Teaching in Pinon Unified District (environment, showing, salary)

[Kelly14]

Hi, guys! Can anyone tell me what it's like to teach as SPED teacher in Pinon USD? about the SPED teacher's salary/benefits, etc. What is it like to teach there? I have a relative who wants to apply as SPED teacher there.

I welcome all your comments. Thanks!!!

[grisandole]

Hi there! We didn't live in Pinon, but my husband did teach on the Apache reservation (south of the Navajo rez) so I can help out with info on rez teaching/living.

Pinon does pay well for AZ. The teacher housing is nice as well (my husband has visited there).

The issue is the isolation, as it is extremely rural (as was where we used to live) and dealing with another culture. To successfully teach in a reservation school one really needs to drop many of their ideas about how things *should* be. The teacher needs to conform to the school/environment, not the other way around.

Most people love or hate reservation teaching, there isn't much of a middle ground. My husband loved it.

[Janet Carlson]

I taught in Pinon a couple of years back (can't reveal my identity obviously). It was EXTREMELY difficult. If you think you're going to go there and learn a lot about culture, forget it. No one is interested in showing an outsider anything. There were few books and materials to go around, so teachers had to buy out of their own pockets. A lot of students have boundary issues and I was stolen from. Students will fistfight in the classroom, that's just the way it goes and no one is going to do much about it. If you have an extremely thick skin and don't mind all of this, go ahead and do it. I can just tell you that if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't.

[Janet Carlson]

Now that I think about it, perhaps I was a bit harsh in my last entry. I was a new teacher with very little experience, and I have to own up to the fact that I didn't have control of my classroom. The administration has changed at all of the schools since I left, so perhaps things are different now. The kids I taught were talented artists and some of them were very sweet. My advice is to visit first, which a lot of teachers don't do. Spend a few days and visit the classrooms to make a decision. The isolation is rough, but some people like it and have taught there for many years. I apologize for the harshness of the last post and hope that this post will rectify that. Thanks.

[JuJuB]

Might it be that you are back tracking on your earlier statement because your name showed up at the top of the post?