I've been teaching for 17 years (though I"m high school), and I assure you that this is a very realistic post. I do like my job, and there's no other job that I want; I intend to continue teaching 'til I hit 30 years. BUT it's far from perfect, and even though the OP says she understands that there's no ideal job, I don't think she really believes that deep down. I think she's chasing a dream rather than a job.
My rather random thoughts on teaching:
Do not glamorize teaching the way you've glamorized nursing. Do not go into this job because you imagine Lifetime movie moments in which you -- by sheer force of will and love -- take a classroom of inner-city youths and turn them from a group of behind-grade-level misfits into straight-A students motivated to learn. Yes, it's wonderful to see a lightbulb come on in a student's head, and over the years you'll have a few students for whom you'll know that you were really and truly THE PERSON who was there at the right time to change a life . . . but you'll never have a classroom full of them. A few kids will love you, the majority will be moderately attached to you, and a decent number will hate you before they even know your name.
It has become much harder as the years have gone by. Many parents have abdicated responsibility to the schools, and teachers are responsible for many things that are essentially beyond our control. If students don't attend school, don't do any reading outside school, rarely do homework, WE are still blamed for their failing grades. We're constantly filling out paperwork for special ed, 504s, ESL -- it's a real burden, and it eats into our limited planning time, which should be spent on what should be our real focus: providing an excellent lesson each and every day.
The first three years of teaching are very, very hard. At that point you're still learning how to present various lessons to the best of your ability, and you have to create so many worksheets, tests, etc. After about three years, things get easier (or you leave). Oh, you'll always find yourself adding new things: You'll find a new novel and will want to write up a great unit with good activities. You'll decide that you want to replace that ho-hum science experiment with something more exciting. You'll want to incorporate new technology into your lessons. And you'll find that your lessons IMPROVE every year. Your first year you'll launch into a vocabulary lesson that'll fall flat, but you'll figure out a better way, and you'll handle that unit more effectively next year. And after a couple years you'll find that you have a few "restful lessons" in your cabinets; a few lessons that you have PERFECTED and you can teach without effort or preparation -- and you'll learn to bring those out at just the right time in the year (for example, I just collected research papers, and I have to put in some serious time grading for the next two weeks (research papers take me about 40 hours of grading, all after-school over the course of two weeks). To keep myself from being overwhelmed, every year at research-paper grading time I pull out the same play, something I've done every year for the last 17 years x 6 classes per year; I can teach this without any effort, thus allowing me to grade those papers at home -- but in your first couple years of teaching, you don't have that "restful lesson" ready yet. You will NEVER reach the point that EVERYTHING is that nice, easy "restful lesson". You'll ALWAYS be adding to and changing your lesson plan cabinet.
You bring home work every night. Every night. Every night. You will ALWAYS have something to grade, something to prepare for tomorrow's lesson, some phone calls and paperwork that must be made right now. Though you will be able to leave school mid-afternoon, this will cut into what you're probably thinking will be family time. Sure, most professionals bring work home, but not EVERY NIGHT. In addition to managing your own classroom needs, you will be required to sell football tickets, chaperone dances and fall festivals, sponsor a club, etc.
You will spend more time on discipline than you expect. How do you feel about telling 17 year old boys to pull their pants up above their butts? Catching students smoking? Taking a cell phone from a girl who's texting during a test? What about when she swears she was just answering her mom's text? Writing up a student whom you really like? Even at the elementary level, you will deal with these situations. Not sometimes, but daily.
Quite a few parents will expect that you will stay after school AT THEIR WHIM for meetings. They'll call you and say that they want to meet with you at 5:30 on their way home from work -- doesn't matter that you are required to be at school at 6:45 and you're dismissed at 2:15. They want to meet at 5:30! Oh, and here's what they want to talk about in that meeting: You need to start tutoring Johnny after school twice a week; an hour each day will do. (No, he can't come on Mondays, which is your established anyone-can-come-in-for-help day; that's his karate lesson day.) In short, people expect you to be available all the time and expect you to bend over backwards to provide more, more, more for their children.
You will spend a great deal of money on classroom supplies.
As a teacher, you spend most of your day without adult contact. YOU are in charge all the time, no partner, no co-worker. There'll be a time when you don't know what to do, and you'll have to make up the answer on the spot. Later you can ask the experienced teacher across the hall how she would've handled it, but at that moment YOU have to make the call. Of course, after a few years, YOU ARE the experienced teacher across the hall, and this stops being such a problem.
Business thoughts:
The paycheck is small. No two ways around it! I live in a low-paying state, and I could definitely make more money in another job.
Being a teacher has saved me money in a number of ways: After my kids started school, I didn't need before-school care, though I did need after-school care. Being home a few hours earlier in the afternoon allows me to do a number of things to stretch my dollars, the same kind of things I'd do if I were a SAHM (cooking from scratch, canning, washing my own car, etc.)
When my children were small, being a teacher cost me money: I had to pay daycare in the summer (or lose my spot). Because elementary school lets out earlier than high school, I had to pay after-school care AT FULL PRICE even though my kids only stayed there 30 minutes each afternoon.
When they were very small, my kids had some trouble with the transition from school to summer, and then summer to school. They'd always have a week or two in which they were a bit befuddled by being made to get up early, missing their friends or the sandbox at day care, etc. By the time they started school, they understood the concept, but it wasn't fun during pre-school years.
We are one of the few professions that still has a traditional pension. I think most states are fairly similar in this: You put in 30 years of teaching, and you get a pension (and basic, basic healthcare) for the rest of your life. 30 years is a long, long time; most teachers do not stay a full 30 years.
Whereas nursing is a job that you can get anywhere, a state teaching pension ties you to your state. Oh, it's easy enough for a fully-licensed teacher to get a teaching license in another state, but if you move you'll start all over on your pension. My husband has had some good job offers in other states, but each time we've compared the extra salary he'd earn to the retirement benefits I'd lose, and each time we've chosen to stay in NC.
Do you care about moving up the ladder? Teachers don't really have much of a ladder. The first year teacher and the 20th year teacher are pretty much expected to do the same things. Unless you want to move into administration, you will not get perks that come with other jobs: new titles, nicer office, etc. I personally am not motivated in this way, but I have seen other teachers who've craved those rewards, and this is not a profession that'll provide them.
Teaching is very time-regimented. Your day (and your year) is very predictable. We have our calendars 3 years in advance, and it's super-easy to plan vacations far in advance; however, it's very difficult to be out of your classroom. Writing sub plans is a tremendous amount of work (so much work that most of us will come in sick rather than do it).
Yes, you could do a Disney vacation in the fall or spring by choosing a short week (i.e., Thanksgiving week, when we only go to school 2 days anyway, or a week when we have two teacher workdays), BUT it wouldn't be easy. First, we really only get workdays when report cards are due, and if you're going to take off, that means you have to get your grades into the computer and turned in BEFORE that day. So taking off a teacher workday means bringing home even more work in the week before your vacation. And there are mandatory workshops on teacher workdays.
Yes, you'll have predictable vacations throughout the year, but keep in mind that teachers are required to work some days when students are out. In short, do not go into teaching thinking that it's going to be sort of a 2/3 time job -- it is full-time and more. Over the years I've seen LOTS of people leave teaching after they realized that it isn't the flexible, take off plenty of time with my kids, easy little job that they thought it was.
I can't tell you how awful it is to have this degree and not be able to use it.
I'd hoped that by saying "in general terms" people would understand there were many, many more layers to what I was saying. I think it's good to hear more specifics from teachers and nurses themselves; most people don't fully understand what it is we do all day.
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