New career options for a teacher

[morgan98]

I was about to reply, then read this...




Many accounting (public accounting) jobs aren't really "math" based but more of accounting and (assuming its tax related) tax law/regulations and how to properly apply it. I've done both public and private accounting and while each has me dealing with numbers daily, its not really "math" based. It helps that I enjoy math and numbers, but not really the main focus.

I love being an EA (Enrolled Agent) for a public accounting firm. Yes, "tax season" is MANY MANY hours put in and can get stressful in the 10 week period, but this is something I knew coming into it. Being at a small, privately owned firm, we get comp time for all the "OT" we do during tax season. That now allows us to take the time off during the "off season"..... which happens to be the SUMMER!! Not all firms do this, so I am thrilled to have this option.

Yes, you added more to the discussion than I was willing to type out. Many people assume CPAs love math (I happen to like math very much but that really has nothing to do with my day to day job). It is more accounting theory and knowledge of business operations.

Hours in public accounting firms are different depending on the firm. Depending on the type of tax work, it is possible to have a lighter summer season. However, our professional staff have a heavy schedule in summer and fall too, due to corporate extensions. Not to mention the auditors who audit public companies, etc. who have heavy work loads at different times.

I was just responding to the poster who said that accounting may be an option. I don't really think being a math teacher transitions into being a CPA.

 

[bunny]

The initial point I was making about envying the time teachers get off in the summer had nothing to do with whether it was paid or unpaid. As my children get older, I realize how much time I lost with them working all the time. When they were little I only had two weeks a year vacation. I have a little more now, but I would gladly trade extra income for more days off. Teachers may not get paid in the summer, but to be able to take the summer off and come back to my job without any repercussions would be amazing. I can never take more than a week off, because when I come back, all my work is waiting for me. I also get called every day when I am off, so I never really get a break. I was only trying to tell the OP that the grass is always greener. School is almost over and she has the whole summer to spend hanging with her 3 year old. To me that is priceless. Also as a mom working hours in line with your children's schedule would be amazing. My son plays volleyball and the games are at 4 o'clock. I usually work from 8:30 to 6:00 (no overtime) and because we are so busy it is impossible for me to leave early. I only got to see one of his games this year. It doesn't bother him, because he doesn't know any different, but I feel sad. Most of the time I don't mind my job, but those things really bother me. Just remember that when you are thinking of changing jobs. Even if you have to grade papers at night, you have flexibility. Most other jobs do not.

 

[bunny]

I don't know anyone that gets 30 days PTO every year. At our company you max out at 15.

 

[Patch'sD]

In my district which is on Long Island the average Teacher is making over $ 100,000 per year. They need this amount of salary to make it here which has a very high cost of living.

They are contracted for 182 days per year. High School and Middle School teachers are required to teach four classes per day which last about 52 minutes. They must get at least one free lunch period per day and have one period for classroom prep. One period must be spent providing some sort of supervision. One 30 minute session of morning extra help per week and One 30 minute session of afterschool extra help per week. Attend two parent teacher conferences nights. There is also a requirement for bus duty. The school schedule is 180 days in which 15 days per year are allocated for testing ( Midterms, finals, and State Regents Testing). They are allocated 7 days of Sick or Personal time. If not used this time can be saved and cashed out after a certain level is achieved or at termination/retirement. If the private Sector did this, they would go broke.

So the 182 days is contracted, but the Salary is an annual one, so yes the 10 week summer break is a paid vacation.

 

[ilovefh]

The initial point I was making about envying the time teachers get off in the summer had nothing to do with whether it was paid or unpaid. As my children get older, I realize how much time I lost with them working all the time. When they were little I only had two weeks a year vacation. I have a little more now, but I would gladly trade extra income for more days off. Teachers may not get paid in the summer, but to be able to take the summer off and come back to my job without any repercussions would be amazing. I can never take more than a week off, because when I come back, all my work is waiting for me. I also get called every day when I am off, so I never really get a break. I was only trying to tell the OP that the grass is always greener. School is almost over and she has the whole summer to spend hanging with her 3 year old. To me that is priceless. Also as a mom working hours in line with your children's schedule would be amazing. My son plays volleyball and the games are at 4 o'clock. I usually work from 8:30 to 6:00 (no overtime) and because we are so busy it is impossible for me to leave early. I only got to see one of his games this year. It doesn't bother him, because he doesn't know any different, but I feel sad. Most of the time I don't mind my job, but those things really bother me. Just remember that when you are thinking of changing jobs. Even if you have to grade papers at night, you have flexibility. Most other jobs do not.

I posted a thread similar to this thread 2 or so years ago. This new form of "teaching" is really draining. Right now I'm a SAHM which will last 2 years but after that I need to get back to work. We can survive on one income, but not the way we want to. I've been toying around the idea of what I will do in the fall of 2016. I have always wanted to go into the healthcare field but one of the things that keeps making me come back to teaching is the time off with my son. I posted above that I calculated it and I worked 217 days per year, but that still allowed me to travel home for two weeks each summer, spend a week at Thanksgiving with my son, spend 2 weeks at Christmas with him and a week in March as well. I think that is pretty fair. While I did take a considerable amount of work home, I always tried to do it while he was sleeping (staying up that late stinks by the way.)

Now teaching in NH versus teaching in FL is very different hours wise. In FL I taught 6 classes. There I had 1 planning period per day but 3 of those were taken up with "optional" meetings, again, the kind that are optional but "we know who comes and who doesn't." Couple that with the fact that I didn't even have a whole class set of textbooks nevermind enough for each kid so I had to photocopy everything I wanted kids to have, (with only 500 copies per month, but that is a separate thread!) Add to that our day is from 8:30-4:10 and I had to leave at 4:10 to be at daycare which closed at 4:30. I took a lot of work home.

In NH I had 2 planning periods per day, 1 each week was used for a meeting. I only taught 4 classes. Hours were from 7:15-2:45. I was able to stay until 4 or even 4:30 of needed and that time coupled with my planning time I was able to get a lot of my work done. Each student had a textbook so no endless photocopying needed. There was also less pressure teaching in NH as well. At my school most parents were involved and they only recently adopted a policy where 20% of a teacher's evaluation is based on student growth.

As a side note, in NH I was able to take less time off too. Need to see the doctor? Schedule it for 3:30. Need to make my son's IEP meeting? Schedule it for 3:00. In FL every time I had to see the doctor I had to take time off because by the time I left at 4:10, picked my son up and got to the doctor it was almost 5 and they were closed. Our district was great and gave us what they call "board leave" which was up to a 1/2 day per month that would not count towards sick or personal as long as you were able to find your own coverage. This was at the principal's discretion so you didn't want to abuse it, but it worked out well when I was pregnant and had to leave early for appointments.

 

[disykat]

So the 182 days is contracted, but the Salary is an annual one, so yes the 10 week summer break is a paid vacation.

ARG? Seriously? They get paid for working 182 days. Just because they paycheck comes late, doesn't make it vacation pay.

 

[Allison]

ARG? Seriously? They get paid for working 182 days. Just because they paycheck comes late, doesn't make it vacation pay.

Correct. I'm not sure why people don't understand this concept. It is actually deferred compensation. A teacher elects to defer payment (or it is required) of compensation by having it paid over 12 months instead of over the term of the school year.

 

[Happy Snowman]

In my district which is on Long Island the average Teacher is making over $ 100,000 per year. They need this amount of salary to make it here which has a very high cost of living.

They are contracted for 182 days per year. High School and Middle School teachers are required to teach four classes per day which last about 52 minutes. They must get at least one free lunch period per day and have one period for classroom prep. One period must be spent providing some sort of supervision. One 30 minute session of morning extra help per week and One 30 minute session of afterschool extra help per week. Attend two parent teacher conferences nights. There is also a requirement for bus duty. The school schedule is 180 days in which 15 days per year are allocated for testing ( Midterms, finals, and State Regents Testing). They are allocated 7 days of Sick or Personal time. If not used this time can be saved and cashed out after a certain level is achieved or at termination/retirement. If the private Sector did this, they would go broke.

So the 182 days is contracted, but the Salary is an annual one, so yes the 10 week summer break is a paid vacation.

How many student contact days does your district require???? Our district has 190 student contact days.

As for the salary....at $100,000, that works out to $8333/month over 12 months (gross) or $549/day. They could take $10,000/month for 10 months, but it's still $100,000/year or $549/day worked. It's not paid vacation time.

 

[sam_gordon]

So the 182 days is contracted, but the Salary is an annual one, so yes the 10 week summer break is a paid vacation.

ARG? Seriously? They get paid for working 182 days. Just because they paycheck comes late, doesn't make it vacation pay.

Why does it matter whether you consider summer break "paid" or "unpaid"? Let's say a teacher is being paid $40K/year. You can look at that as being paid $40K to work 10 months and have two months off (unpaid), or they're being paid $40K including two months paid vacation. Either way, the teacher is working the same amount of hours and being paid the same amount. Arguing over whether summer is "paid" or "unpaid" is silly IMO. It all depends on how you look at it.

 

[undertheradar]

Correct. I'm not sure why people don't understand this concept. It is actually deferred compensation. A teacher elects to defer payment (or it is required) of compensation by having it paid over 12 months instead of over the term of the school year.

So using this logic, then a teacher salary would be much higher if we viewed the pay as pro-rated with regards to a 12 month salary? Bottom line is most teachers have a lot of days off. That is the deal they make when they sign the contract. Imagine the districts that are year round. Multiple 3 week breaks per year. I still don't see where being a teacher is any more stressful than other careers. For the required contracted number of work days, it is a higher paying career. Add to it earlier retirement than private sector jobs and I think it continues to be a grass is always greener debate. There are many careers where you don't leave until the work is done, just saying that there is good and bad in every vocation.

 

[KennesawNemo]

DH is a college professor. He was recently approached with an opportunity to be a corporate trainer, basically to teach for a company. He wasn't really interested, but that's one direction to go.

The recruiter who placed me in my current job was a high school literature teacher many years ago. He is now a partner at his firm.

 

[Allison]

So using this logic, then a teacher salary would be much higher if we viewed the pay as pro-rated with regards to a 12 month salary? Bottom line is most teachers have a lot of days off. That is the deal they make when they sign the contract. Imagine the districts that are year round. Multiple 3 week breaks per year. I still don't see where being a teacher is any more stressful than other careers. For the required contracted number of work days, it is a higher paying career. Add to it earlier retirement than private sector jobs and I think it continues to be a grass is always greener debate. There are many careers where you don't leave until the work is done, just saying that there is good and bad in every vocation.

I'm not sure how what you posted has anything to do with my post you quoted. I was simply pointing out what the payment method is legally considered to be.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

No, you are paid for the days you are teaching school. Usually 180 days. When school is out there is no pay.

I would also like to note that a former teacher friend of mine kept track of all the hours she worked(actually a few of them did this) outside of school for an entire year which none of them got paid for. The numbers varied but the highest was right around 350 hours and the lowest was around 245. Tell me how many of you would work 6-8 weeks a year for no pay? There is no teacher that works 40 hours a week like most people do and when you work overtime you are compensated for it. Salaried personnel are usually compensated for their overtime by getting bonuses or a higher starting pay rate. For those of you complaining or seem a little upset about teachers pay and vacation time, unless you have done it, you have no idea what it is like. I can't tell you how many parents have come into my classroom and said by lunch, how do you do this every day? Yes, some states pay well, others not so well. There is no step rate in our state any more or any compensation for getting a masters degree. A new teacher averages around 37,000 for the first year. They could be at that pay for the next 10 years which means they will actually take a pay cut for those 10 years since insurance goes up every year. Stress, you don't know stress unless you are in the medical field, police, or fire dept., etc... Children's futures are in your hands every day, safety is always on your mind, testing don't even get me started on this, clothing I can't even tell you how many pairs of shoes, shirts, pants, and winter coats I have given to kids. When a kid is so dang mad at the world and throwing a ***** fit in class and come to find out he hasn't had anything to eat since lunch the day before really peeves you off. I'm not saying it's the hardest job I've ever had but it is by far the most stressful and you get it from all around, parents, kids, administrators, gov't who don't know their butt from a hole in the ground, and the public.

Oh, and someone mentioned coaching and getting paid as well. Yes, you do. I do for hs baseball. I figured this out last year. I made .55 cents per hour doing this.

250-350 hours of unpaid OT is not unusual in a salaried position. And bonuses for hourly and exempt employees is not all that common around here. I'm fortunate that my OT is currently paid & we have a bonus program. I was here several years (working many 10 hour days & weekends) uncompensated for OT before my job was reclassed as hourly. My 2 previous positions were salary exempt, one of which averaged nearly 60 hours a week and paid just $34,000 a year. At 47, my current position is the second one I've ever had that had a bonus program.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Yes, I do. I have 100's of friends in various fields from law,medical, factory, education at all levels, waste management, city, county, state, railroad, military, public and private sector, etc...All of my factory worker friends get bonuses from hourly to management and every single hourly person I know gets overtime if they work past their 40. Now, I will say, because the economy is doing well, most if not all my factory worker friends are putting in 50-55 hours a week. I do know others that put their 40 in and go home and don't have to work overtime because they can't be forced to work it.

As for me, I have worked for the county, two different factories, education, retail, food services, lawn services, and for myself. No, I have not worked in every field and you are correct, all jobs have stress but none of these were in the same state as far as stress level is concerned. Trust me, I hear everyone complain about what they don't like about their job and how stressful it is but there are very few professions where kids, parents, grandparents, the public, your boss(es), and the gov't are constantly complaining publicly about how terrible of a job you are doing. Most jobs have only a handful of people breathing down your back and more of those are only 2-3 people tops. While I was teaching, I was evaluated anywhere from 4-9 times a year. EVERYONE I know is evaluated once and some aren't evaluated at all. I had vice principals, principals, dept. chair, at least 6 different main building administrators could come in at any time. Not to mention, any parent or person from the community could come in when they wanted. All they had to do was give me a notice in the morning saying btw a parent is coming by to observe your class. I could go on for hours. No, other job is like this. And pay raises being based off of kids taking 1 test in which the kids have no consequences if they fail. How many people have their raises based off of work from other people that cannot suffer any consequences?

I find it a little hard to believe that you could have hundreds of friends who have all shared such intimate details about their compensation with you.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I am a Monday - Friday employee all year, with 8 holidays, which is 252. If I take all 30 days of PTO I have available to me in any given year, I work 222 days.

233 for me, if I take all my sick time and don't work any weekends. I worked 258 days in 2014. I'm on pace for fewer this year so far, but it appears we will be slammed with work come 3rd Qtr.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I don't know anyone that gets 30 days PTO every year. At our company you max out at 15.

I've never had that much PTO, but I have worked one place where I would have topped out at that point eventually. I think 25 (20 vacation + 5 sick) is pretty average. We top out at 20 here (15 + 5), 5 of which are mandated the week between Christmas & New Years.

I do know of people with more yet. UPS at one time (still??? ) topped at 8 weeks of vacation.

 

[ilovefh]

So using this logic, then a teacher salary would be much higher if we viewed the pay as pro-rated with regards to a 12 month salary? Bottom line is most teachers have a lot of days off. That is the deal they make when they sign the contract. Imagine the districts that are year round. Multiple 3 week breaks per year. I still don't see where being a teacher is any more stressful than other careers. For the required contracted number of work days, it is a higher paying career. Add to it earlier retirement than private sector jobs and I think it continues to be a grass is always greener debate. There are many careers where you don't leave until the work is done, just saying that there is good and bad in every vocation.

Part of the problem with teaching is everyone feels qualified to give their opinion on it. Look at the other thread about refusal rates. One poster flat out said that teachers should just teach and they should let business people run the schools. Sorry, but if you've never been a teacher you're not qualified to run a school.

 

[joannamet]

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves," said Mrs. Metcalf in her most stern teacher voice. I've never heard such whining. This is the most polarizing thread I've read, ever, and I'm embarrassed that it comes from a bunch of educators who should have more objectivity.

Go back and read the OP and then stop taking everything so personally.

 

[joannamet]

Oh, one more thought regarding the OP. One thing that helped me when I was teaching was having choices. I have multiple certifications and looked for opportunities in other schools and districts. I would encourage young teachers to pursue as many endorsements as you can. Most districts have some reading specialists and instructional coaches; there are alternatives to classroom teaching that can help save your sanity.

 

[morgan98]

Part of the problem with teaching is everyone feels qualified to give their opinion on it. Look at the other thread about refusal rates. One poster flat out said that teachers should just teach and they should let business people run the schools. Sorry, but if you've never been a teacher you're not qualified to run a school.

Well on the thread, plenty of teachers have felt the need to say how those who aren't teachers get paid for overtime or don't have to work overtime at all, never put in unpaid hours and do not have stressful jobs. There seems to be plenty of opinions all the way around.