Any teachers relocate to Florida?

[Disneymomma]

Are any of you teachers who have relocated to Florida? Is there any advice you can give? Are there any districts to steer away from? How do you compensate for the loss in pay between your home state and Florida? Do they start you as a first year teacher, or give you credit for the years you have been teaching? We are looking around the Orlando area. Any advice you can give would be appreciated.

 

[chrissyk]

I'm not a teacher (yet), but I've been in contact with a very nice person from the "No Child Left Behind" group in Osceola County. I want to do the "Time to Teach" program to become a high-school math teacher. I'm hoping to start the online stuff shortly. My background is engineering, so hopefully they will accept me into the program.

Anyways, the person that I've been in contact with has been very receptive to my emails, and has explained things nicely to me. I don't know anything about pay differentials, but I'm assuming that if you have a masters, you start at masters pay. Cost of living is much lower in FL than where I'm from, so the pay differential may be made up there.

If you look at the Florida DOE website, you can see what you have to do to get a FL certification. If you're already certified elsewhere, it may be recriprocal.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

I always think that if I get a supervisory certificate, I'll check things out down there. I have several things holding me back: we live in a great district up here in Ohio, I know the pay will be less in Florida, and my parents live here with no intention at all of moving. Unless one of those things changes, I'll probably get to at least 30 years here (12 left!).
I knew a guy who retired here and moved to teach in Florida--getting his Florida teaching pay and his Ohio teaching pension. That's the ticket!
Robin M.

 

[bobcat]

Robin that would be the way to do it! I have so many years to go before I reach 30 I can't even begin to think about that yet. LOL Besides who knows what will happen to our state teachers retirement by then.

All I know is that I run in to former teachers that are now working at Disney. I tell my students that if they ever drive me totally insane that's where my second career will be.

 

[phamton]

My husband and I are both teachers. I retired from teaching but he is still teaching. We moved from Texas and the pay is about the same here as it was there. He got credit for his teaching years so, no, you don't start out as a first year teacher. You do have 1 year to get your FL teaching certificate which wasn't difficult at all. If you have one from another state, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Most of the school districts have a website where you can fill out an application online. My husband was actually hired over the phone without a face to face interview so he had a job waiting for him when we got here. The principal tried to talk me into teaching here also but I decided it was time for retirement. If you have specific questions, feel free to PM me.

Bev