New Teacher Advice and Such

[Andrew]

Ah yes, the noble profession of education. Where parents entrust you to the care of their children for seven hours a day with the hopes of actually getting anything in their bratty little heads. Well I guess eventually you have to teach them how to pass a standardized test while denying their playtime. Cynicism aside, I was wondering if anybodies out there has some teacher experience/corrections they would be willing to share with an upcoming rookie teacher? I'm talking about the primary levels(Pre-K through 4th), in the US. The stress, the vacation time, the stress, and of course the money.

Economically speaking teaching doesn't seem that bad of a career choice at this current time. People are starting to drop the "R" word (recovery) but you can never be too sure can you. The education field seems pretty recession proof as there are always going to be kids that need teaching, and teachers retiring. It's a secure job too. I mean unless you do something really crazy/stupid you really don't have to worry about losing your job to like cut-backs or downsizing. Unless your school sucks and gets shut down! But that aside schools can't start looking for a replacement for your position until you sign the "I'm Quitting" papers. Or at least that's how I was told how the gist of things work here in Texas.

I'm my experience with teaching (substituting, tutoring, and teacher assisting) it has a lot more to do with your personality rather than can you teach the material. There are so many times that you gotta know how to deal with so many problems throughout the day while keeping your cool. Stress aside there is all that vacation time to look forward to. But on a teacher's salary is it possible to travel and such during those times? Salary is around 40K with public school teachers. I hear private school salaries are about 5-7K less but you get LOTS more support from the school and parents which I value more actually. Oh and I'm going to be living single. Thoughts?

tl;dr - Is becoming a teacher worth it?
Keywords: Income, Lifestyle, and Early Childhood-4th grade teacher

[Dimmauk]

Teach High School so you can hook up with hot horny teenagers. 4th grade is possibly the worst grade to teach. I'd rather teach an elderly person how to use a computer than teach 4th grade.

[Plow]

If you try to figure out what kids were thinking when they did something and can approach them from that angle, you'll get a much better response than just assuming "they should know better."


Not that there's no little asshole kids that do shit on purpose or anything, but even them if you can get into their head and figure out what their "goal" is or whatever you'll have a much easier time dealing with them.


I guess just... keep in mind that all those developmental psych classes etc. weren't just required because they sound teacher-ish.

[Correction]

Don't a lot of new teachers quit after two years? Been a while since I heard/saw any real statistics on the matter so don't quote me.

Whether or not you have the fortitude to really teach for a career really comes down on you after a year. Not only are all your best and favorite students going to leave you, but the new crop you get will not seem as exciting or fun as the old one. Repeat this for a few cycles and it'll wear you out if you aren't ready for it.

The other real test is how well you react to the inevitable bouts of student immaturity. At the youngest levels (1-3rd graders) you can make them laugh and distract them out of their misbehavior but past that you're fucked when it comes to uncooperative kids. You can't ignore them since it's your job to teach them the shit, but you can't give them complete control over your class and your undivided attention either. Have fun solving that problem.

And if you can, teach high school. At least uncooperative high schoolers are more surly than boisterous.

I had a summer job TA'ing middle school english classes in college and after I graduated I did JET and taught elementary/middle school kids for 3 years. That's about all I know as far as coping with the difficulties of the job and yes, American kids are 10x harder to deal with as they aren't as fascinated by you as the Japanese kids are.

[pohibaba]

Teaching kids that young is God's work, my man. I taught Kindergarten for 3 months and I was glad when I got back to teaching High School. At least with High School kids you can treat them like adults, but I simply did not know how to relate to kids that young.

[Correction]

It's not that bad if you've studied child psychology, but new teachers are often given nothing of the sort and get thrown to the wolves on their first day. An out of control 7 year old is scary without experience/training.

[Khamsin]

Pay is too low to really say it's a good career. Leave teaching jobs to people who can't do any better than a teacher's salary.

[finitek]

Don't a lot of new teachers quit after two years? Been a while since I heard/saw any real statistics on the matter so don't quote me.

This is a correct statistic, many brand new teachers are being stuck in the schools/classrooms that really need the most experienced teachers possible.
There is really more to the problem than that though.

In California (49th education wise in the US) a brand new teacher still needs to teach for a minimum of two years to clear their credential. During that time new teachers are supposed to get a lot of support from more experienced staff etc. But when the education budgets in multiple states are being slashed by BILLIONS (hello 10 billion gone from CA education budget) its hard to call the profession recession proof. Many new teachers are being thrust into the classroom and being burned out, good thing there is a line of people waiting for the same experience. It takes a lot of effort to not get burned out in a situation like that.

Teaching is something your should do if you really love it, if you are just looking for job security I bet being a plumber is more secure in this economy lol.

[Zalius]

jr. college. no parents, work your own hours, sometimes under 30 per week and make 120k/yr. those are the ballers.

[Andrew]

This is perfect getting all these insights. Just what I needed. Yeah I'm naively into the career because I really do enjoy it. My background is psychology/more right-brained work and it has helped quite a bit so far. The "figure out where the kid is coming from" strategy has worked wonders with my experience. The kids then start to realize that hey this guy really does give a damn so I guess I will too. Never worked with High Schoolers, but from what I'm hearing from a lot of sources it's a decent place to be. Especially if you teach AP stuff.

Jr. College Huh? With 120K a year I could have a really bad drug habit and still make out pretty good lol. Gotta look into that

[Leif]

I recommend teaching in private schools if you have any integrity or desire for teaching. You can do more than give busy work, do babysitting, and have every attempt at reasonable teaching thwarted by administrators aiming for massive grade inflation and standardized test scores.

[Correction]

I recommend teaching in private schools if you have any integrity or desire for teaching.

Private schools started hiring fresh out of school, inexperienced instructors? Since when?

The integrity dig is funny too. Way to smear every public school instructor.

[guartz]

I think Obama said something about making it easier to fire incompetent teachers or something. Anyway, my point is, might be a lot of openings soon.

[GinormousLevi]

I just finished my first year teaching, third grade to be more specific. I think a lot depends on the area you are in and the kids you work with, but the main thing you can do is to simply be flexible and be able to adapt to different situations. No two children are the same (no, not even twins) so take time to get to know your kids at the beginning of the year. Have lunch with three or four of them a day at the beginning of the year until you've gotten to know a little about each student. The #1 compliment I received throughout my first year was about my behavior management. If you can get the kids to love you (perverts exit here please) they will want to behave for you. This book changed my view on classroom management during my student teaching semester. Check it out and see if you can't adapt it to your personality. Good luck!

Amazon.com: Teaching With Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom: Jim Fay, David Funk: Books



Amazon.com: Teaching With Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom: Jim Fay, David Funk: Books

[Beckwin]

I recommend teaching in private schools if you have any integrity or desire for teaching. You can do more than give busy work, do babysitting, and have every attempt at reasonable teaching thwarted by administrators aiming for massive grade inflation and standardized test scores.

I work at a private school and most of the time I feel more like a babysitter than a teacher.

privatized education is terrible in concept because your dickhead boss will 9 times out of 10 prioritize profit over education.

[Senoska]

Does teaching in korea really apply here? Private or otherwise?

The education field seems pretty recession proof

Have you been reading the news lately?

[guartz]

I work at a private school and most of the time I feel more like a babysitter than a teacher.

privatized education is terrible in concept because your dickhead boss will 9 times out of 10 prioritize profit over education.

Are you suggesting people would willing continue to pay for their child's tuition even if the education provided was poor quality?

[Beckwin]

would a yes answer really surprise you?

in response to the OP, what people are saying about layoffs/budget cuts in America is true; a couple people I knew from HS were very worried about losing their teaching jobs recently. However, if you're up for going abroad, there's a huge demand for teachers, and with a teaching degree and experience, you can be fairly picky about the job you want. So if you really love/like teaching, go for it- you can make it work for you somewhere.

[zoobernut]

Pay is too low to really say it's a good career. Leave teaching jobs to people who can't do any better than a teacher's salary.

It really depends on how long you have been teaching and what level you are teaching. Obviously it is really easy to get paid a lot at a JC or a College. You can even work up to a really decently high salary as a high school teacher. I think it is really dependent on the housing market in the area where you live because a lot of money for public schools comes from property taxes.

My sister has been a hs teacher for a very long time and she works at a public hs in a nice area outside of Sacramento and she does very well for herself.

[Darus Grey]

College is the sweet life. Work 6-9 hours a weak(of actual work...you still gotta BE on campus a lot longer, but it's not so much work as just hanging out...I think I had people attend like 5 of my office hours EVER, this is why research is a popular hobby), and make high 5/low 6 figures.

I can't imagine rationalizing wanting to teach elementary or HS other than the "somebody HAS to do it" angle.