Reply to Has anyone switched to a career in teaching to spend more time (summers) with your kids?

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[quote=Anonymous]I agree 100% - please don't even think about going into teaching if you're not passionate about it.  I worked in business for ten years before deciding it was boring and meaningless.  I got a teaching degree and became a high school teacher.  Besides all of the work, inflexible schedule, and long hours everyone else mentioned, the thing about teaching is that it is emotionally draining as well.  In business, everyhing is, well, business.  You can certainly have conflicts with coworkers or bosses, but it's not the same.  In teaching, you are dealing with kids' lives.  You become emotionally involved, even if you try not to.  You take a lot personally when the kids don't behave or you have conflicts with them.  My first three years of teaching, there were days where the bell would ring at the end of the day and after the last kid left I would close my door and burst into tears!  You see nice kids dealing with horrible family situations, drugs, etc.  Watching a kid go from good grades to almost dropping out of school because of family problems breaks your heart.  Dealing with (or lack of involvement of) parents is another story.  It does get better but the first three years are so hard - I was single then so I can't even imagine doing it as a mother.

Also, I really believe that in order to be a good teacher, you need to keep revising and changing your lesson plans.  Even if you're teaching the same thing year after year, you need to stay on top of pedogogical methods as well as material in your area of expertise.  So while the work load does get a little better, you still need to be working hard on your lessons.  Teaching at the high school level, you can have up to 120 kids each semester and teach several different subjects.  One year I had five different subjects (preps as we call them) that I taught!  I was constantly planning lessons.

Summers are great - I won't deny that.  But my first couple of years as a teacher I spent them attending professional development or classes to add additional endorsements to my teaching license to make myself more employable.  Many teachers I have worked with couldn't afford to stay home all summer and either taught summer school or worked other jobs in the summer.  Once I got married, I was able to take summers off and yes, it's wonderful.  But you do work like mad the rest of the year.  [/quote]

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