2014 Off Topic Thread

[edman5555]

I have a degree in teaching (Education), but I'm going back to grad school soon for something. Teachers make a lot more than people think. You start at 38k but after 10 years you're making 65k. You only work 9 months a year and only 4.5 hours a day. All weekends and holidays off also. Great retirment plan also. If you worked somewhere else in the summer you could easily make 75k a year. If I don't go into something else, I'll just go teach.

But that's if you can deal with kids....

That's all I know. MMAscientist is an Attorney, Svino is a laser scientist, and Zak is a club dancer, so they can tell you about those professions

You only teach 4.5 hours a day? What do you base that on? I always hear from teachers that they work exhorbant hours and spend their time grading papers. I know a kid that claimed he worked 90 hours a week as an elementary school teacher.

[Luke]

You only teach 4.5 hours a day? What do you base that on? I always hear from teachers that they work exhorbant hours and spend their time grading papers. I know a kid that claimed he worked 90 hours a week as an elementary school teacher.

The fact that I've student taught on two separate occasions for three month periods.

Typical day:

School starts at 7:30am. You get there at 7:15 just to start the computer and check emails. Homeroom last 30 minutes. First class comes in at 8 and you teach till 9:30. At 9:30 they go to music or gym and you're left alone till 11:00. They come back at 11:00 and you teach the second class till 12:30 . Then lunch for 30 minutes and study hall for 30 minutes and you start teaching your last class at 1:30. Schools over at 3

So you've taught 3 classes for 1.5 hours each= 4.5 hours. You have 90 minutes everyday to yourself to do whatever you want...grade papers, plan for tomorrow, or fuck off. There's zero reason you should have to take anything home.

Whoever claimed they work 90 hours a week is full of shit. The hardest part of teaching is putting up with a classroom full of kids.

[Luke]

Poopoo majored in the samething so he can verify this also

[Luke]

http://www.tmz.com/2014/05/25/floyd-mayweather-ti-fight-stabbing-las-vegas-strip-fatburger/

[edman5555]

The fact that I've student taught on two separate occasions for three month periods.

Typical day:

School starts at 7:30am. You get there at 7:15 just to start the computer and check emails. Homeroom last 30 minutes. First class comes in at 8 and you teach till 9:30. At 9:30 they go to music or gym and you're left alone till 11:00. They come back at 11:00 and you teach the second class till 12:30 . Then lunch for 30 minutes and study hall for 30 minutes and you start teaching your last class at 1:30. Schools over at 3

So you've taught 3 classes for 1.5 hours each= 4.5 hours. You have 90 minutes everyday to yourself to do whatever you want...grade papers, plan for tomorrow, or fuck off. There's zero reason you should have to take anything home.

Whoever claimed they work 90 hours a week is full of shit. The hardest part of teaching is putting up with a classroom full of kids.

Wow. Is that uniform throughout the country in your opinion? Why dont you stick with it?

[Luke]

Wow. Is that uniform throughout the country in your opinion? Why dont you stick with it?

Yep. All schools operate the same way. Was in a 6th grade classroom and a 4th grade one. Replace the 30 minute study hall with a 30 minute recess. Besides that, same thing.

And I will stick with it if I don't decide to do something else. Its not bad. The day goes really fast and the kids don't get on my nerves....most of the time

[Mr. IWS]

I always tell my kid he should be a teacher for those same reasons. Decent pay for not a lot of work, and summers off.

Hes going to med school and will be working his balls off for a decade just to get his degree lol. At least Ill have a nice retirement home to go to when Im an old man.

[Luke]

I always tell my kid he should be a teacher for those same reasons. Decent pay for not a lot of work, and summers off.

Hes going to med school and will be working his balls off for a decade just to get his degree lol. At least Ill have a nice retirement home to go to when Im an old man.

Med school was something I for about two seconds, but I'm too old now. I'd have to go three more years of school, then intern for 4 more before ever making any money. Plus, it's all bio and chem classes that I hate.

If I had it to do all over again I might try being a doctor. My parents didn't care if I went to college or not so when I got out of High School I had no intention of going.

[Luke]

Edmann, you have to figure out what you're good at before you decide what you want to go into.

Are you good at Math, Writing, or Sciences?

[edman5555]

Edmann, you have to figure out what you're good at before you decide what you want to go into.

Are you good at Math, Writing, or Sciences?

Its been a while since I have done any of those. I think I could handle the coursework for nursing, though I have not been in a class room in a long time. I think you can train your mind to do any of those things to the degree necessary to graduate.

[Vandelay]

I completely disagree Luke. I just finished up my student teaching as well. 8:30 to 4 was the scheduled time each day for teachers, but we were almost required to be there 8:15 to 4:30ish each day.

8:15 to 8:30 - prep for the day (getting classroom ready, materials/supplies organized or printed off, etc.)
8:30 to 9:30 - Meetings
9:30 to 10:20 - Planning Period
10:20 to 12:50 - Teaching
12:50 to 1:30 - Lunch
1:30 to 3:45 Teaching
3:45 to 4:00 - Dismissal

Guess your right about the actual time spent teaching. Where I differ was the amount of time outside the classroom. I could basically count on one day a week spent entirely on planning (usually Sunday). So much extracurricular shit after schools was expected as well. Then factor in grading papers, writing comments, preparing for the next day, conversing with other staff, etc.

Also, I completed my student teaching in an inner city school. By far the worst/hardest aspect of teaching there, or any classroom, is classroom management. Our school had fights daily, students blatantly disrespected each other and staff, administration was a joke, teachers were all pussies (even our security officer was soft), and as a result of all these things, their was very little we could do about any issues.

The 90 hour thing is either a result of exaggeration or incompetence, but in no way would I call my experience easy. Another aspect that took up a lot of time was trying to supplement teaching with extra shit like including teaching methods that reached the various types of learners in the classroom, accommodating special needs students, recreating a lesson when the students inevitably can't comprehend something.

Not sure how similar this was to your experience Luke, but I thought I'd share. (I taught in a 5th grade classroom)

[Luke]

The only thing different between your schedule and mine was an hour of meetings each day. We didn't have those meetings. If teachers needed to get together they'd do it during planning periods.

We also didn't have to worry about special needs students because we had an intervention specialist in every classroom to take care of that for us. I had no problem looking over all the papers/group activities and planning for the next day during my planning period. Sometimes I'd have to print things off at home or glue/tape something together, but I don't consider that work.

I was in an urban school, so I'm sure the inner city was 10x what I had to deal with on a daily basis. There were no fights, cussing, etc.

The teachers at the schools I student taught at used inquiry-based learning rather than lectures, so the students did a lot group activities rather than worksheets. They gave tests over a standard at the end of a week(or two) and that was the only grade they received. The group activities always had checkpoints to see how they were doing(or what needed retaught), but it was to give the students feedback rather than a grade. That made grading papers easier.

It honestly sounds like you got the shaft, Vandelay. I actually enjoyed my student teaching. Like I said, the day flew by and it wasn't bad at all.

I had approx 75 students per day( 3 classrooms of 25). How many did you have?

[Mr. IWS]

So Vandalay is at an all back school.....

[poopoo333]

I plan on starting law school in January, unless I get a really bad LSAT score and don't get in.

[Vandelay]

The only thing different between your schedule and mine was an hour of meetings each day. We didn't have those meetings. If teachers needed to get together they'd do it during planning periods.

We also didn't have to worry about special needs students because we had an intervention specialist in every classroom to take care of that for us. I had no problem looking over all the papers/group activities and planning for the next day during my planning period. Sometimes I'd have to print things off at home or glue/tape something together, but I don't consider that work.

I was in an urban school, so I'm sure the inner city was 10x what I had to deal with on a daily basis. There were no fights, cussing, etc.

The teachers at the schools I student taught at used inquiry-based learning rather than lectures, so the students did a lot group activities rather than worksheets. They gave tests over a standard at the end of a week(or two) and that was the only grade they received. The group activities always had checkpoints to see how they were doing(or what needed retaught), but it was to give the students feedback rather than a grade. That made grading papers easier.

It honestly sounds like you got the shaft, Vandelay. I actually enjoyed my student teaching. Like I said, the day flew by and it wasn't bad at all.

I had approx 75 students per day( 3 classrooms of 25). How many did you have?

About 30 students or so each day. Way better than my practicum experience which had about 40 students. 4 special needs students in the class and 1 Emotionally Disturbed student who should have been expelled within the first week I was there. Student sexually harassed others, fought constantly with other students, mentally handicapped students and medically fragile ones, threatened teachers, and the list goes on. We had a group of students from another school come to our school and start a huge fight at dismissal (Unfortunately I missed that one). Parent's weren't anywhere to be found for about 90 percent of the students.

I enjoyed the experience for the most part. My mentor teacher was awesome and so were the intervention specialist and the 4th grade teacher. I would never be able to teach at an inner city school though, mainly because of the administration and superintendent. Completely fucked up school system from the top on down.