Teachers, would you still recommend the profession?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the retirement benefits like, say, in FCPS?

Depends when you started. There are two pension programs that employees pay into, one at the state and one at the county level. They are trying to cut down the county one in this recent round of budget cuts. Like anything, the retirement benefits were better for those who started many years ago compared to those starting today.

If you're really curious, the details are here: https://www.fcps.edu/careers/retirement-benefits/defined-benefit-retirement-plans

Age + service = 90, receive a percent of your top 5 years' average salary. Fingers crossed it's still there in 30ish years when I can retire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular gen ed classroom heck no! Focus, reading specialist, staff development, speech, ot, esl media, p.e....maybe.

Agree, huge growth in esol and esol counseling. Is at specialty pay and low hours

Elementary ESOL teacher here (in a doctors waiting room). That's not actually the case. I'm at the same pay scale as general ed teachers and my caseload increases every year. I teach 5 different grade levels which means knowing the curriculum for all of them and also creating materials and assessments for all of them since we don't have a curriculum provided to us. I have 55 students on my caseload this year and they come and go all the time so I'm constantly shifting my schedule around to meet needs since students need varying amounts of support.

I'm here before and after school and bring work home. Then there's the whole business of coordinating the annual language proficiency test and also being pulled to cover classes during your in school planning time as well as being assigned multiple weekly duties. Your subs will be pulled if there's not coverage for a classroom teacher so a lot of time is spent wasted on securing subs and writing detailed sub plans only to have the sub pulled that morning to cover a classroom.

I definitely would not want to be a classroom teacher but ESOL isn't a walk in the park either.

Wow. Another ESOL teacher here. Did I write this? Ditto all of this except for covering classes for other people. It's against our contract and our principal knows it so she doesn't even try. No curriculum here either so I reinvent the wheel every day for 4 different grade levels. Thank goodness for the Internet and Teachers Pay Teachers. I spend so much money just trying to do my job. They announced that they are increasing the test out score for the WIDA ACCESS test this year so the target keeps moving. I now have 52 students and I am exhausted.

[Anonymous]

To the ESOL teachers here--did you start in that field or move from a classroom? Also, do you all have your own classrooms or do you work with the classroom teacher in their classroom? I think the logistics of teaching make a big difference. Managing 26 kids every day all day is asking a lot. I always thought that if I could just have a small group would make all the difference. I do NOT think that most starting teaching right out of school today can actually do for the next 40 years. Today, it's a job that too intense to do it for that long without burning out.

[Anonymous]

depends where you teach, what grade and/or subject/ private or public.
I teach at a private, well-respected preschool, and I love it. So yes I recommend it. BUT, sadly, you have to be able to "afford' to be a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the ESOL teachers here--did you start in that field or move from a classroom? Also, do you all have your own classrooms or do you work with the classroom teacher in their classroom? I think the logistics of teaching make a big difference. Managing 26 kids every day all day is asking a lot. I always thought that if I could just have a small group would make all the difference. I do NOT think that most starting teaching right out of school today can actually do for the next 40 years. Today, it's a job that too intense to do it for that long without burning out.

I am the ESOL teacher who posted above. I was originally certified in elementary education and taught in a private school for a few yrs. That's where I met some ESOL students who spoke multiple languages and I was very impressed and intrigued by them. I took some ESOL courses and took the ESOL Praxis and got an ESOL position. I like having different groups of students every hour. I'd get sick of the same students all day. I have double the caseload of a regular classroom teacher (just over 50 students) but I don't have them all at once. A few of the high level students I only see once a week. I have my own classroom but it's smaller than a normal classroom. I do all pull out groups because that's what my principal wants but other schools do a combination of push in and pull out.

[Anonymous]

No way. Too many crazy parents, esp in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular gen ed classroom heck no! Focus, reading specialist, staff development, speech, ot, esl media, p.e....maybe.

Agree, huge growth in esol and esol counseling. Is at specialty pay and low hours

Elementary ESOL teacher here (in a doctors waiting room). That's not actually the case. I'm at the same pay scale as general ed teachers and my caseload increases every year. I teach 5 different grade levels which means knowing the curriculum for all of them and also creating materials and assessments for all of them since we don't have a curriculum provided to us. I have 55 students on my caseload this year and they come and go all the time so I'm constantly shifting my schedule around to meet needs since students need varying amounts of support.

I'm here before and after school and bring work home. Then there's the whole business of coordinating the annual language proficiency test and also being pulled to cover classes during your in school planning time as well as being assigned multiple weekly duties. Your subs will be pulled if there's not coverage for a classroom teacher so a lot of time is spent wasted on securing subs and writing detailed sub plans only to have the sub pulled that morning to cover a classroom.

I definitely would not want to be a classroom teacher but ESOL isn't a walk in the park either.

Wow. Another ESOL teacher here. Did I write this? Ditto all of this except for covering classes for other people. It's against our contract and our principal knows it so she doesn't even try. No curriculum here either so I reinvent the wheel every day for 4 different grade levels. Thank goodness for the Internet and Teachers Pay Teachers. I spend so much money just trying to do my job. They announced that they are increasing the test out score for the WIDA ACCESS test this year so the target keeps moving. I now have 52 students and I am exhausted.

I'm the ESOL PP you responded to. Yes, the amount of money I spend on TPT is insane! I cringe when I see my bill at the end of the year.

When did they announce that they're increasing the score for ACCESS? I haven't heard anything about that, although I did notice that the majority of my 1st graders came out as Tier A which I thought was strange compared to last year's results. What are the new requirements for exit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach in private (a "big 3") in the US and I love it... doesn't pay great but it isn't terrible (75k for 10 yrs experience). I have reasonable, predictable work hours and amazing vacations. My spouse is the breadwinner though which means we aren't stressed about a lot of things my coworkers are (we live walking distance to the school so do not have a mega commute and we can easily afford daycare etc.)

It is all relative. Montessori teacher here at 20 years experience. $50,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the ESOL teachers here--did you start in that field or move from a classroom? Also, do you all have your own classrooms or do you work with the classroom teacher in their classroom? I think the logistics of teaching make a big difference. Managing 26 kids every day all day is asking a lot. I always thought that if I could just have a small group would make all the difference. I do NOT think that most starting teaching right out of school today can actually do for the next 40 years. Today, it's a job that too intense to do it for that long without burning out.

I'm the first ESOL teacher who posted here. I did the JHU ProMAT program and was a career changer. I did not major in education. I actually had planned to be a social worker/therapist which has served me well in teaching. I was working in that field when I decided to become an ESOL teacher.

For many years I shared a small classroom with 2 other ESOL teachers and we did mostly pull out groups and it was chaotic. Then our building got an addition and I got an office/very small classroom. There's enough space for a kidney table and one small trapezoid table. Our program model used to be mostly pull out small groups, but then the ratios changed and I had too many students for it to be logistically possible to be able to pull out students around whole group lessons, their reading group times and interventions if they were receiving them. A few years ago we went to a mostly plug-in/pull-aside model, so I'm teaching mini lessons to groups of 2-3 students within the classroom. They rotate to me kind of like a center. I bring all of my materials with me and had to buy a variety of baskets/bins to find one that worked for storing and carrying my stuff from room to room. Sometimes I have table space and sometimes I sit on the carpet. I pull out my newcomers to my room.

I really thought that I'd hate the plug-in model, but I actually think it's more effective in the long run. For pull-out, groups were scheduled every 30 minutes, and the transition time alone to bring a group back and pick up a new group would take part of that time. Then students had to settle down from the transition and if we were lucky we'd get 20 solid minutes of instruction with 5-6 students in a group. The schedule working depended on everything running like clockwork, which is next to impossible. Sometimes I would go pick up students and the teacher would have started reading groups late and they'd ask me to wait just a few minutes so they could finish up. In theory that's no problem, but when that happens multiple times a day it has a domino effect. Also, every time kids changed reading groups I'd have to redo my schedule to accommodate their new times and make sure my groups were evenly balanced. With plug-in I have a lot more flexibility. I have a schedule of when I see each child, but being in the classroom allows all of our time to be used for instruction, not travel and transition, and if the teacher is running a few minutes late I can adapt on the fly. Flexibility is key.

I will say that having my own office/room is a game changer. I have ADD and I could never concentrate when I was sharing a room. When I had lunch or planning there would be other groups going on at the same time and so I wouldn't be able to get anything done. I would have to wait until everyone else left to get any work done. Now when it's my lunch time or when I have planning I can shut my door and focus. It's a big part of the reason I'm hesitant to move to a different school. It's pretty much unheard of for ESOL teachers to have their own space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular gen ed classroom heck no! Focus, reading specialist, staff development, speech, ot, esl media, p.e....maybe.

Agree, huge growth in esol and esol counseling. Is at specialty pay and low hours

Elementary ESOL teacher here (in a doctors waiting room). That's not actually the case. I'm at the same pay scale as general ed teachers and my caseload increases every year. I teach 5 different grade levels which means knowing the curriculum for all of them and also creating materials and assessments for all of them since we don't have a curriculum provided to us. I have 55 students on my caseload this year and they come and go all the time so I'm constantly shifting my schedule around to meet needs since students need varying amounts of support.

I'm here before and after school and bring work home. Then there's the whole business of coordinating the annual language proficiency test and also being pulled to cover classes during your in school planning time as well as being assigned multiple weekly duties. Your subs will be pulled if there's not coverage for a classroom teacher so a lot of time is spent wasted on securing subs and writing detailed sub plans only to have the sub pulled that morning to cover a classroom.

I definitely would not want to be a classroom teacher but ESOL isn't a walk in the park either.

Wow. Another ESOL teacher here. Did I write this? Ditto all of this except for covering classes for other people. It's against our contract and our principal knows it so she doesn't even try. No curriculum here either so I reinvent the wheel every day for 4 different grade levels. Thank goodness for the Internet and Teachers Pay Teachers. I spend so much money just trying to do my job. They announced that they are increasing the test out score for the WIDA ACCESS test this year so the target keeps moving. I now have 52 students and I am exhausted.

I'm the ESOL PP you responded to. Yes, the amount of money I spend on TPT is insane! I cringe when I see my bill at the end of the year.

When did they announce that they're increasing the score for ACCESS? I haven't heard anything about that, although I did notice that the majority of my 1st graders came out as Tier A which I thought was strange compared to last year's results. What are the new requirements for exit?

It may just be my district. I guess we will find out when scores come back in May. They haven't even told us the exit score. I swear they make this up as they go along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, no I would not recommend teaching anymore. I have taught special ed for 15 years and although I love my students, the job is barely manageable. When I started teaching I spent 85 percent of my time on work with kids. Now, I see students the same amount of hours per week but only 50 percent of my work time is with kids, maybe less. The culture has shifted. Teachers are now held responsible for everything and parents are not as supported. It is sad because my students are making less quick progress because of a shift in accountability from everyone, parents, students, teachers, community, to just the teacher. In addition, the paperwork is unbearable.

It is hard because every year more and more of my colleagues in sped are leaving the profession due to paperwork laws and unsupportive admin and families. This leaves much lower quality teachers in our schools.

Can someone please explain these paperwork laws? Report cards are now comments by number. We get nothing corrected sent home. Growing up I took IOWA's that lasted 3 days. What is different now? These catch phrases obviously aren't making a dent in education as people are giving up and proposing charters. You need to be more specific. All the teachers I know used to grade papers daily after school. Why is there now such an argument against work after the school day? What is so different? The pay is so much better these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regular gen ed classroom heck no! Focus, reading specialist, staff development, speech, ot, esl media, p.e....maybe.

Agree, huge growth in esol and esol counseling. Is at specialty pay and low hours

Elementary ESOL teacher here (in a doctors waiting room). That's not actually the case. I'm at the same pay scale as general ed teachers and my caseload increases every year. I teach 5 different grade levels which means knowing the curriculum for all of them and also creating materials and assessments for all of them since we don't have a curriculum provided to us. I have 55 students on my caseload this year and they come and go all the time so I'm constantly shifting my schedule around to meet needs since students need varying amounts of support.

I'm here before and after school and bring work home. Then there's the whole business of coordinating the annual language proficiency test and also being pulled to cover classes during your in school planning time as well as being assigned multiple weekly duties. Your subs will be pulled if there's not coverage for a classroom teacher so a lot of time is spent wasted on securing subs and writing detailed sub plans only to have the sub pulled that morning to cover a classroom.

I definitely would not want to be a classroom teacher but ESOL isn't a walk in the park either.

Clearly, this depends on the school. The ESOL teachers at my school are similar to instructional assistants. Highly paid, glorified, instructional assistants who don't have to do lunch or recess. You've got a crappy gig, pp. Job fair is coming up.

In high school, ESOL teachers teach self-contained classes. It is much different than elementary school. I have 5 classes just like everyone else in my school. I prepare my own lessons and am responsible for grades for my students. My classes are large this year - 25 and 24 kids in two of them. The kids in these classes range from having not been to school in 5+ years and are virtually illiterate, to those who are at the advanced beginner level. It is challenging to say the least to try to reach them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been thinking of going into the profession. The problem is I only have a bachelor's in a different field. So then what are 'my options? Is teach for America really that terrible? What other inexpensive training is out there for a mom with a couple of kids now to deal with?

What state are you in? Yes, TFA is terrible if you want to make a career out of it. The turnover rate in TFA is awful--such little training and support, and rough schools. Set yourself up to be successful.

In Virginia, there are career switcher programs, where you can substitute work experience for a degree in education. That being said, I was in your boat and opted to get my masters through a weekend program. It was $20k and took two years, but it was really helpful and actually prepared me to be a teacher.

I did the career switcher program in VA. After 5 years of trying to get a job, I gave up and now work at a private school for special needs children not teaching in my content area. I paid $5000 on the Career switcher program and it did not pan out. I was able to get a few long term sub jobs, but not a permenent position. I know several others who went through the same program and did not get a teaching job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly, no I would not recommend teaching anymore. I have taught special ed for 15 years and although I love my students, the job is barely manageable. When I started teaching I spent 85 percent of my time on work with kids. Now, I see students the same amount of hours per week but only 50 percent of my work time is with kids, maybe less. The culture has shifted. Teachers are now held responsible for everything and parents are not as supported. It is sad because my students are making less quick progress because of a shift in accountability from everyone, parents, students, teachers, community, to just the teacher. In addition, the paperwork is unbearable.

It is hard because every year more and more of my colleagues in sped are leaving the profession due to paperwork laws and unsupportive admin and families. This leaves much lower quality teachers in our schools.

Can someone please explain these paperwork laws? Report cards are now comments by number. We get nothing corrected sent home. Growing up I took IOWA's that lasted 3 days. What is different now? These catch phrases obviously aren't making a dent in education as people are giving up and proposing charters. You need to be more specific. All the teachers I know used to grade papers daily after school. Why is there now such an argument against work after the school day? What is so different? The pay is so much better these days.

LMAO. Where are these teachers who are not working after the school day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No!! If you enjoy teaching think of other ways to use those skills that keep you out of public schools. Become an academic therapist, speech therapist or OT, some type of coach.

What's an academic therapist?