I hate being a teacher...what do i do

how long have you been teaching? 1 year? What grade level and what kind of school?

I have taught for 13 years and the first year is the toughest. You might want to look at different schools for a better situation. That might help. Also getting involved in school such as coaching can make it more rewarding. If you like av stuff see if you could teach that. We offer it at our vocational school

Careful Lech,

Just be careful entering the corporate world, that is all I am saying...

Right now you have a 3-month vacation each year right?

Maybe I will take your job for you. Want to trade? I am in media and I work like a slave.

lech fan wrote:

I am a teacher right now and it f* sucks, i have no idea why i wanted to do this. But i know i need out...what else should i do with my life. Any ideas???

P.S. I like media shit and am thinking of going back to school for video editing or making commercials or something like that.

Um...with the unemployment level at about 5% and word that more and more companies are going to be hiring soon, just go pick the job you want. Seriously.

What teacher has a 3 month vacation? I've never heard of it.

Careful wrote:

Right now you have a 3-month vacation each year right?

Maybe I will take your job for you. Want to trade? I am in media and I work like a slave.

It's more like 10 weeks for most of us. And there's a couple weeks in there where you're getting your room ready and dealing with stuff before school actually starts.

We work 7am-5pm, then take a couple hours of work home a night. So figure a 12 hour day. Sometimes you spend a couple hours grading papers on the weekend as well. If you coach or have a club that could easily add even more time every day. Most teachers are putting in as many (or more) hours than your average corporate desk jockey. Oh, and we make a lot less.

I hope no one took offense to my statement, I did not mean you didn't work hard, I just thought most of you had a solid break each summer, 10 weeks is still pretty good.

There are 2 types of hard work:

1 - The type where someone is breathing down your neck and you manage to provide acceptable work under the unproductive and stressful atmosphere

2 - The type where you are free to work your ass of and can flourish without some jackass johnny-on-the-spot playing his power trip.

I believe the latter is the atmosphere in which the "hardest" work gets done. Just make sure whatever career you choose allows you to work in good conditions.

If you don't like being a teacher you can always have a relationship with one of your students. Besides that should give you a head start in the media world.

The only "issue" I have with teaching is how one regurgitates the same knowledge over and over again. It's not like you're going to teach a new concept or a new idea, especially if you are in elementary or middle school. Just my issue. I tried it and switched careers. Teaching is not for me, even though my entire family is full of educators. I am a different sort of educator: a coach.

I heard that you can make a good living at poker

150 students, 300 parents and an administration breathing down your neck is pretty stressful. I think what people don't understand is we have to deal with people all day every day. There is no time to sit down in quiet.

I hear you

Downhill is fun on a bike wrote:

150 students, 300 parents and an administration breathing down your neck is pretty stressful. I think what people don't understand is we have to deal with people all day every day. There is no time to sit down in quiet.

Exactly. And teachers deal with things that individuals in other fields would never have to worry about. Just today my assistant principal informed me that the parents of one of my students found out that I live with my girlfriend, and wanted to make sure that I never brought that up in class so their child does not think its okay for a man and woman to live together before marriage. Mind you this is in a public school in a very liberal area of the country.

Slim wrote:

Exactly. And teachers deal with things that individuals in other fields would never have to worry about. Just today my assistant principal informed me that the parents of one of my students found out that I live with my girlfriend, and wanted to make sure that I never brought that up in class so their child does not think its okay for a man and woman to live together before marriage. Mind you this is in a public school in a very liberal area of the country.

This is one HUGE reason I pulled the plug on a job I loved in many ways. I couldn't stand the idea that I was treated as public property, and subject to the "most PC common denominator" factor, without any reasonable compensation for it. I'm sure there are teaching situations that aren't like that (and I've been lucky to find a few in the private sector), but by and large it is pretty stupid out there.

Slim wrote:

[quote]Downhill is fun on a bike wrote:

Just today my assistant principal informed me that the parents of one of my students found out that I live with my girlfriend, and wanted to make sure that I never brought that up in class so their child does not think its okay for a man and woman to live together before marriage. Mind you this is in a public school in a very liberal area of the country.

Tell these parents to homeschool their kid so they don't have to be exposed to the real world.

I intercepted a note from a student that said "die Mr. **** motherf***er" and asked my principal to switch the student to another team so I wouldn't have to deal with the student any more.

What happened instead? I got 5 weeks paid leave and the district made me go see a psychaitrist. Two, actually. What I was up against was my principal and superintendent implying that somehow I must have deserved the death threat.

The actual teaching is always very satisfying, but the outside factors make me think I'd be better off doing something else.

Oh, the student was suspended for one day.

yeah, go pick the job you want like Flaghole said. President would be a good choice.

I taught and I left it. I loved coaching and hated teaching. No actually I like teaching, I hated dealing with discipline problems, and one of my principals.

Just be carful before you get yet another degree and find out that career is just as bad. Maybe work somewhere else and then see what kind of degree you would need to advance in the company/field.

Also, I suggest you quit. Don't just do like most teachers and b!tch about how you hate it. Most teachers are too scared to do anything else and they have their beloved tenure & summer vacation, so they aren't giving that up.

(For all you teachers that say "it's ONLY 10 weeks and maybe really only 8 weeks." Go on a real job interview and tell them you want 8 weeks vacation and see how far you get.)

I agree that it is nice having summers but a common misconception is I sit on my ass all day. I continue to go to graduate classes and seminars and research new material. I really thing it should be a full year job with research or some other work done in the summer to keep people from saying "it must be nice having the summers off!"

I haven't taken a summer off since I was 13...