Teaching.....?

[joemilitary]

So I plan to retire from the military in the next 2 years

one of the things I am looking into is teaching. Starting to look at different states requirements. Most likely locations would be MD, DE, NJ.

curious on others that may have teaching experience and ideas on what to expect if I go this route....?

[alabamagal]

Do you want to be a teacher, or do you want to find a job?

DH taught for several years.  He loved the kids, hated the politics/administration issues.

Teacher pay is based on type of certification and years teaching.  The problem for most people who want to start teaching mid-career is that you start at the bottom of the pay scale (0 years experience).  I have friends who did this mid-career, so if you work 20 years in a science field, you get nothing for all your non-teaching experience and get paid the same as someone right out of school with no "real-world" experience.

[giramomma]

From what I've seen it depends on the district, and even the school that you are assigned to.

In our district, you don't pick your school, you get assigned to it. You can move around by applying for different jobs (ie, if you are elementary teacher, you can apply for middle school..around here it's K-8 certification and 9-12.)

If you get assigned to a low poverty school, generally you have a very easy time of it. High poverty schools are tougher environment.

In our school system, pay is based on number of credits in addition to experience. One of my friends got a double major in music and special ed. She had more credits than the typical undergrad, and got paid more than the typical 1st year special ed teacher because of it.

Also, our school system, particularly in the high poverty schools, there's just as many "specialists" as their are teachers. There's literacy specialists, behavioral specialists, family liaisons, English as a second language (they now call them English language learner) specialists. Then there's IT folks, nurses, admin type folks (who, frankly, don't make all that much less than teachers), and instructional technologists.

If you can handle it financially, you might want to consider something like Teach for America. You get paid peanuts, but I would think the experience would be incredible. Plus, you don't need to pursue formal education.

I think being a literacy specialist would be awesome. But, I don't want to go back to school to be certified to teach and then get a masters right now.

[joemilitary]

I should have a military pension so the pay doesn't concern me so much. Just something I have always been interested in. Also in the military usually you train your replacement. I always liked that / thought I was good at that. Also I have had to teach some military classes and found that rewarding. I know regular teaching will be different.

[Formerly SK]

I'm currently working PT as a elementary math tutor (my salary is paid for by PTO).  I'd LOVE to teach because I love the kids, but the union/admin/politics drive me crazy.  The biggest issue though is I'd have to get my masters (25K) to get certified, and yes I'd start out making 38K/yr.  The union negotiated increases are something like $500yr, so it's not like I'd be making 60K in 10 years.  My current job is completely based on PTO funding, so if they can't raise the money next year I'm out a job. 

I'm about 75% sure I want to do it, but it's a lot of time/money to spend on a career that I'm already hesitant about.

[billisonboard]

My background 7 years enlisted Navy, about a dozen years as a public school teacher. 

I don't know guy. I encourage you to spend some serious time and energy up front. Here is one concern:

Dec 20, 2014 9:57:05 GMT -5 joemilitary said:

... NO KIDS (just a dog) ...

When was the last time you spent an extended period of time with people the age you are considering teaching? Look to spend at least two weeks in a classroom. Why two? It means you have to go back after a weekend of reflection. If you aren't excited to go back, then run quickly in a different direction career wise.

How do you deal with insubordination? I couldn't figure out if you are commissioned or enlisted. My guess is enlisted from your talk about work environment but the Masters ...?  With 25 years service, either way you would have to be up there with up or out policies. Can be tough to go from up there to lowly teacher with a teenager in your face "explaining" how you don't know squat. 

[Deleted]

Be a substitute teacher first to try out how you like teaching kids.

[billisonboard]

Dec 24, 2014 11:07:01 GMT -5 @taliare said:

Be a substitute teacher first to try out how you like teaching kids.

Just to counter this a bit. I subbed for a number of years and really enjoyed it. If it paid, I could have stayed with it. What I found to be a struggle was the long grind of 180 school days, including dealing with administrators and parents. To make it even worse for me, I taught special education students in a small junior\senior high school so I had some kids for the full five years I was there. You haven't "lived" until you have tried to work with the same parents for that long. I could get kids to grow, parents not so much.

If you are in an area that allows for you to sub without getting your teaching cert, I would say go for it. But if you have to jump through all the hoops anyway, it is a major hassle just to discover in the end that teaching isn't for you.

[Deleted]

Lower paying school districts here have substitute shortage, so they take work history to allow certification for sub teachers. When shortage of teachers can get temporary sub certificate to check if teaching is for you.

[billisonboard]

Substituting is to teaching as place kicking is to football. 

[zibazinski]

I'd pick flyshit out of pepper before I'd teach ever again.

[Shooby]

You won't make much money teaching, that's for sure. But, if you are mostly interested to do it because you simply wish too, then that would be great. But, you aren't free to teach how you want. Education is far more controlled now. Many schools do not even give teachers much input anymore which is ridiculous. And, a lot of time is spent teaching things that are testable rather than really being able to explore and learn.

[zibazinski]

I know one ex military teacher. He teaches because he has a military pension so the pittance he makes doesn't matter that much. He teaches at a magnet high school so he doesn't get too many bad parents and the students respect him because, one, he's a man, and two, he knows how to command respect. In a regular school, he wouldn't last because he'd either kill the admins, the student, or the students parent. Both my kids had him and adored him. 

[joemilitary]

thanks all, now you have me wondering....

insubordination I would have trouble with (if there were no repurcussions)....that was one of the problems I had at my current job

[joemilitary]

and I like kids.....just I like other people's kids.

and kids usually like me. I can connect, say something silly and things like that.  When we are at things with friends that have kids they always kind of flock to me

[imanangel]

Think long and hard about going into teaching.  It is one of the most rewarding jobs, in my humble opinion, but there are things you really need to consider first.  One big problem, the politics.  The political BS can really wear a person down.  You also really need to have a good grasp of classroom management.  Some behavior issues can really disrupt the entire learning environment.  You need to know how to quickly handle the disruption, get the students refocused, all while keeping your cool.  

[Deleted]

Paperwork and buerocracy definately wear. So does seeing kids dealing with bad circumstances which you don't really have the resource or recourse to change. So long as you go into it understanding those things though, it's not a bad position. I'm still trying to decide if I want to get back to it myself. 

Do you have any experience teaching? I know my cousin by the time he left service was doing a lot of training, small group and classroom. He also had a sports background (sometimes I think his service career was as much about baseball as anything). I did rcommend he look at teaching and or coaching. The one thing I did caution him on was differences in discipline... Military discipline and order is not going to show up in other classrooms, and the style of correction sometimes used in the military to keep order might not translate. 

[Tennesseer]

Joemilitary-don't rule out corporate training/teaching. There you would be instructing adults.

[zibazinski]

Great idea. Banks still instruct employees as well. Look at Amway. DFs DIL works for them and makes killer money plus loves her job. No, she doesn't sell stuff.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Dec 25, 2014 6:03:32 GMT -5 joemilitary said:

thanks all, now you have me wondering....

insubordination I would have trouble with (if there were no repurcussions)....that was one of the problems I had at my current job

I will post more when I'm not on my phone, but if this philosophy is ingrained, then I think you should look more to community college (master's required) or training adults in other fields. The nature of children in general and teenagers specifically is to be insubordinate.

I do haveore to add regarding licensure and such and will be back later.

[giramomma]

Dec 25, 2014 10:20:28 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Joemilitary-don't rule out corporate training/teaching. There you would be instructing adults.

Yes, but then they generally want something in adult education, not teacher certification. Many also want a background in online education as well.

I don't know that being a teacher is all that low paying.

As a teacher in our city, you still get 2-3% raises every year, good health insurance, decent pay (starting is over 40K, I think), pay for extra credits without having a masters, plus a bunch of time off, a pension, and SS. If you need more money, there's an option to teach summer school.

I could deal with the bureaucracy, but the other parents, there's no way in hell I'd do that. Dealing with 1230 emails a day about why Suzie deserves a A instead of the C she earned on a test.

[billisonboard]

Dec 25, 2014 11:40:52 GMT -5 giramomma said:

...

I could deal with the bureaucracy, but the other parents, there's no way in hell I'd do that. Dealing with 1230 emails a day about why Suzie deserves a A instead of the C she earned on a test.

One of my favorite stories from by ex: she had a couple kids ask to miss class to do something around the school. She told them yes but they had to make up the test the next day. They did and they did very well on the test. She found out they had been briefed on exactly what was on the test. She didn't give them credit for the test. In the ensuing parent conference, she said she considered it cheating. The parent asked if she had ever specifically told the students they could not do that. Thought it would have been a great question coming from an attorney, but from a minister ..

[billisonboard]

Another story - former math teacher girlfriend on this one:
She assigned a use tessellations in a creative way to make something lesson. Parents of a drill and kill math "A" student demanded a conference to protest the first "C" their daughter ever got in a math class.  When the parents arrived, my girlfriend said that she needed a couple of minutes to finish something up and suggested that the parents look around the room at other students' products. The parents looked around for a short time, asked if their daughter could redo the assignment, and left after hearing she could. 

[Phoenix84]

I don't have any specific advice, since I'm not a teacher or military.

I did have a former Army Colonel as a teacher in high school though, he was pretty good, and the students liked him.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

In regard to licensure, when you are considering where to move, look into the state's licensing body. (ie, Oregon's is called Teacher's Standards and Practices Commission [TSPC] I think Washington state's is OSPI; maybe zibazinski, @southernsusana, and giramomma can give the examples around their geographical location) 

There is a license called Career and Technical Education.  It is for a person who has much technical expertise from real world experience who then, as a second career, wants to go into teaching. The people who qualify for this do not have to go to "teacher school". There are, of course, other types of requirements and professional development plans. It's federally funded with Perkins grants.      


What job do you have in the military?

I have to go for now. It may be a few days before I return. 

[Deleted]

Dec 25, 2014 18:33:38 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

In regard to licensure, when you are considering where to move, look into the state's licensing body. (ie, Oregon's is called Teacher's Standards and Practices Commission [TSPC] I think Washington state's is OSPI; maybe zibazinski, @southernsusana, and giramomma can give the examples around their geographical location) 

There is a license called Career and Technical Education.  It is for a person who has much technical expertise from real world experience who then, as a second career, wants to go into teaching. The people who qualify for this do not have to go to "teacher school". There are, of course, other types of requirements and professional development plans. It's federally funded with Perkins grants.      


What job do you have in the military?

I have to go for now. It may be a few days before I return. 

I don't know much about alternative licensure in Alabama. I can't imagine that the OP really wants to teach here if he ruled Mississippi out. The weather is basically the same, and the people are basically the same. The only difference is that we are closer to Atlanta (LOL), and we have more interesting terrain as the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Mississippi, among its other problems, is too flat for me.  Where I live is less impoverished, but I am in one of the best school districts.  They typically don't hire people with alternative licensure.

I did google Troops to Teachers Alabama, and they directed me to the State Department of Education site and suggested I click on certification.  joemilitary  I suggest that is what you do. 

[justme]

I haven't taught kids, but I have trained adults in my work and was a tutor in undergrad and a GTA in grad school. Teaching college kids is way different than adults through work. The adults as a whole all wanted to be there. Even in college it was a mixed bag and a lot of them would come in just wanting to learn enough to pass. I like teaching but I didn't like dealing with the kids that didn't want to learn as much.

[Deleted]

Teach for America is also good way to go into teaching. You make application and then perform a sample lesson you make up for a panel. Interviews too.

[billisonboard]

Dec 25, 2014 6:40:40 GMT -5 joemilitary said:

and I like kids.....just I like other people's kids.

and kids usually like me. I can connect, say something silly and things like that.  When we are at things with friends that have kids they always kind of flock to me.

I am the same way. In my current job, I work with kids for a couple of hours, some a day, some a couple of days. There is a group I work with for four days. At the end of that time, they go on with their lives and I go on with mine. Usually a positive experience for all of us.

180 days ...

[imanangel]

Dec 25, 2014 11:40:52 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Dec 25, 2014 10:20:28 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Joemilitary-don't rule out corporate training/teaching. There you would be instructing adults.

Yes, but then they generally want something in adult education, not teacher certification. Many also want a background in online education as well.

I don't know that being a teacher is all that low paying.

As a teacher in our city, you still get 2-3% raises every year, good health insurance, decent pay (starting is over 40K, I think), pay for extra credits without having a masters, plus a bunch of time off, a pension, and SS. If you need more money, there's an option to teach summer school.

I could deal with the bureaucracy, but the other parents, there's no way in hell I'd do that. Dealing with 1230 emails a day about why Suzie deserves a A instead of the C she earned on a test.

I work for DoDEA, even conferences with parents can be very political here.  Thankfully, I have a pretty great group of parents this year.