Teachers: What do you like/dislike about your job?

[Laura]

Hi folks, I am considering a rather significant career change from attorney to English teacher. I have been teaching at a community college for a year but an opportunity has arisen to teach 9th grade English. I am just in the application process right now, but I would love to hear your about your experiences.

[kwormann]

Such a loaded question!
I think my job is so rewarding (I teach 1st grade). I know I am reaching young lives everyday, and not just with academics. I have so many emotionally needy children, and somedays I may give them their only hug or kind word. Last year I taught 5th grade sci and ss and it was great because I felt connected to my class and I have such a passion for history...actually considering moving to middle or high school history some day!

As for problems, the first I can mention are parents. Those children you are trying to help emotionally, the parents get mad. Those you are concerned about accademically, it is your fault they are failing. There are also lots of behavior problems....Then parents who say they cant understand why their child hit someone...after all, they spanked them for it last night. PLEASE dotn think all parents are this way...they arent. I have lots of supportive parents whose children are doing well because we are a team, but I never want someone to think it is all good. Bottom line, I am proud of my profession and I cant see myself doing anything else!

ps...we have a lawyer who teaches 2nd grade at our school http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Kim


[This message has been edited by kwormann (edited 05-17-2001).]

[browneye]

I am not a teacher,
I am the parent of a 9th grader!
I would say, teaching 9th grade must be an incredible challenge, what with all of those hormonal kids running around...oh my...and some of the attitudes...I am sure it is far different from what you are doing now in Community College.
I can say, however, some of those 9th grade teachers are absolutely unbelievably great. And the majority of the teachers we have had in this district!

Unfortunately, not my son's math teacher this year. He did great in math until this year, but now he is very frustrated and just struggling. (D's at mid-semester!) I hired a tutor for my son, (math-tutoring my own son it turns out is not my strength) and he is doing MUCH better. However, this was after he repeatedly asked for help from the math teacher who is incredibly apathetic, and no help at all.
Maybe the math teacher needs a new career, too!
Sorry about the rambling.. off the subject, but this is a good idea of what 9th graders are like to deal with. And parents!!
http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[KValley]

Hi Laura,

I'm replying on behalf of my DH. He is a middle school and high school Social Studies, History, French teacher. He has also taught middle school Reading and high school English. His preference is 7th-9th grade Social Studies/History.

Hands down, his greatest frustration is conforming to state testing standards that inhibit his ability to TEACH. He has taught in Colorado, Ohio, Illinois and here in Washington State and it is the same story: districts face so much pressure to produce acceptable standardized test scores that the emphasis becomes one of teaching to the test, not teaching to produce learning.

He is so passionate about his subjects, his students, and teaching that even bureaucracy can't diminish his effect on students. He simply loves being a teacher, being a mentor, an educator.

He really goes out of his way to make connections with parents. His personal policy is to call three parents a day- regardless of how the student is doing in his class- just to touch base and say "John is really struggling with paying attention or getting his homework done" or "Sally's last paper was so well-written, she really did her research" Whatever- just to get the family engaged and to let the students know he's watching them and not just around progress report time. IT becomes a contest in his classes as to whether or not Mr. Johnson has called home yet and what he said to your mom or dad!

It makes me so proud to be married to a teacher- particularly this one. He knew teaching would never make him wealthy, but he has truly found his calling and his gift. Teachers are amazing people (well, most. There are some real duds out there) Now, just don't get my started on the criminal amount we pay teachers!

Julie

[This message has been edited by KValley (edited 05-17-2001).]

[HARRYET]

Julie,

Can your DH come and teach at my kids schools? He sounds wonderful!

I also want to say, just in reading your post and your DH's passion to be around, teaching and involved w/children (particularly this day in age) he is indeed a WEALTHY man!

Don't let him get away, of course in less he would like to move to AZ and teach my kids http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

Ann

p.s. to all you teachers out there, I tip my hat to all of you, you do a great service for our children, Thank you!

Ann

[kwormann]

KValley

Thank you for bringing up standardized tests, another frustration. I have been saddened this year trying to force 6 year old minds to be ready to take a standardized test to see if they get to go to 2nd grade. Even our kinder students in TX have to take one...lots of tears on that day! And while preparing them to be ready, they put 31 kids in my room at the beginning of the year, to eventually be whittled down to 23 ( a few weeks later)

BUT despite all of this, it is still more rewarding than any amount of money (thank god....although I wouldnt turn down more)...in fact DH is considering giving up his sales career to teach! THAT makes me proud!

[This message has been edited by kwormann (edited 05-18-2001).]

[Susann]

Laura, right now I have a love/hate relationship with my career (which may or may not be due to the fact that my seniors are suffering from senioritis!). First off, the part I love is the children. I teach 11th and 12th grade English and my students (for the most part) are fantastic. Teaching is my passion and I enjoy the challenge of inspiring a love for literature and language in creative ways. Also, The student population at my school is vastly different from my own high school experience, so I have the added bonus of learning from my students.

Now for the bad-first of all, this year is a weird year at my school. We are overcrowded by over 600 students. Our administration leaves a lot to be desired. Parents have a hard time holding their own children responsible. The bureaucracy is annoying.

But would I want to follow any other career path? No way!

[JHolcomb]

OK, I am not a teacher either, but my dear daddy has been in education for 27 years, teaching 8th grade NC history for about 12 years, then as a assistant principal and principal for the remainder.

His biggest problems with the teaching/administrating are the parents and the state legislature. Both hamper his ability to do his job, and for many of the teachers to do theirs. The parents because it's never their child's fault for getting in a fight/hitting a teacher/skipping school. The state legislature because most of them have no idea what it's like to teach in public schools and they keep passing bills that are supposed to improve things, while in reality, it just adds to everyone's stress and doesn't do squat to improve anything. Sorry to get on my soapbox, but I've watched this drive my father slowly insane over the past few years. He still loves the kids, but has problems with the aforestated issues.

My MIL also taught (7th grade remedial English) and loved the kids so much. She no longer teaches(they moved to a state where a master's was more or less required to teach), but I think she really liked doing it. She says she wouldn't go back to teaching today, even though she's back in a state where a BA suffices-the system has changed too much. Special ed teachers spend more time filling out paperwork than teaching or doing lesson plans. Really.

We do have a friend, a woman about my age (23) who teaches kindergarden and loves it very, very much. I think it may all depend on the age of the kids. Daddy has been in middle school all these years (imagine the hormones!). He likes the age group, but it is more challenging. From my own experience, I think kids in AG classes are worse than "regular" or even "special ed" kids- we were horrible, horrible smart-a**es who thought we knew more than our teachers. We were awful.

Anyway, not to discourage, I think that it would be a terribly rewarding career. I don't think I could do it-I'm not very good at relaying ideas to other people, but I wish that I could, because I'd actually like to try it out. It would be great it you decided to do it-there's such a shortage of good teachers these days. Good luck!

[LGBurns]

I'm still working toward my credential and haven't done any student teaching, yet. I did want to share some things I've observed so far in the schools I've been in for my observations. I have observed in an "inner-city" (I hate that term but I don't know a better one), highly bureaucratic, and enormous district, so take my observations with a grain of salt. My sense was that when I do start working, my biggest obstacle will probably be other faculty. To me there is nothing more frustrating than working with people who have essentially written off their students and are counting the days to retirement. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of that during my observations so far. Don't get me wrong, I saw wonderfully energetic teachers too, but I know that when I start teaching apathy is going to be a real frustration for me. On the flip side, the kids were so great! I have observed mostly special ed so far (I'm not going to be a special ed teacher but they require all teachers to have special ed training--which is so good since inclusion is the new buzz word) and a lot of these kids were coming from very very hard circumstances (kids from shelters, kids being raised by their siblings because both parents were gone or in jail, etc.) and they still had so much spark and energy. They are definitely a challenge but, oh so worth it! I can't wait until they're in my classroom!

[This message has been edited by LGBurns (edited 05-18-2001).]

[kwormann]

On a happy note, I have to say I work with the most relaxed administration and most wonderful helpful teachers I have ever seen. I work for the 4-7th largest district in the country (it changes every year) and I KNOW it isnt like that at all schools (in fact my first year I had a control freak principal and a staff who didnt speak to each other and LIKED it like that!) I have to say KUDOS to my principal and all the teachers! They make it a joy to go in every day!

Kim http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[LGBurns]

Thanks, Kim! It's so important to hear there are good experiences out there too. I so hope I can get into a school that has a real team spirit. Even though I like the idea of the autonomy associated with having "my classroom," I'm by nature a team person and would love to work in a team atmosphere. Thanks for helping to prevent me from focusing too much on the negative. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Laura]

Thanks for all your responses. If am offered this position (and again, I have only just submitted my application), I would be teaching at a private school. I wonder if that would decrease/increase the nature of the administrative nightmares.

I will let you all know what happens as the process continues. If I don't get the job, I will likely continue to teach at the community college and re-apply next year.

[SusanL]

Laura, I say go for it! This is my 24th year teaching and I wouldn't have chosen another field. My father tried to encourage me to get a degree in business, you will get your pay not in mmonetary but emotional rewards abound!!

[CheerLiz]

Laura:

I teach at a small private high school (800 students) in New Hampshire, and I LOVE my job. We do not participate in state testing nor do we have to follow the state curriculum to the letter; I have complete control over my own curriculum (with input from my Department Head, but she is awesome and VERY supportive). I teach 9th & 12th grade, and I get to choose which books they read, how slow or how fast we progress, and what assignments I want them to complete. I teach 4 classes of seniors and 1 clas of freshmen, and all 5 classes are often doing very different things. It all depends on the personality of the class.

My administration is generally very supportive -- and the parents are very involved with thier kids' education, since they are paying over $7000 a year to send their kids to school here.

My only complaint about being an English teacher is that there is SO much correcting to do! In order to really get the most out of my students, they really need to write often. I have 100 students, and I wish I could read an essay from each one of them every week, but it's just not practical if I want to have a life! I get frustrated that I can't give them as much feedback as I'd like to. It usually takes me 2 weeks to correct a set of essays (if I want to do it right).

Our class sizes are pretty small -- only about 20 students per class -- so I can't imagine having 25-30 kids per class. How do they do it?!

I also coach at the school and serve as the Student Council moderator, which increases my involvement and helps me to know the students personalities from a different perspective.

All in all, I LOVE my job, but it is time consuming and tends to envelop all of my free time. I love having my summers off, so I won't complain about the pay scale, since I'm happy with the tradeoff. I tend to work 50-60 hour weeks during the school year and spend many weekends at school, so my summers are a precious reprieve.

Good luck in your decision -- in my opinion, teaching is the best profession out there!!

[cchhbb]

While I am not a teacher, I feel I am informed on this topic. Most of the women in my family were teachers. Several of them have just retired and have said that teaching changed so much over their 30 or so years in the classroom.

My mom teachs 9th grade math and I wouldn't wish that on anyone in the world. They are really encouraged to teach to the test. She bucks this trend and really tries to get kids to learn. It's a real uphill battle.

She said once that teaching was a great job for someone with a family. She could be home close to when the kids got out of school, but now with all the paperwork her days have gotten longer and longer. All with little to no increase in pay.

I admire people who choose to teach and are committed to teaching. I believe we need a major overhall of our education system and find ways of rewarding the good teachers.