 other teachers from our school went to Nashville, expenses paid last summer. Some teachers went to New Orleans this summer.

Not sure if it's the same in other states, but in SC they stopped giving step raises (up to 22 years of experience) the year I started. Which means you no longer get a raise for experience.

Only way to get a higher salary is with continued education. Masters, +30hrs and doctorate. The state is considering performance based raises. I have mixed feelings on the subject. Can anybody say "teaching the test"? Will become a test prep agency.

Money on the side for teaching homebound students, summer school teaching, and coaching.

What's your experience with how schools handle these kids? Do they push them up grade levels just to push them? Have you ever felt forced to hand out certain grades or pass students just to meet standards set by the school? (Not to keep your job, but because they enforced it)

They do a lot of social promotion from middle school to high school. I was told it was for 2 reasons: 1) less likely to drop out if they stay with their friends 2) safety issue--don't want unmotivated older kids with middle schoolers

I have never been asked to change a kid's grade. I tell them on day 1...what you make is what you make. You need a 69.5 to pass my class. The admin just asks us to keep them informed of kids on the borderline...especially seniors. They want you to "work with" seniors to make sure they graduate. Graduation rate is one of the things used to judge how good your school is.

I let kids retake any and all tests and quizzes so I have no sympathy for failing grades. You always have that kid that hasn't done squat all semester and wants extra credit cupcake work to make it up.