Why did you leave teaching? (credentials, English, skill, kindergarten)
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I couldn't hack it. Seriously, my kids wore me down. My first year, I took a job teaching at a school with students coming from predominately low socio-economic backgrounds. I could not relate (though I empathized terribly) and I think my clssroom management skills really suffered because I just didn't know how to reach out to them. Needless to say, that was the first and last year I ever taught. Now, I'm a boring accountant.
I retired after 30 years in a tough urban district!
How did you survive without the stress tearing away at you? There has to be some method that they just do not teach us in college or else I just missed that lecture?
I might have kept teaching if the government and administrators had not started doing everything they could against the best interests of children. There is only so much of that that a responsible adult can take.
Ditto.
Although I loved teaching and was very good at it, I even had good relationships with the parents, I could no longer handle the extreme government interference, the endless testing, being forced to teach to the test and nothing else, the "in your face" threats of losing your job if ALL your students were not functioning on level, and the neverending paperwork required by the administrators, district, and state and federal governements. I always felt like we were given a pile of wood and told to build a brick house. I might could have continued, even WITH the complete and total exhaustion at the end of the day, if it had not been for this.
I always felt like we were given a pile of wood and told to build a brick house.
Wow- that is the perfect analogy for how the politics are coming down on teachers!
I just wish some of those at the top who make the decisions would spend 1 day, 1 full day , in a classroom and see the effects of their policies!!!
I couldn't hack it. Seriously, my kids wore me down. My first year, I took a job teaching at a school with students coming from predominately low socio-economic backgrounds. I could not relate (though I empathized terribly) and I think my clssroom management skills really suffered because I just didn't know how to reach out to them. Needless to say, that was the first and last year I ever taught. Now, I'm a boring accountant.
I still teach in a low income area. I can relate to your story. When I first got there, I didn't relate to my students' situations. I attended public school for most of my educational career in the same city where I teach (altough in a totally different area). Still, I was shocked at how the students and their parents behaved. Many of the students and parents simply don't care. We've had students completely destroy classrooms (and once again the parents don't care).
It is hard, but I'm there for the students that do care. Some of them really want to do well. Also, my school does seem to have gotten a little better over the years, so I'm thankful. As others mentioned, there is a whole lot of paperwork though. And so much of it is implemented one year and then thrown away (and never looked at or used). That's what makes me upset.
Wow- that is the perfect analogy for how the politics are coming down on teachers!
I just wish some of those at the top who make the decisions would spend 1 day, 1 full day , in a classroom and see the effects of their policies!!!
That is exactly what I thought. I always wished that every administrator from the superintendent on down should have to spend about every third year in the classroom to keep the big dollars they get and to keep their licenses current. Boy, wouldn't that put a stop to some of the nonsense!
i am not but got a lota teacher friends still with credentials. they are all over at the welfare office working, they thought it was a much safer positive environment with a lot less stress, they were willing to even take a cut in pay and benefits. am i reaching you on this one?
In my case, I never really entered. I was a career changer and got my elementary credential a few years ago. The year I got my credential, I also worked full-time as an assistant teacher. It was a rough year. The class was quite challenging (in a private school, no less!) and I had some issues with the teacher I was working with (the school fired her at the end of the year). Meanwhile, during the course of the year, I came to realize just how much time I would need to spend outside of the classroom preparing lessons. I really loved working with the kids but I just couldn't see myself putting in all the hours needed to do a quality job (particularly for the low salary). I got my credential in May 2006 and haven't set foot in a classroom since. Sometimes I think about going back but then I remember how overwhelmed I felt that year and wonder if it's worth it.
our local district where I retired from after returning to teaching for 7 years--had a program several years ago that was a real media opp--the admins in the big house would have to work as subs for at least 6 days out of the year to help cut costs of paying subs
now 6 does not sound like a lot of days but it is very scary if you have not been in the classroom for several years or decades and most of these people went into admin because 1--they really could not hack it in the classroom and 2--they wanted the higher pay...
the teachers were all like S---, I don't want one in my room because they knew they were very likely NOT to be good subs and they did not want a different type of personal evaluation going on --people always comment on who they sub for and subs know who are good teachers and who are not frankly
(personally I was never absent the two years they did that program...)
So big news story in local paper when our superintendent went to sub at local high school--went into some class and several of the students were taking their fake-babies around--for the home/family living class where students get andro-babies checked out to them for 48 hrs--they have to care for the babies like a real parent--dolls have monitoring chip in them and record how well the baby is treated...some babies can be really a pain in the ass because they have colic and other issues...
one of the dolls started to cry--the super lost it--HE picked up the baby and was rough with it--the student complained because that would show on the chip and affect his grade--
the sup and the student got into shouting match--the student got suspended--and think he had to be taken off school property by police--there was some type of fine involved that the teachers at his school collected money to pay--
everyone who heard the story within the school district knew that the super just lost it--totally over-reacted to what happened in class and he was the reason the student got into trouble...but he was type of person who never admitted to being wrong--and obviously was probably a pretty cruddy teacher when he was in the classroom...
needless to say--having admins come as subs stopped that year...
after I had been out of teaching for like 10+ yrs I took job with state of TX in the Health Human Services --welfare-- dept as caseworker
did not take work home like with teaching but certainly took the stress home--tremendously demanding job--by the time I worked there for 5+ years I had a great professional rating--always got my encentive bonus for high level performance--but I was so stressed by all the fraud that I could tell was going on and the clients who would file complaint against you for calling them on their fraud or being "unprofessional" because you enforced policy that I was crying on my way home from work...
the only way to survice as caseworker IMO is just to not care--there were plenty of people in my office with that attitude and frankly their cases were crap--they would do anything just to get a case off their desk--sloppy, sloppy, sloppy--and if you worked a case after they did, you usually found so many mistakes that it doubled YOUR work load to clean it up...
I'm afraid that not caring is or soon will be an essential skill for teachers. There is so much fraud, waste, even crime (on the part of administrators) going on that if you do care it will cause you more than simple distress, not to mention the effect that it has on your family. Forget a social life, except maybe among other teachers.
I am retired now from teaching. I wanted to be a teacher real bad when I was in college. Given the chance to do it over I wouldn't even consider it. I urge others to consider it only with extreme caution and with pathological self-sacrifice in mind. In other words, don't do it.
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How'd you survive?
