Teaching today is not an easy job. You have all of the responsibility put on your shoulders but increasingly autonomy as well as flexibility and creativity is being stripped away.
Come to my room, you will fill it filled with visuals and permanent products on the walls which my kids could care less about but which my administration has demanded.
I am a special education teacher, and my kids are taking the same pretest that they took last year and the year before that. They will take it again at the end of the year and this will be used to determine my growth scores or half of my evaluation.
That's not to say all things are bad. I love interacting with my kids and building those relationships. There is nothing better than seeing that light come on when they get a lesson, or some advice you gave sinking in to solve a problem.
Yes teaching has its ups and downs but perhaps my biggest down is my paycheck.
I literally get depressed every two weeks when my paycheck hits my bank account and that feeling lasts longer and longer as I get older. You see after 18 years teaching and after my student loans come out I take home 1,034 dollars. You know you don't go into teaching for the money, but at some point I thought I wouldn't have to scrimp and sacrifice so much. At some point i thought I would have a cushion. It used to be if you made it to fifteen years or so, you know after a decade and a half of service, you got a nice little bump, but not anymore. when you factor in inflation I am making thousands less than what an 18th year teacher would have made when I started. Thousands.
Now I get it some people are saying, well you borrowed the money for your student loans, you have to pay it back, that when I signed the papers I knew that going in and that is true but what I didn't expect was to borrow 55, pay back 20 and still owe sixty. This is a debt that I will never get out from under.
Also shouldn't the service count for something? Teach for America teachers get 11 grand to pay back student loans after just two years. I am nine times past that and have not been given a penny.
I would say something has to give, but it seems like the dam has already broke.
Florida had 4,000 teaching vacancies to start the school year.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-teacher-shortage-florida-local-schools-20180817-story.html
Parents and teachers at this point are telling young people to avoid the profession.
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/trending-now/new-poll-majority-of-parents-dont-want-their-kids-to-become-teachers/822752413
Part of that has to do with salary. I never thought I would be rich and don't care that I never will be, at least financially, but I thought things would be different better, I thought I would be able to plan for the future rather than living pay check to paycheck like so many of my colleagues are.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html
More and more teachers are working second and even third jobs too. Think about that, the people who are educating our nation's future can't make it on what they are paid to do it.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/4/17164718/teachers-work-part-time-jobs
We have to do better as a nation, our future literally depends on it.
Come to my room, you will fill it filled with visuals and permanent products on the walls which my kids could care less about but which my administration has demanded.
I am a special education teacher, and my kids are taking the same pretest that they took last year and the year before that. They will take it again at the end of the year and this will be used to determine my growth scores or half of my evaluation.
That's not to say all things are bad. I love interacting with my kids and building those relationships. There is nothing better than seeing that light come on when they get a lesson, or some advice you gave sinking in to solve a problem.
Yes teaching has its ups and downs but perhaps my biggest down is my paycheck.
I literally get depressed every two weeks when my paycheck hits my bank account and that feeling lasts longer and longer as I get older. You see after 18 years teaching and after my student loans come out I take home 1,034 dollars. You know you don't go into teaching for the money, but at some point I thought I wouldn't have to scrimp and sacrifice so much. At some point i thought I would have a cushion. It used to be if you made it to fifteen years or so, you know after a decade and a half of service, you got a nice little bump, but not anymore. when you factor in inflation I am making thousands less than what an 18th year teacher would have made when I started. Thousands.
Now I get it some people are saying, well you borrowed the money for your student loans, you have to pay it back, that when I signed the papers I knew that going in and that is true but what I didn't expect was to borrow 55, pay back 20 and still owe sixty. This is a debt that I will never get out from under.
Also shouldn't the service count for something? Teach for America teachers get 11 grand to pay back student loans after just two years. I am nine times past that and have not been given a penny.
I would say something has to give, but it seems like the dam has already broke.
Florida had 4,000 teaching vacancies to start the school year.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-teacher-shortage-florida-local-schools-20180817-story.html
Parents and teachers at this point are telling young people to avoid the profession.
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/trending-now/new-poll-majority-of-parents-dont-want-their-kids-to-become-teachers/822752413
Part of that has to do with salary. I never thought I would be rich and don't care that I never will be, at least financially, but I thought things would be different better, I thought I would be able to plan for the future rather than living pay check to paycheck like so many of my colleagues are.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html
More and more teachers are working second and even third jobs too. Think about that, the people who are educating our nation's future can't make it on what they are paid to do it.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/4/17164718/teachers-work-part-time-jobs
We have to do better as a nation, our future literally depends on it.
I remember when teachers got a nice $8,000 raise at year #17. Now in year #24, they get a $2,000 raise for 4 years. So, besides being delayed by 7 yrs, it is given in increments. And that year without a step really hurt. We definitely are getting poorer and poorer.
ReplyDeleteWe, as a generation, are stuck. And it's not because we are lazy or entitled. It's because the cards were attacked against us from the beginning. Jobs that require 4+ years of college yet make $20-$30,000/year. If we weren't lucky enough to have our college paid for by our parents, we did what we thought was right - go to school and better ourselves by any means necessary. We thought it would pay off in the long run. Afterall, we were just following what we were told to do. Go to school if you want to be somebody! Between student loans and childcare, I would literally be in the negative if I return to my previous field of work (that which my Master's degree is in). It makes me angry. It makes me feel robbed. I studied hard for those certificates. I've cried over exams and homework and essays. I went days on end without sleeping so I could cram. I busted my ass and for what? Nothing it seems.
ReplyDeleteDon't you qualify for any loan forgiveness since you teachers a critical subject area?
ReplyDeleteBetsy DeVos explicitly makes loan forgiveness almost impossible And that was a 2008 enefit. These loans are far too old for forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteMy husband still doesn't make 40k and he has been teaching 14 yrs. He has been told he is being paid appropriately. By whose standards!?
ReplyDelete