Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

I am a teacher and I agree with this. If you are organized and have taught for awhile, there is no reason why you should be spending hours every night grading, planning, etc, especially if you are teaching the same subject(s) each year. This doesn't mean you never come up with something new to teach your students, but over time you definitely get a feel for what works, how long things will take, etc. You also learn to streamline your grading - when I first started teaching I graded EVERYTHING which took a ton of time. I don't do that anymore and it saves me a lot of time. I have been teaching for 9 years and I rarely do work at home. I use my planning periods and stay after school until about 3:30 most days (we get out at 2:10). It is a very family friendly profession and the pay is not that awful either (at least around here).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

I am a teacher and I agree with this. If you are organized and have taught for awhile, there is no reason why you should be spending hours every night grading, planning, etc, especially if you are teaching the same subject(s) each year. This doesn't mean you never come up with something new to teach your students, but over time you definitely get a feel for what works, how long things will take, etc. You also learn to streamline your grading - when I first started teaching I graded EVERYTHING which took a ton of time. I don't do that anymore and it saves me a lot of time. I have been teaching for 9 years and I rarely do work at home. I use my planning periods and stay after school until about 3:30 most days (we get out at 2:10). It is a very family friendly profession and the pay is not that awful either (at least around here).

OT - You clearly don't teach advanced English courses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

I am a teacher and I agree with this. If you are organized and have taught for awhile, there is no reason why you should be spending hours every night grading, planning, etc, especially if you are teaching the same subject(s) each year. This doesn't mean you never come up with something new to teach your students, but over time you definitely get a feel for what works, how long things will take, etc. You also learn to streamline your grading - when I first started teaching I graded EVERYTHING which took a ton of time. I don't do that anymore and it saves me a lot of time. I have been teaching for 9 years and I rarely do work at home. I use my planning periods and stay after school until about 3:30 most days (we get out at 2:10). It is a very family friendly profession and the pay is not that awful either (at least around here).

OT - You clearly don't teach advanced English courses.

Clearly not. I teach ESOL and love it. I really hate the victim complex that so many teachers have. Yes, it is a hard job. No, it does not pay as well as some other jobs, but the pay is not terrible (I make $65,000 a year for ten months of work). And it is family friendly and we have a lot of flexibility with our time. If I need to leave at 2:40 every day to get home to get my son, I can. Do I? No, but if I had to, I probably could most days. And we do get good vacations during the year and the summers off. For all these reasons, it is a great job for a parent. Of course different subjects have more grading and class sizes vary depending on the subject, but I do think as a general rule the more you teach, the more organized you should get and the less time it should take you to grade, plan, etc.

And to Zumbamama, it varies depending on the county, but in Fairfax beginning teachers with a B.A. make about $40,000/year. No idea about community college, but I don't think it pays that well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

I am a teacher and I agree with this. If you are organized and have taught for awhile, there is no reason why you should be spending hours every night grading, planning, etc, especially if you are teaching the same subject(s) each year. This doesn't mean you never come up with something new to teach your students, but over time you definitely get a feel for what works, how long things will take, etc. You also learn to streamline your grading - when I first started teaching I graded EVERYTHING which took a ton of time. I don't do that anymore and it saves me a lot of time. I have been teaching for 9 years and I rarely do work at home. I use my planning periods and stay after school until about 3:30 most days (we get out at 2:10). It is a very family friendly profession and the pay is not that awful either (at least around here).

OT - You clearly don't teach advanced English courses.

Clearly not. I teach ESOL and love it. I really hate the victim complex that so many teachers have. Yes, it is a hard job. No, it does not pay as well as some other jobs, but the pay is not terrible (I make $65,000 a year for ten months of work). And it is family friendly and we have a lot of flexibility with our time. If I need to leave at 2:40 every day to get home to get my son, I can. Do I? No, but if I had to, I probably could most days. And we do get good vacations during the year and the summers off. For all these reasons, it is a great job for a parent. Of course different subjects have more grading and class sizes vary depending on the subject, but I do think as a general rule the more you teach, the more organized you should get and the less time it should take you to grade, plan, etc.

And to Zumbamama, it varies depending on the county, but in Fairfax beginning teachers with a B.A. make about $40,000/year. No idea about community college, but I don't think it pays that well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

I am a teacher and I agree with this. If you are organized and have taught for awhile, there is no reason why you should be spending hours every night grading, planning, etc, especially if you are teaching the same subject(s) each year. This doesn't mean you never come up with something new to teach your students, but over time you definitely get a feel for what works, how long things will take, etc. You also learn to streamline your grading - when I first started teaching I graded EVERYTHING which took a ton of time. I don't do that anymore and it saves me a lot of time. I have been teaching for 9 years and I rarely do work at home. I use my planning periods and stay after school until about 3:30 most days (we get out at 2:10). It is a very family friendly profession and the pay is not that awful either (at least around here).

OT - You clearly don't teach advanced English courses.

Clearly not. I teach ESOL and love it. I really hate the victim complex that so many teachers have. Yes, it is a hard job. No, it does not pay as well as some other jobs, but the pay is not terrible (I make $65,000 a year for ten months of work). And it is family friendly and we have a lot of flexibility with our time. If I need to leave at 2:40 every day to get home to get my son, I can. Do I? No, but if I had to, I probably could most days. And we do get good vacations during the year and the summers off. For all these reasons, it is a great job for a parent. Of course different subjects have more grading and class sizes vary depending on the subject, but I do think as a general rule the more you teach, the more organized you should get and the less time it should take you to grade, plan, etc.

And to Zumbamama, it varies depending on the county, but in Fairfax beginning teachers with a B.A. make about $40,000/year. No idea about community college, but I don't think it pays that well.

Dear ESOL teacher, I went back to school to get a more family friendly position like this and am currently an ESOL intern. However, I am finding that the hours are long and stressful. I think I can handle the challenges, but I wouldn't be able to put in long hours in my situation. Do you think it takes many years of experience to get to that place you describe? Does it depend more on your school and position? I am truly at a crossroads right now in deciding what to do. Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! I didn't really see the PP as teacher bashing. I'm a teacher and really enjoy my hours. I do very little work at home. I use my conference period to get my work done and an occasional Sunday afternoon. I think about you've done it for a while lesson planning gets very routine and you use less family time to do work.

I am a teacher and I agree with this. If you are organized and have taught for awhile, there is no reason why you should be spending hours every night grading, planning, etc, especially if you are teaching the same subject(s) each year. This doesn't mean you never come up with something new to teach your students, but over time you definitely get a feel for what works, how long things will take, etc. You also learn to streamline your grading - when I first started teaching I graded EVERYTHING which took a ton of time. I don't do that anymore and it saves me a lot of time. I have been teaching for 9 years and I rarely do work at home. I use my planning periods and stay after school until about 3:30 most days (we get out at 2:10). It is a very family friendly profession and the pay is not that awful either (at least around here).

OT - You clearly don't teach advanced English courses.

Clearly not. I teach ESOL and love it. I really hate the victim complex that so many teachers have. Yes, it is a hard job. No, it does not pay as well as some other jobs, but the pay is not terrible (I make $65,000 a year for ten months of work). And it is family friendly and we have a lot of flexibility with our time. If I need to leave at 2:40 every day to get home to get my son, I can. Do I? No, but if I had to, I probably could most days. And we do get good vacations during the year and the summers off. For all these reasons, it is a great job for a parent. Of course different subjects have more grading and class sizes vary depending on the subject, but I do think as a general rule the more you teach, the more organized you should get and the less time it should take you to grade, plan, etc.

And to Zumbamama, it varies depending on the county, but in Fairfax beginning teachers with a B.A. make about $40,000/year. No idea about community college, but I don't think it pays that well.

Dear ESOL teacher, I went back to school to get a more family friendly position like this and am currently an ESOL intern. However, I am finding that the hours are long and stressful. I think I can handle the challenges, but I wouldn't be able to put in long hours in my situation. Do you think it takes many years of experience to get to that place you describe? Does it depend more on your school and position? I am truly at a crossroads right now in deciding what to do. Thank you!

ESOL teacher here. I feel your pain! Student teaching and the first couple of years of actual teaching are VERY hard. I was never so exhausted until I started teaching. Being on your feet so much and dealing with needy students is like parenting x 20! But it does get easier. I think it does depend a lot on the school you are at. ESOL students are sometimes treated as "second class citizens" so it is extremely helpful to have a school that is supportive of you and the students you are working with. Although ESOL classes are generally smaller than general ed. classes, the students do present somewhat unique situations. Obviously not knowing the language is an issue, but there are many cultural/religious issues that I don't think come up in a lot of other classes. You not only are responsible for teaching the content, but also for helping students assimilate to the United States which is often very different from their own countries. I teach high school and we sometimes get students who have never been to school until they come to this country. So not only are we trying to teach them English and the content necessary to graduate from high school, but we are also trying to get them to understand you can't just not come to school if you don't feel like it, you have to be on class on time, you have to stay in your seat, you have to raise your hand to answer a question, etc. I have many students who work 40 hours a week outside of school and are helping to support their family. Anyway, I am sure I am telling you things you already know, right? Are you in elementary, middle or high school? I don't really know anything about elementary or middle school ESOL programs. IN high school, the work load depends a lot on how many preps you have. This depends a lot on how many ESOL students you have - i.e. the more ESOL students, the more sections of the same classes that will be offered. Our program is relatively small (about 100 students), so we don't have a lot of sections of each class. Consequently, I have 4 preps this year - yuck! It is not that hard for me because I have taught for awhile and can pull activities from past years, but it is a lot of work. If you are lucky to find a school with a large ESOL population, you may only get 1-2 preps which would make things easier. And yes, there is usually a seniority in the school. New teachers sometimes get the worst classes or the most preps. Sometimes they don't get their own classrooms. But you don't really know all that until you are at the school. I would just encourage you to try to find a school where you feel comfortable. ESOL students are generally very well behaved and I don't have a lot of issues with discipline. Plus, I always think that one of the best things about teaching is that if you get a particularly bad class, it does come to an end in June, unlike if you work an office job and have a bad boss which can go on for years. As a teacher you also get a lot of freedom to do what you want which is nice, too. I can pretty much teach whatever I want and that allows me a lot of flexibility. This is not true for all subjects because of state testing, but in ESOL I think the content is more flexible. Anyway, I have gone on and on and I have to go home now! I hope some of this helps. Good luck with whatever you decide!