CPA turned high school teacher

yes u have to bill at every cpa firm that i'm aware of, big or small. It's required to bill 40 per week, and then 55 during tax season. and the bigger the firm, the bigger that requirement usually is. and it's unspoken that you'll work more than that. remember that is BILLABLE hours, not hours at work. So it's time actually spent being productive, which makes for even longer days at the office for most of us.

Also, I'm mostly in tax work but I work for a large local firm AND i'm in my first year so with that being said I do a little of everything. In fact, i have 2 audits planned for july. The smaller firms don't make you decide for a year or two.

I'm excited to try and teach. Should be much more relaxed. My sisters teach and they say it's as easy or as hard as you want it to be.

Being the lazy person that I choose to be, with the way I see it, you go to work at 8 and come home at 4 on average. At high schools around here you have 3-4 classes to teach and then 1-2 hours during the day of "prep" where you either can take it easy or get grading done. Then your lunch period. I don't even eat lunch most of the time at the firm so it'll be sweet having that everyday and not working extra long just cos you took one. So with my math, in teaching you actually work (what we'd call billable at the firm) 5-6 hrs a day if that, and come home 2-3 hours earlier than i do now, wow. And then those summers... ahhhhh. And those 3 weeks for xmas break, and spring break week, and all those 3 day weekends. dammn.

I retired after teaching high school for 31 years- I loved it mostly but there are a lot of negatives.Sure you get the summers off, but you have to keep taking classes which are expensive and time consuming. I also worked with student teachers from the local university and saw how young teachers get treated sometimes. Plus, it is not an easy day. For one, there is little down time during the day. You are ON for 5 hours a day -repsonsible for up to 32 kids- all who have their own agendas. In the first 10 years I taught, I was given the worst classes which is pretty typical. I taught in a middle class suburban school grades 10-12 and had death threats, desks thrown at me, kids who would not listen and refused to be quiet, kids who openly defied my authority every day. And I was one of the better disciplinarians -many teachers had a much harder time. There were classes which daily I dreaded seeing. If you are too easy or too hard, they rebel or walk all over you. In my last 16 years I was able to teach the advanced placement kids and that was a dream job. I was intellectually challenged and had few problem with discipline. But those first few years can be hell sometimes. Most people who get into teaching from the corporate world think it is going to be much less stressful and time consuming and are surprised when it is not. Do yourself a favor and go observe at a local high school for a week-not just the advanced placement classes but watch a young teacher. Talk to him or her about what really goes on with the new No Child Left Behind laws. Then decide.

You don't need to get certified to teach in an independent (private) school. The pay is generally a bit worse, but you have less students in each class (15, often) and there is far less beauracracy.

Look at NAIS.org for job listings.

What state you from?

One other thing to consider is retirement. While you may think this is a long way off and you need not worry about it, it will become an issue in time. Teaching in a Catholic may be wonderful and you may not need certification, but will not earn enough money to live a normal life. Unless you are independly wealthy, look at your state's teacher retirement system up front and if you can move, do so to a state with a great plan. 30 years from now you will be very happy with your decision to move.

I am familiar with a few plans. Illinois' plan is decent as I believe you get 75% of your final four year average if you teach 35 years. You can also apply two years of sick days to your retirement, which means you can retire in 33 years with a full pension. Additionally, you get something like 3% raises every year on your retirement income. A friend of mine, who has been teaching and coaching approximately 25 years, teachers in a suburb nortwest of the city and makes something like 115K annually. He works hard for the money, but he is paid like all good teachers should be paid. Indiana's retirement plan is very poor, so stay away. Rhode Island has a solid plan as well. Not sure about the other states.

Well the thing about teaching is that we've all been in school before. We've all gone to high school. And we aren't dumb, we know what they do and what it takes. No teacher will ever convince me that they have it that bad. I mean 5 hrs running of actually working and THAT's supposed to be bad? That is exactly my point of why I want to do it. I'll take 5 over 9-10 anyday.

Not to mention I've had 3 sisters do the teaching thing and my high school coach (25+ yrs teaching) is one of my best friends and the person I seek this sort of advice from more than anyone. And yes, some teachers (like one of my sisters) have too much pride to admit it's potentiall the easiest job you can find. But most are willing to admit it. Summers are off.

With teaching almost ANYTHING else that you do outside of your average workday you get paid extra for whether it's coaching or summer school or whatever. And what do you mean taking classes all the time? You don't have to do that sorta thing. You just have to be certified from what I'm told. Shoot, even a masters degree scares off most districts as one poster already said.

I come from a pretty rough hood and don't plan on teaching around here, because the stress involved in babysitting those kids (and keeping yourself alive) isn't worth the paycut. But if it's how it winds up then I think teaching 4 or 5 business courses to them, and only directly seeing a kid's face for about an hour tops before they go to their next class will be a bit different then dealing with the same 30 kids all day. Remember, I want to be a high school accounting teacher in a decent neighborhood..not a 6th grade teacher in the hood. But thanks for the worst case scenario advice.

Lol. Go teach one year and youll be beggin to go back to the workforce.

I started off right away teaching chemistry, AP chemistry, and physics. I started my own AP physics section as well. The first year was fun. The 2nd year it sucked. I began dreading certain periods and it really became laborious. It wasn't for me. I now work as an analytical chemist in a lab and am much happier. You have to want to do it and enjoy the kids. Discipline is hell. They will walk all over you.

Just know going in it might be rough but you can get it ironed out. Experience helps. Teaching will not be about your subject matter; it will be all about managing KIDS all day. Good luck to you.

JohnDeere = one of the teachers with too much pride to admit it.

Education is very important nowadays. We are all people and we need to receive it as efficiently as possible. I always wondered how teachers cope with such a load and manage to teach us. But of course they can’t always tell everything, and if you think that you don’t have anyone to ask, then you are mistaken because https://papersbattle.com/best-research-paper-writing-services/ gives you a lot of information that you can get at any time from any device and read information about each best research paper writing services.

I thought you wanted to coach? You're not going to get away with coming home at 4 and doing nothing Friday+Saturday. Presumably you like running but you're still turning it into a responsibility instead of a hobby.

Your first few years you will have to sort out your lesson plans, etc. so it will be more work than the school hours. Smoother sailing after that.

hipman wrote:

interested in becoming a high school teacher.

bump n grind yall.

OK, R Kelly.

Maybe you shouldn't have a job where you are around high school girls all day.

Be careful of the decisions you make early in life. I went the public accounting big firm you are talking about, learned auditing, learned business, got MBA, jobs with large companies. Learned more and jockeyed my my to large income year after year. You have to pay your dues in any profession and it starts after graduation. You build on all that. If you get to a higher level you can always walk away but if you don’t stay with it, you won’t get the same chances later. Work hard early in your career then cruise later.

If you aren’t motivated to put in the effort, make the switch, but from what I hear, parents, administrators and bad students spoil teaching too. Not to even mention your increases are decided by local politicians. Trust me, life will get much more expensive later; families cost a lot to raise. Sure you can buy a cheap house, but will the future wife like the school district or the one with the $500k houses?? Think it through and get as many facts as you can before you change it up.

Old Hobby Jogger CPA wrote:

Be careful of the decisions you make early in life.

Be especially careful of the decision to respond to a 14 year old thread. Good grief.

Look at the date wrote:

Old Hobby Jogger CPA wrote:

Be careful of the decisions you make early in life.

Be especially careful of the decision to respond to a 14 year old thread. Good grief.

Ha! The necromancers always sucker in a few into responding.

Anyway, I'd be careful about becoming a teacher. Every teacher friend I have spends all year counting down...to fall break, to winter break, to spring break, to summer break. Then they mourn and wail when they have to go back. I gather that they truly do hate their jobs since they basically spend every work day wishing their lives away.

BaileyAkhtar wrote:

Education is very important nowadays. We are all people and we need to receive it as efficiently as possible. I always wondered how teachers cope with such a load and manage to teach us. But of course they can’t always tell everything, and if you think that you don’t have anyone to ask, then you are mistaken because

https://papersbattle.com/best-research-paper-writing-services/

gives you a lot of information that you can get at any time from any device and read information about each best research paper writing services.

What a jackass you are, Bailey.