Any high school English teachers here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Cons: You work a lot harder than your paycheck suggests.

Yeah. There's nothing more to add to that one.

Many (even most) of your students don't want to learn anything you have to offer.

I have not really found this to be true. They definitely don't want to do the work, but I do think that most of them know they need to be good writers to succeed in a variety of careers.

You'll have to teach things that bore YOU rigid to kids who don't want to be at school in the first place (how to write a bibliography and anything about grammar, for instance).

This is true, though I find I can keep it to a minimum. I address grammar in the later stages of the writing process, not during the rough draft process, as a lot of times bad grammar is the result of students still figuring out what they want to say. But once there are common grammar issues that creep up regularly: comma splices, run-ons, sentence fragments, faulty parallelism, misplaced modifiers, etc.

You have to read SO MANY ESSAYS, AND SO MANY OF THEM ARE PAINFULLY BAD. Bad like, you wonder how they managed to get to high school in the first place.

I know this feeling, though thankfully it's been rare. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year encouraging confidence and risk-taking in writing. That does mean lots of drafts, but it pays off quickly as students get more invested in writing essays that are interesting to themselves and to you, and essays that actually say something original.

Grading student writing takes FOREVER. Students do not read your comments. They go straight to arguing about the grade.

I tell students to write a written response to each of my comments reflecting on how they will apply the feedback for revision or future essays. They must submit the response and let at least 24 hours pass before asking me about the essay/grade. That helped reduce the arguing quite a bit. From the students (parents are a different ball game).



More later!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if she wants to go into teaching, please let her explore the idea and don't discourage her. Teaching programs will require a lot of in-class observation and mentoring. She can decide if it's not for her.

We need good teachers. Don't dissuade her before she even gets a chance to experience what it would be like.

FWIW, I am a teacher (not English) and am very happy with my career choice.

This, exactly this.

If she is going into it with realistic expectations (she's not going to get rich or reach every kid, every day), then teaching can be a wonderful profession. I'm a career switcher, and I'm only on year 5 of teaching, but I wouldn't go back to my old career that paid twice as much. Yes, sometimes bills are tight, and yes, sometimes the standards I'm required to teach are seemingly pointless, and yes, it is often frustrating, but I really do love it.

Encourage her to speak to different teachers and talk to education majors and figure out if her expectations of the field line up at all with the reality. I would also recommend that she double major (major in English or literature or whatever AND secondary education, as opposed to secondary english education). That way if she ever decides to switch, she has a degree that is a bit more flexible than education. Friends who have left teaching have struggled to find a different job if their only degree is education.

I felt the same way you do when I was on year 5. Now I'm on year 10 and that feeling is pretty much gone. I love actually teaching, but the demands outside of the actual teaching day have gotten to be way too much. It's also very difficult for me to see that we (and the students, most importantly) are just pawns in the game/business of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if she wants to go into teaching, please let her explore the idea and don't discourage her. Teaching programs will require a lot of in-class observation and mentoring. She can decide if it's not for her.

We need good teachers. Don't dissuade her before she even gets a chance to experience what it would be like.

FWIW, I am a teacher (not English) and am very happy with my career choice.

This, exactly this.

If she is going into it with realistic expectations (she's not going to get rich or reach every kid, every day), then teaching can be a wonderful profession. I'm a career switcher, and I'm only on year 5 of teaching, but I wouldn't go back to my old career that paid twice as much. Yes, sometimes bills are tight, and yes, sometimes the standards I'm required to teach are seemingly pointless, and yes, it is often frustrating, but I really do love it.

Encourage her to speak to different teachers and talk to education majors and figure out if her expectations of the field line up at all with the reality. I would also recommend that she double major (major in English or literature or whatever AND secondary education, as opposed to secondary english education). That way if she ever decides to switch, she has a degree that is a bit more flexible than education. Friends who have left teaching have struggled to find a different job if their only degree is education.

I felt the same way you do when I was on year 5. Now I'm on year 10 and that feeling is pretty much gone. I love actually teaching, but the demands outside of the actual teaching day have gotten to be way too much. It's also very difficult for me to see that we (and the students, most importantly) are just pawns in the game/business of education.

+1

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for the replies. DD would make more as a teacher any day than what she hopes her first career will be. DH's family is full of teachers in a lower cost area and all seem okay financially and some are even teachers married to each other. I think it's hard in this area with COL.

I plan to share the comments with her. Interestingly, the thread asking about what job do you have that you love has several teachers who have posted! She has been inspired by her high school English teachers thus far who have made English engaging and dare I say it, fun - so thanks to you teachers who have that skill - I think it is the MOST important ones a teacher can have (along with some organizational skills, of course)!

DD says her current plan to do a 5 year program with a BA in English Lit and a 4th/5th year MEd. She would not just get an education degree.

Her goals include teaching honors/AP and also working in international schools for a while, if possible. She's only 16, so plenty can change the next few years but because of her other career goal (ballerina, next to impossible to achieve, short lived and terribly underpaid) she is already considering college and the rest of her life. Lots to ponder. Ballet dancers are some of the most determined, smartest, organized and hard working kids I know so I have no doubt she will reach whatever goals she sets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her goals include teaching honors/AP and also working in international schools for a while, if possible. She's only 16, so plenty can change the next few years but because of her other career goal (ballerina, next to impossible to achieve, short lived and terribly underpaid) she is already considering college and the rest of her life. Lots to ponder. Ballet dancers are some of the most determined, smartest, organized and hard working kids I know so I have no doubt she will reach whatever goals she sets.

This is a tough gig to get. The long-timers snatch up the AP/honors courses when they have the opportunity, unless admin equally distributes them. I've only heard of one school where they give straight honors courses to the newbies.

She can probably expect to teach remedial classes for a good while before she is given higher level stuff. If she has a heart for international stuff, an ESOL endorsement would be useful, and would also make her more marketable back in the US...but again that will get her more remedial classes, not AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her goals include teaching honors/AP and also working in international schools for a while, if possible. She's only 16, so plenty can change the next few years but because of her other career goal (ballerina, next to impossible to achieve, short lived and terribly underpaid) she is already considering college and the rest of her life. Lots to ponder. Ballet dancers are some of the most determined, smartest, organized and hard working kids I know so I have no doubt she will reach whatever goals she sets.

This is a tough gig to get. The long-timers snatch up the AP/honors courses when they have the opportunity, unless admin equally distributes them. I've only heard of one school where they give straight honors courses to the newbies.

She can probably expect to teach remedial classes for a good while before she is given higher level stuff. If she has a heart for international stuff, an ESOL endorsement would be useful, and would also make her more marketable back in the US...but again that will get her more remedial classes, not AP.

Agreed. My friend is an amazing high school English teacher who only does honors and AP-- after 20 years of regular and remedial classes.