New career options for a teacher

[disykat]

Pluses and minuses to every job. My DH and are both state employees in Florida. The legislature hates us and wants everything to be contracted out to private business. Our wages have been stagnant for a decade.

But we get good vacation benefits and great cheap health care. Plus we like what we do and think we make a positive difference in people's lives.

So no complaints from me. We all make career/work/life decisions. Live with them or change them.

And now we're back to the original point of the thread ....new career options for a teacher!

 

[dimimi]

I think others may have mentioned this, but we are paid for 186 days of work. We do not get paid vacation. I guess we do get 3 personal days, so those could be considered vacation. In addition, I guess a "snow day" is a vacation day, but I don't think many people would like a vacation they could not plan. I love being a teacher, however, I am annoyed when people say I get Summers off! I guess I do get Summers off, but they are unpaid.

 

[undertheradar]

I think others may have mentioned this, but we are paid for 186 days of work. We do not get paid vacation. I guess we do get 3 personal days, so those could be considered vacation. In addition, I guess a "snow day" is a vacation day, but I don't think many people would like a vacation they could not plan. I love being a teacher, however, I am annoyed when people say I get Summers off! I guess I do get Summers off, but they are unpaid.

Yet what is your yearly contracted salary?

 

[undertheradar]

And I stand by my statement that you have never been in the education field.

And I stand by my statement that teachers/educators should not run schools.

 

[old lady]

I am substitute teacher right now and I am still looking for that permanent job to teach. I have no suggestions since I probably in the same boat.

 

[StitchBuddy]

I'm sorry...I hate it when people post stuff like this. I'm a teacher and posts like the above make it sound like teachers work every minute of the summer going to conferences, packing up, unpacking, etc. and it's just not true. I come in for one day after school ends to clean up my room. I come in a few days before school starts to set up. I do 'some' work over the summer, but in no way am I working every moment of my summer.

And I'm salaried, so I get paid 12 months out of the year. If you're not working for a school that a 12 month salary, average your salary and save that amount so you have money during the summer.

Not sure how it works where you are, but we are given a daily rate which is prorated over the course of a year. We are NOT paid for days not worked, no holidays etc/ We are given 10 sick/personal days. But, if you miss #11 you are docked your daily rate.

 

[disykat]

Yet what is your yearly contracted salary?

We know our contracted pay for the school year. We are not contracted for the summer months when school is not in session. If we were required to work summers they would have to give us more money to do so because we are not contracted to work those days. I make a little over 45k a year with 10 years of experience. IF I was paid to work year round, my salary would be roughly 54k. My contract ends on the last day of school. To give you an idea of salaries in my area, my friend who has five years experience as a secretary and works year round makes 57k plus overtime a year, so a little bit higher than teachers if we worked the same schedule.

I'm all for apples/apples comparisons. I'm happy to do the math to compare my salary to someone who works year round. But the same apples/apples means you can't compare someone with paid vacation to someone who is only contracted for time worked.

 

[scoutie]

I am just catching up on this thread now, and I just wanted to explain my earlier comment regarding stress. I was not saying that other professions don't have stress. I was referring to the constant emotional stress that teachers deal with. You worry about those kids like they are your own. When I shared my blog post about my student's suicide, that's what I was trying to get across.

This week, teachers at my school had to deal with a DCFS situation because of abuse, emotionally and behavioral disturbed students (many of my colleagues are verbally and sometimes physically abused on a regular basis), fist fights in the classroom, worries of students not getting what they need at home (countless sleepless nights), etc. I received a scathing email from a parent on Friday night that I can't stop thinking about. I am extremely worried about what a few students will do once the school year ends, and they don't have our support, etc. So while people's points about pilots and firefighters having stress are absolutely correct, they :generally: don't deal with constant emotional stress that never lets up. My close friend is a firefighter and he spends the majority of his day not being emotionally stressed. Some of my coworkers have 200+ students on their minds all the time. That was my point, and it was in response to the second comment on this thread made that basically said "all jobs have stress. You get eight weeks off, so deal with it."

My vacation time as a teacher is unpaid, I do work a couple of hours some days on school related things, but I definitely do not work a 50-60 hour week as a do as a teacher during the year. This is definitely a major perk of this profession, and the vacation time is a welcome respite from the stress of the year. It is what keeps me refreshed and in the profession.

Yet what is your yearly contracted salary?

I started at a private school making $18,000 in 1998. I then moved to a public school in Iowa making $24,000, and now 16 years later with a Master's degree plus 15 additional credits, I make $57,000. By the salary schedules, it should be more, but our steps have been frozen for awhile.

 

[Allison]

You are still measuring your job stress against other professions and saying in essence "mine is more". How can it be measured really since it based on a an individual's own psyche? It is not a competition.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We know our contracted pay for the school year. We are not contracted for the summer months when school is not in session. If we were required to work summers they would have to give us more money to do so because we are not contracted to work those days. I make a little over 45k a year with 10 years of experience. IF I was paid to work year round, my salary would be roughly 54k. My contract ends on the last day of school. To give you an idea of salaries in my area, my friend who has five years experience as a secretary and works year round makes 57k plus overtime a year, so a little bit higher than teachers.

Is that a secretary at your school? Secretaries here don't make anything near that. Our year-round secretary makes between $17-18 an hour, and there's been no overtime permitted prior to about a month ago (OT has always been exchanged for Comp time). So, that works out to about $36,000 per year. Our teacher scale is similar to yours.

DW is the clerk, works 32 hours per week and 10 days more than the teachers. She made just over $16,000 last year. Her hourly rate is lower than the secretary & she has no insurance. But, she has 8 weeks off in Summer & does not come in on snow days (the secretary does).

Unfortunately, like teachers, parents believe DW is available to them in her off hours as well. Just yesterday, the mother of a suspended student spent 15 minutes trying to tell DW "her side" while DW was shopping at Penny's, despite DW telling her she really had nothing to do with it.

 

[tina.tina]

Maybe I should relocate. I'm making $44k/year as a full time teacher. I'm not getting rich but having the same schedule as my kids is priceless and I love having the summer off... it's the best of both worlds.

I could move 1.5 hours away and make $10,000 more starting out with no difference in cost of living and be close to DH's work, too. We love our home, though, and are close by our families, so it's a hard decision to make.

 

[kimmar067]

There is no way that is accurate. I'm also on LI and teachers in my district start at over $50K and after 10 years they make $95k-100K. I have teachers in my family that teach in other districts on LI and it's just about the same.

Actually I take that back it might be accurate, but it's misleading. When they list salaries for the district they list all teachers including teachers that didn't work the entire year and subs. So when you average them in it could be $60K. There are no full time teachers in my district making less than $55K.

....well, I am your next-door neighbor, and we do not make anywhere close to those figures! Maybe I should relocate to L.I...

 

[kimmar067]

....well, I am your next-door neighbor, and we do not make anywhere close to those figures! Maybe I should relocate to L.I...

EA Guide

Step 1 - BA $42,533 [first year - Entry Level w/Bachelor's Degree]
Step 15 - MA $90,644 [16-1/2 years - Master's Degree]

...this is our latest 3-yr contract, which has NOT seen a raise since 2 contracts ago.....

 

[kimmar067]

Again, it all depends on how you look at it. You're paid $x to teach. You can look at it two different ways...

Option 1
You are being paid $x to work 10 months. This means you have two months unpaid vacation

Option 2
You are being paid $x to 'work' 12 months. 99.9% of your work happens within 10 months, but you're still being paid for 12. So you get 2 months 'paid' vacation.

Either way, you get $x for the year. This is similar to someone who is salaried. They don't punch a clock. They get paid $x/year regardless of how many hours/days they work.

.....I don't understand why you are not getting the concept of a 10-month year vs. a 12-month one. Teachers simply are NOT paid to work 12 months. PERIOD. I brought up the contract thing to emphasize that reality. Teachers' [contract] years are a 10-month span, NOT a 12-month one like most other jobs. Whether they get one giant check at the end of that school year, or one [paycheck] a month, or every other week, or stretched out payments over the course of 10 months OR 12 months is immaterial. Yes, teacher's salaries are a predetermined 'yearly' salary, but it is not truly a 12-month period, and, in actuality, is a misnomer since it is not over the course of one full year.

 

[disykat]

Is that a secretary at your school?

No, she is a secretary in the private sector. I just told her salary to compare her year round salary to what mine would be if teachers worked year round - since it is so close. She used to think teachers were overpaid, until we did the math and she realized she makes more than I would if was paid to work her schedule.

It was just an apples/apples comparison.

Again, there are lots of perks to being a teacher one of which is the schedule. But we are not paid for the parts of the year we are not working.

 

[kimmar067]

I am just catching up on this thread now, and I just wanted to explain my earlier comment regarding stress. I was not saying that other professions don't have stress. I was referring to the constant emotional stress that teachers deal with. You worry about those kids like they are your own. When I shared my blog post about my student's suicide, that's what I was trying to get across.

This week, teachers at my school had to deal with a DCFS situation because of abuse, emotionally and behavioral disturbed students (many of my colleagues are verbally and sometimes physically abused on a regular basis), fist fights in the classroom, worries of students not getting what they need at home (countless sleepless nights), etc. I received a scathing email from a parent on Friday night that I can't stop thinking about. I am extremely worried about what a few students will do once the school year ends, and they don't have our support, etc. So while people's points about pilots and firefighters having stress are absolutely correct, they :generally: don't deal with constant emotional stress that never lets up. My close friend is a firefighter and he spends the majority of his day not being emotionally stressed. Some of my coworkers have 200+ students on their minds all the time. That was my point, and it was in response to the second comment on this thread made that basically said "all jobs have stress. You get eight weeks off, so deal with it."

My vacation time as a teacher is unpaid, I do work a couple of hours some days on school related things, but I definitely do not work a 50-60 hour week as a do as a teacher during the year. This is definitely a major perk of this profession, and the vacation time is a welcome respite from the stress of the year. It is what keeps me refreshed and in the profession. I started at a private school making $18,000 in 1998. I then moved to a public school in Iowa making $24,000, and now 16 years later with a Master's degree plus 15 additional credits, I make $57,000. By the salary schedules, it should be more, but our steps have been frozen for awhile.

.....I currently have about 158 students, and I know exactly of what you are referring. There is no letup on the stress level - EVER. It is not a profession that is easily compartmentalized - one is constantly searching for ways to make every student better - whether morally, socially, academically, or emotionally. I have had students use profanity to my face on several occasions. Can I sink to their level and do the same? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I have been an educator for 16 years and I:

1) have to move from classroom to classroom (on 3 different floors in my building)
2) don't even own a desk

.....so, why do I stay? NOTHING beats having a student visit me 5 or 6 or 7 years later, just to tell me that I made a difference in their lives....

 

[kimmar067]

No, she is a secretary in the private sector. I just told her salary to compare her year round salary to what mine would be if teachers worked year round - since it is so close. She used to think teachers were overpaid, until we did the math and she realized she makes more than I would if was paid to work her schedule.

It was just an apples/apples comparison.

Again, there are lots of perks to being a teacher one of which is the schedule. But we are not paid for the parts of the year we are not working.

....one of my co-workers has been teaching at my school for 8 years and MAKES LESS THAN OUR SCHOOL SECRETARY, WHO IS IN HER 4TH YEAR [and doesn't even have a GED].

 

[msjprincess]

....well, I am your next-door neighbor, and we do not make anywhere close to those figures! Maybe I should relocate to L.I...

Unfortunately, teaching jobs are hard to find around here. I just happened to receive a list in the mail yesterday with all the teachers salaries. Approximately 2/5 of the teachers in my district make between $120K-$140K.

My daughter's Kindergarten teacher makes $137,627. So with 10 weeks off unpaid for the summer, she's making about $3275 a week.

And again, I know most teachers around the country don't make that much. My only reason from bringing it up was the PP who said the average teacher salary on LI was $60K.

 

[sam_gordon]

.....I don't understand why you are not getting the concept of a 10-month year vs. a 12-month one. Teachers simply are NOT paid to work 12 months. PERIOD. I brought up the contract thing to emphasize that reality. Teachers' [contract] years are a 10-month span, NOT a 12-month one like most other jobs. Whether they get one giant check at the end of that school year, or one [paycheck] a month, or every other week, or stretched out payments over the course of 10 months OR 12 months is immaterial. Yes, teacher's salaries are a predetermined 'yearly' salary, but it is not truly a 12-month period, and, in actuality, is a misnomer since it is not over the course of one full year.

Great googily kimmar, I get it. Fine. Teachers don't get paid over the summer. Do you feel better now?

I still maintain it doesn't matter whether teachers get paid for the two month summer vacation or not. If you're a teacher and you don't like not getting paid over the summer, then find another job. If you're not a teacher and you want a job that gives you summer off, go get your teaching certificate.

EVERY job has perks.
EVERY job has negatives.
It's poor form (IMO) to say "my job is worse (more stressful, cheaper, etc) than your job." If your job is that bad, find another one.

 

[emsstacey]

I have my Master's and 3 years experience and am at $44k. I'm feeling seriously underpaid now! LOL! Way to go to all the teachers out there making 6 figures!!