Teaching in Maryland (Baltimore, Silver Spring, Frederick: how much, teaching jobs, transfer)

[njohns99]

Hi!

I just recently graduated and am waiting for my PA Certification in Social Studies Ed (7-12), but since it's basically impossible to find teaching jobs in Pennsylvania, I was looking at MD as a possibility (mainly for a job, however, having several major cities in the vicinity and all of the history of the area is a draw for me as well).

So far, I've focused mostly on Anne Arundel because they were the only county to contact me after a job fair in Pittsburgh (not that I'm not qualified -- there's just not much of a demand for Social Studies teachers!). I guess they're expanding their middle school program. I've heard lots of good things about Anne Arundel but I figured it would be smart to expand my search to the rest of Maryland.

I've been reading other threads about this issue, but they were a little old, so if anyone could help me answer any of these questions, that would be great!

- What other counties would be good to look at? (I'm sort of staying away from Prince George at the moment; but another 3-5 other areas?)
- How does Maryland treat its teachers?
- Does MD accept PA certifications? (the cert. office at the Ed Dept. will not pick up the phone, no matter how much I call every day, haha)
- Any tips or tricks to help me land a job in MD?
- Anything else I should know?

I'm trying to be realistic about this -- I know if I do get a job that it might not be at the best school in the county and I'll probably be living in an efficiency somewhere because of housing costs, however, I'm eager to get out of Erie and experience something different if only for a few years.

Sorry for the long post -- thanks for any help!

[mbieber1029]

AACPS is changing from a block schedule to a 6 period day with year long social studies, this is the reason for a large need for social studies teachers. I would say with every county suffering from the economy Anne Arundel would be your best bet. check out greatschools.net to get an idea of what each middle school is like.

[njohns99]

Ahh, is that why?

I've already applied, so hopefully they'll get in touch with me soon. I'm not really sure if there's a good way to get personally acquainted with the HR staff of such a large school system.

It looks like I don't really have to do much in terms of a MD certification, so that's good.

Thanks for the help! If anyone has any other answers to my other questions, please give me some advice!

[kamikazejoshua]

I didn't have a problem with transferring my certification into MD from NY. Only took a few minutes and signing some paperwork. I know that a lot of counties are just not doing that much hiring... at least compared to recent years past when I was hired. It will probably be difficult unless special ed. I know someone who is certified in special ed and history and cannot get history position for last 4 years. Good Luck.

[trickymost]

Originally Posted by njohns99

Hi!

I just recently graduated and am waiting for my PA Certification in Social Studies Ed (7-12), but since it's basically impossible to find teaching jobs in Pennsylvania, I was looking at MD as a possibility (mainly for a job, however, having several major cities in the vicinity and all of the history of the area is a draw for me as well).

So far, I've focused mostly on Anne Arundel because they were the only county to contact me after a job fair in Pittsburgh (not that I'm not qualified -- there's just not much of a demand for Social Studies teachers!). I guess they're expanding their middle school program. I've heard lots of good things about Anne Arundel but I figured it would be smart to expand my search to the rest of Maryland.

I've been reading other threads about this issue, but they were a little old, so if anyone could help me answer any of these questions, that would be great!

- What other counties would be good to look at? (I'm sort of staying away from Prince George at the moment; but another 3-5 other areas?)
- How does Maryland treat its teachers?
- Does MD accept PA certifications? (the cert. office at the Ed Dept. will not pick up the phone, no matter how much I call every day, haha)
- Any tips or tricks to help me land a job in MD?
- Anything else I should know?

I'm trying to be realistic about this -- I know if I do get a job that it might not be at the best school in the county and I'll probably be living in an efficiency somewhere because of housing costs, however, I'm eager to get out of Erie and experience something different if only for a few years.

Sorry for the long post -- thanks for any help!

Generally speaking, Maryland treats its teachers very well. Its unions are pretty strong, and wages/benefits generally speaking are good (for teachers).

There's a lot of counties which are great for teaching in MD. Really, the only ones I would advise avoiding are Baltimore City and PG County. The school systems in Montgomery and Howard are tops in the nation and tops in the state. Baltimore County, AA County are great school systems but depending on whether you want to go to a distressed school or not, you need to be careful.

Most hiring I know of is for the sciences and math. Not sure what the demand is for social studies?

The best way IMO to find jobs would be four fold:

First, call schools directly and speak with the secretary. They are at the center of a lot of things including hiring for schools. They will know if there are openings at that school or at other schools nearby. Many times, like in other professions, when a position opens, they'll look for referrals from internal candidates so you won't find out about openings anywhere publicly unless they're required to list it someplace.

Second, you probably won't have much luck at this time of the year looking, but lots of opportunities should open in mid August. Two typical examples - teachers who give birth over the summer who don't inform their administrators until the next school year starts get benefits/leave longer than if they resigned their post the prior school year. Likewise, some new teachers (just out of school) may realize they're not cut out for teaching and will resign or leave as the school year starts. As a result, there's a scramble to fill positions. Again, this is a time when calling schools directly and speaking to the secretary should get you good information.

Third, if you hear about a job fair, attend it. If a school is attending a job fair, it's usually because they have a position to fill ASAP.

Finally, you may want to look for positions which aren't in the classroom but in the county's various program offices. Once you're in the system, you will find it's much easier to network and find out about better opportunities and transition into the classroom.

GLTY! Maryland is a great place to be a teacher.

[njohns99]

Most hiring I know of is for the sciences and math. Not sure what the demand is for social studies?

Haha. With a few exceptions, almost nonexistent, but I'm doing my best!

Thanks for all of the posts so far! This is all really helpful information -- doing research can only get me so far. It makes a world of difference to hear it from people who are actually familiar with the area.

[effulgent7]

Maryland is a pretty good place to teach. If you plan on staying- the retirement is pretty low especially compared to PA, I think right now we will get 42% of our last 5 years of pay, plus taxes taken out of that. Correct me if I'm wrong- this is my last year teaching in MD so I haven't paid too much attention to that.

I would recommend Howard, Montgomery, Baltimore counties- they are the ones I am most familiar with. I teach in Howard and know that we are hiring this year, even though some other counties may be on a hiring freeze (sorry, I am a science teacher so you can't have my job ). I would stay away from Frederick- my fiancee worked there under terrible conditions with no support, and it was the worst 2 years of his life. OK- maybe that's a little dramatic but there are so many other wonderful places to teach in MD, I think you can stay away from it.

Definitely put in your applications and be prepared to play the waiting game- for outside hires you probably will not get a call until July/August. I student taught in this county and then applied for a job here, and even then I did not get a call until July 31 that year.

From my experience, I would not recommend calling schools directly- in my county all hiring is done through central HR and they are the people you need to "bug"- make sure they have your application, it is complete, etc. Individual schools will not even talk to you if you haven't gone through HR first. However, I also know that my county finished all its initial interviews back in March, so if you applied here you would be behind the 8-ball. Don't let that stop you, though- you need to apply to as many places as possible!

Sorry to ramble, good luck with your search!

[njohns99]

Thanks for all the advice!

What about living in Maryland? I've heard the commute times can be pretty awful and the cost of living is high -- from some of the counties I've looked up on the site, CoL seems to vary widely.

Is the CoL higher in areas with better districts?

[version]

I was just hired this week by Anne Arundel County as a Spanish teacher. This is a critical needs area, along with ESOL (and the above mentioned maths and science). They were the first to contact me (and their application process was the easiest to get started). Transferring my teaching certificate from Georgia was not hard, but it took a long while, and at the end of the process, Anne Arundel County told me they needed the same documents as Baltimore needed, so I had to go through the process a second time for them. And, no, they couldn't get the information (degrees, scores, verification of employment, recommendations, etc) from Baltimore, they needed their own, original files. So get double copies; one for the state certification, and one for the county employment.
Am researching housing at this time, (with the help of housing specialists connected to the school system) and plan to move at the end of July. So far, avoiding going into D.C or Baltimore (especially) during rush hours seems to make commutes less onerous. I will be working out in the 'country', a half hour from either of those two places, so I will generally be going against traffic. At first glance, I like the politics of Takoma Park, the urban/suburbanization of downtown Silver Spring, but finances may dictate more specifically where I end up. I love the Wire (HBO series), and believe that it certainly represents at least part of Baltimore, so downtown there is probably not in the cards.
Good luck, and I'm on these forums, too, looking for tips on housing and life in Maryland for creative, liberal teachers.

[njohns99]

Thanks and congratulations on the job! A friend of a friend of mine got hired there for Spanish as well. Needless to say, I'm jealous.

I got in touch with Larry Penn, the head of the middle-school program in Arundel -- he told me that there's a hiring freeze on Social Studies until the 30th. My luck, haha. Guess that gives me time to get more stuff together.