Teachers/Educators Thread • Page 3

love linguistics. Kids getting stoked on language is the only thing that gets me through the day.

 

I've been thinking about getting a teaching credential, but I'm not sure if I'm "fit" to be a teacher, and I'm not sure if it's something I'll enjoy doing for the rest of my life or enjoy doing at all. I would be interested in teaching in field such as PE, health, biology, and anatomy/physiology. The downside of bio and a&p is at the high school level, you do dissections (at least my hs did), and dissections isn't something I would be willing to teach and walk students through. I also don't know what goes into getting a single subject credential like, do you retake certain classes that you're interesting in teaching, what other types of classes do you take, whats student teaching like, etc. Any advice whatsoever would be wonderful.

 

I work as a 9th grade English teacher on the island of St. Croix (google it).

It's rough. Low student motivation. Low pay (though not the worst). High cost of living. Difficult to get materials unless you pay 100% out of pocket (which I do). 100% of the student population is on free lunch program. 95% live in poverty.

But hey, the weather is good.

 

Had an issue today where my principal completely undermined the way I handled a discipline situation in front of the student. Countless examples of her being unprofessional, I'm happy to be leaving.

 

Today I was being observed and evaluated by my boss so of course this kid threw a massive tantrum, throwing chairs across the room, screaming at the top of his lungs, pounding on things and ripping stuff off the walls to the point where my boss had to stop observing and step in. I feel like there's only so much you can do with that tho so I hope I don't get slammed too hard but I feel like it also can't be good. I won't know until next week prob. ugh.

 

In my first year teaching High School Math. And overall I absolutely love it, but boy is it a roller coaster of emotions. Need more time to give more detail about how it has gone, but I do picture myself staying in the profession for the long term.

 

I'm not a teacher but my wife has been for four years now. I have complete respect for everybody who does it. She comes home stressed out pretty often from just the politics of the job.

She's thinking about moving to a different profession at this point. I feel like she's such a good teacher but I'm supportive of anything she wants to do. Have any teachers here thought about moving on to something else or know what kind of career a teacher's skill set might lend nicely to?

 

My wife taught and has since moved on. She became a recruiter for an IT staffing firm and is now moved to sales which is recruiting companies to use hers to hire people. I former teacher friend left teaching and got her the job.

She said they liked people like teachers because communication skills type things, cold calling people and being able to talk to people. She could also kinda instruct and help teach recruits interview skills to land jobs and stay employed.

 

Thanks for the info man I'll let her know about that. Sounds like something she'd be good at for sure. Glad your wife was able to find a new career path!

 

in my first year of teaching now. there are days when I absolutely love it and there are days where I consider putting in my two weeks. it's easily the hardest thing I've ever done. truly a roller coaster ride. people have told me that it only gets better from here, so here's hoping that it does.

 

So many teachers over here, it's great! :) I also teach in a private school, people of all ages and all levels, it's really interesting, but that's just a part of my duties here, seeings as I mostly work an office job, and have a few groups of students to take care of. On top of that I'm responsible for covering for anyone's absences as a substitute teacher - and that thing is definitely, as someone mentioned, a rollercoaster! :) I've been having those jumps where you have just 5 minutes between being a clown for a group of 5y.o. kids, and sitting down with 55y.o. adults to talk about their lives and travels or whatever. It's mostly fun :)

 

Couldn't agree more with this. There are days where I have an incredible high from teaching the kids and then there are days where I feel tiny and lost. The highs do out weight lows and I try to keep focusing on small positives rather than small negatives and build upon that.

Here's to more consistent highs than lows for the future

 

My TA was gone today. It wasn't actually that bad because there were people there to help me cover, but she may be gone tomorrow and will be gone Thursday and it'll be harder. She's a hard worker who is indispensable so it's fine, but the selfish part of me is frustrated. We pay so little to subs that we don't ever have any on standby and so we all get screwed not being able to do our own work to cover for people who are gone. It's just hard

 

I think it will get better and better as we go, but I can't wait for June.

 

Just stumbled on this thread. I'm in my 10th year of teaching 8th Grade Language Arts.

 

I have one month and two days left of work before summer break, but I'm not counting or anything...

 

Between AIR, MAP, and SLO, this time of year sucks. Seriously averaging two tests a week until the end of the school year. The kids are sick of it, I'm sick of it. I thought switching away from PARCC was supposed to lessen the amount of testing (which technically it did, but from something like 19 to 17 total hours).

 

I teach Middle School Orchestra. First year was a nightmare because of discipline but now I really enjoy it and I think teaching music is a fantasy land compared to teaching Core subjects. Every kid is there because they signed up for it, which probably makes a world of a difference. Core teachers are my heroes though.

 

Anyone gotten anything good from your school/pto/students so far this week?

 

are you moving on to another teacher job?

also, rough stuff going on in detroit the last two days.

 

Yessir leaving for a charter school next year. Pay raise, closer to home, more comfortable with the student demographic etc. Happy to be leaving, sad to leave some of the kids though

 

congrats on the pay raise. I'm currently in a charter.

 

Originally went to school and got a B.S. in Advertising/Visual Communication but ended up back in my small hometown and decided to teach instead, so I went back to school online for 2 years while teaching full time through Arizona's Alternative Pathways program.

Now I've been teaching for 6 years. PreK-8 Tech, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 6th. Next year back to 4th! I have to say I wasn't a big fan of the 6th graders and am happy to be returning to 4th. Haha.

 

Just had a pretty startling reminder of the impact of teachers on our lives, which makes me hope I can leave the same type of impact on students in the future.

I substitute teach in the district I grew up in for the most part (minus right now where I;m doing a leave replacement in another district)...the district's facebook just posted that my 2nd grade teacher, who has been teaching for 27 years now, has died after a brief illness. I have seen her maybe two or three times since I "graduated" that elementary school, and only one of those times was within the last 4 years. But when I was there she was my favorite teacher that I had and she loved me and my mom, who was the "class mom" at certain points that was there to help out with everything. She even came to my house to do a project for her masters degree where she had to use a student to do a certain activity with and all that.

I just found myself tearing up/crying at my desk for this lady that I have not seen or spoken to more than once in the last 18 years. And I'm sure part of that is because I know her students must be devestated and I feel so so bad for them and for everyone at that school. But I'm usually good about keeping it together with things like that if the people affected aren't people I know personally (aka her students this year). So I can only imagine that part of it is the deep impact this woman made on my life at a young and impressionable age and how much having her as a teacher must have meant to me and my entire experience growing up in school, even if it's not something I thought a lot about on more than a subconscious level.

 

I'm a secondary education major. I'm currently in my first year of schooling at my local community college, where I'm taking care of all my prerequisites and gen ed courses, and I'll be transferring to a four-year university after I complete those requirements. I'll be pursuing certification in English education, perhaps with a minor in history (that's certainly how I'm leaning but it's not technically decided yet). I concurrently feel excited for my future as a teacher and uncertain about a lot of things. but, I can't envision myself doing anything else and my drive to help and nurture kids is much greater than the fears I have.

It feels like it will be a long road but hopefully a rewarding one when all is said and done.