Teaching Sucks!!!!

Baller benefits, no performance expectations, 3-month paid vacation. Yeah, that sucks. Sure, the pay isn't great, but you really aren't doing much anyways.

2323423 wrote:

Baller benefits, no performance expectations, 3-month paid vacation. Yeah, that sucks. Sure, the pay isn't great, but you really aren't doing much anyways.

Baller benefits- I do get health insurance, I pay a small percentage of the individual premium, I pay most of the premium for my wife and son, the insurance is not very good. The pension is good, assuming it survives the politicians stealing from it and then rewriting the law so they have to pay me even less than promised while I pay increasingly more into it each year. Really no other benefits after that. Vision and dental at my own expense. No bonuses or stock. I have my own retirement account that I pay into, but no matching contributions.

Performance expectations- formal observations every other year, informal observations all the time. Evaluation comes with the formal observations. Evaluation involves test scores, surveys, evidence collection, classroom data, and observations. Expectations are pretty high at my school, so I wouldn't say there are no performance expectations. Tenure has basically been gutted in my state as well, so there is little protection there.

3-month paid vacation- the district hires me to teach 180 days out of the year. They pay me for that time. They get much more than that out of me, but that is what they pay me for. If that translates to three months of paid vacation to you, so be it. That argument is old and boring.

Pay isn't great- agreed

I don't hate teaching. It is rewarding at times, frustrating at times, exhausting most of the time. I love coaching, and it is why, at least partly, I still teach.

The group on here who constantly wants to bask teaching is boring. You have the same hackneyed arguments which hold little water in the real world. Try to come up with something original, or better yet, find an actual teacher and find out what the profession really involves.

I wish education was private, because I would enjoy teaching, but there is no way that I could stand to answer to the gov and teach common core.

Oftenrunning52 wrote:

The group on here who constantly wants to bask teaching is boring. You have the same hackneyed arguments which hold little water in the real world. Try to come up with something original, or better yet, find an actual teacher and find out what the profession really involves.

"Which hold little water in the real world." You actually say that followed by "Try to come up with something original..."

You've sure got some moxie.

stop cutting your dicks men wrote:

I wish education was private, because I would enjoy teaching, but there is no way that I could stand to answer to the gov and teach common core.

There is a part of me that agrees with you. Common Core is not really what many say it is, and I don't see it as a federal government take over of education. You make of it what you want. At least in my state, I hardly see where the funding will come from to implement the testing that goes along with Common Core. Without that funding, the new standards are basically meaningless. If you approach teaching as fundamentally a profession where you trying to show your passion for a subject to an audience, it's great on some days and tolerable on the bad days. Having said that, I understand anyone on the outside being reluctant to get in.

I have friends who are teachers. They openly admit to me that they recycle lesson plans from year to year and they rarely do any school related work after school hours. They just grade the tests and papers while the students are at lunch/gym/music class/etc.

Go work in behavioral health for a few months and then try complaining about being a teacher....

trollololol wrote:

I have friends who are teachers. They openly admit to me that they recycle lesson plans from year to year and they rarely do any school related work after school hours. They just grade the tests and papers while the students are at lunch/gym/music class/etc.

Go work in behavioral health for a few months and then try complaining about being a teacher....

Not complaining about teaching. Not looking to switch jobs. Just tired of listening to crap being spouted off by people who are ignorant about what it takes to teach.

My high school students may go to gym and music, but when they leave the next class comes in.

In China, I had a free driver, a chef, my own paid place, and total and instant respect.

Education wrote:

I have taught before and seriously, it does. Low pay, no respect, and teaching kids where 95% of them have a very very dull future ahead of them.

Satisfaction with teaching depends on the subject you teach, the school you teach at, your administration, and your personal disposition towards the profession.

I make decent money and I dont have to work during the summer. That is why I teach. Many others have different reasons for teaching, but I would rather have fun in the sun as much as possible instead of sit in an office. Not to say I dont care about the kids, but most of them dont give a crap anyways and its pretty hard to change that, so I just do my job. I coach track and love it. I teach the same simple curriculum year after year, it gets boring but I dont care about work. I care about enjoying my life and working as a teacher just provides me with sufficient financial resources and time to do so.

Education wrote:

I have taught before and seriously, it does. Low pay, no respect, and teaching kids where 95% of them have a very very dull future ahead of them.

The REASON 95% of kids have a very dull future ahead of them is because the school system is stupid. Instead of teaching a bunch of useless information teach them what they need to know so their future is BETTER! Teach them SKILLS and knowledge to start their own business and make money! It is not money that is the root of evil is the LACK of it!

Go away, Republican!

Super Jay Five wrote:

It is not money that is the root of evil is the LACK of it!

The saying isn't that money is the root of all evil, but rather that the love of money (i.e. greed) is the root of all bad things. Given the number of people on here who make six figures and feel as if they live in dire poverty, I'd say that saying is at least somewhat accurae.

Today, I did something really bad. I have a 7th period class that is wild beyond belief. It's like trying to heard cats with them. They are mostly 9th graders who are immature, can't sit still, or pay attention long enough to listen to directions. It's incredibly frustrating trying to teach then and on top of that it's a class with 36 students (1st level Spanish).

Today, I finally got really fed up with them and let them have it. I told them "I'm getting to the point where I don't give a crap about whether they learn or not because they don't pay attention to a word I say". They got really quiet and I could tell they were somewhat hurt because the rest of the period they behaved better...but I feel guilty for telling them I basically am giving up on them. I really didn't mean it because I do care and try very hard everyday to teach, re-teach material they don't get, and put in lots of hours tailoring lessons for this specific class and the challenges they bring. I shouldn't have gone off on the like I did and I feel this will only make matters worse with them. I also feel guilty for making them feel bad...but if the rest of the year continues like this, I seriously don't know what I will do with them.

It's funny because the other 4 classes I have are a dream. I love teaching these 4 other classes, enjoy the kids, they enjoy me, and their grades are so much higher than this 7th period class. I know being the last class of the day has something to do with it but I've never had a class where so many kids just want to talk, goof off, and ignore every word I say. It's frustrating beyond belief. Any teachers have any tips? should I just find a way to kick out those 5-10 kids who talk, socialize and don't take the class seriously?

Super Jay Five wrote:

Education wrote:

I have taught before and seriously, it does. Low pay, no respect, and teaching kids where 95% of them have a very very dull future ahead of them.

The REASON 95% of kids have a very dull future ahead of them is because the school system is stupid. Instead of teaching a bunch of useless information teach them what they need to know so their future is BETTER! Teach them SKILLS and knowledge to start their own business and make money! It is not money that is the root of evil is the LACK of it!

No matter what you teach, 95% of em will still end up on welfare, in jail, pregnant with multiple baby daddies, or at best working some trade like plumbing or truck driving. Why waste brain power trying to teach them biology.

Super Jay Five wrote:

The REASON 95% of kids have a very dull future ahead of them is because the school system is stupid. Instead of teaching a bunch of useless information teach them what they need to know so their future is BETTER! Teach them SKILLS and knowledge to start their own business and make money! It is not money that is the root of evil is the LACK of it!

false. by the time a kid gets to high school its very hard to turn a kid completely around for better. It's the parents fault. You can teach almost kid, but he has to actually want to learn and have motivation in the first place. alot of kids just dont care at all.

The argument about pay is false in my opinion. As an earlier poster stated, I am contracted to work 180 days, and only 8 hours per day. If you calculate the hourly pay, for a job that changes very little from year to year, the pay is quite good.

That said, I work many more than 180 days (grading/planning on weekends), and many more than 8 hours per day, but that is my choice because I want to be the best dang teacher in the building. No one walks into my class room and 3:30 and says "yeah, if you could stay until 5:30, that would be greaaat."

I tell you what does piss me off though. I am a high school math teacher with 3 years experience. When people look at whether my school is succeeding or failing, the math scores are one of the first items people reference. Why in the hell does a PE teacher with 15 years experience get paid $12k more per year than me to teach? Also, PE teachers can more easily supplement their income through coaching because of little to no prep and grading time.

trollololol wrote:

I have friends who are teachers. They openly admit to me that they recycle lesson plans from year to year and they rarely do any school related work after school hours. They just grade the tests and papers while the students are at lunch/gym/music class/etc.

Sounds like your friends are pretty crappy teachers.

There's a lot of pessimism about the schools in the news and Republicans and sometimes Democrats harp on that side of the news to push through their agendas, which usually involve privatization and breaking unions (see Rahm Emmanuel in Chicago or Arne Duncan or Jeb Bush). But if you actually look at the #'s, we are not doing so badly but demographics are an issue. The percentage of the 18-24 year old population in college has risen from about 26 percent to nearly 40 percent in the last twenty years or so. SAT scores have remained nearly constant. And this amid a demographic shift where the percentage of non-white students, many of whom are significantly poorer than the white population, has increased significantly. What that means is that the system, with all its flaws and some bad ideas being introduced in recent years, is actually performing better with the preparation level and home background of kids than in the past. Just look at the news recently to see them bemoaning that only some small percentage is prepared for college when in fact those same tests saw improvements in the results. Only the crisis model enables them to push through their own agendas.

Education wrote:

I have taught before and seriously, it does. Low pay, no respect, and teaching kids where 95% of them have a very very dull future ahead of them.

It is not low pay for a part time job! And from the point of view of someone in the corporate world, teaching is a part-time job.

Why not teach elementary school instead? Same pay and grading / lesson planning can't take very long.