Hellobee Boards

2nd grade!

I was a school librarian for premium to 8th grade. I also taught middle school electives. I'm taking a few years off to stay home with lo. I miss teaching though!

ESL K-5!

Is it sad that I'm considering leaving teaching because I can't justify working and not being with my LO everyday for such little pay? Public school teachers in my state make ridiculously low salaries and I make HALF of that (I'm basically paid like a childcare worker because even though my job is a state funded position, it's in a private center).

I love teaching, but if I have to be away from my LO (I'd love to be a SAHM but that's not happening because DH also teaches!), I'd rather be making semi-good money. Ugh

It is my first year out of the classroom! I taught 8th grade social studies for 8 years. I'm a school administrator now.

@owlteach: Yeah, it's tough. My parents begged my sister and I to do something different (she's a senior in college majoring in education too), but we both knew we wanted to teach. End of story. Now, I can kinda see where they are coming from. It wouldn't be so bad if DH had a higher paying job, but with both of us teaching, it's hard. He's going to become an administrator once he is able to (he has to teach 4 years before getting his master's in school admin and this is his second). I believe our state is ranked #49 for teacher pay. I loooove teaching but at the end of the day, I have to do what's best for my family and our future

Community college freshman composition!

@MrsScottish: teachers have to have a 4 year college degree and the majority of states require you to take a credentialing exam in your area of teaching.

in the state i am in, the majority of larger cities start a teacher with no experience at or around 40,000/year and upwards from there. the max out varies depending on years of experience. i know some teachers with 20-30 years of experience and they only get paid 60-70K/year.

@MrsScottish: My husband is on his second year teaching and his pay is $30,000. My state has frozen the pay scale, meaning that even though teachers get paid a bit more for each year of experience, they have been stuck at the same level for 7 years now. So, a teacher with 10 years of experience still has a 3rd year teacher's salary (around $32,000). It is absolutely ridiculous.

Fun! I teach 4th grade Language Arts, part time at a private school. I used to teach kindergarten full-day at a public school. I also have a tutoring business:-).

@MrsScottish: Hey, not sure if you'll see this, but yes I am a Canadian living in Australia and teaching! I moved here 9 years ago, before I even thought about teaching as a career (I was just a backpacker). I fell in love with the country and with an Australian (typical story!!), so I decided to stay and get my teaching credentials here.
I do know some canadian teachers who have done the kind of exchange you're talking about, but usually either as single people before they get married, or as families with older kids. I can understand that doing it as a couple (esp if TTC!) could be difficult and inconvenient. Maybe in a few years?

@MrsScottish: I have a cousin in law (if that's a thing?) who lives in Toronto that says he makes 6 figures as a school librarian and he doesn't even have a master's in library science (and in the library world, you don't call yourself a librarian without an MLS), which is super high compared to salaries in the US.

I mean, there are school librarians in my current city who make 100,000 a year but they have been teaching for 30-some years! People just starting out are making $50,000 or so.

@Anagram: unfortunately, our area is super competitive for teachers (we live near a university that is known for pumping out hundreds of teachers every semester). I've been out of college for almost 4 years and still haven't found a public school job. We have thought about moving, but it would have to be in the future because DH had a teacher scholarship that paid for half of his college tuition. Part of the scholarship agreement was that he would teach 4 years in our state after graduating (the scholarship started years ago when there was a huge need for teachers).

Luckily, we live near the border of SC and teachers there make considerably more, so that's an option later.

@Anagram: interesting about your cousin in law! LIbrarians here have to take a 2 year course at the local collage. It teaches them the system for sorting the books.... dewi decimal I think.. I am sure you would know!! They dont make nearly as much as teachers, as they are not teachers here. When I went to school they were teachers that focused on the library, but they did away with that years ago to save money.

Thank you for your responses. We are currently under contract negotiations. There are 4 divisions (or districts) in my city, and 20some in the province. Each does their own contract between teachers and the division, so they are each a bit different, but money is basically the same. 3 years ago, when we got our last contract, it was a 1.5% raise every year for 3 years, which they did not like as it is not meet with the rising cost of living........ I am more concerned about other things in the contract, prep time, personal days, benefits, (mat leave!!?!?!?!) All but 1 division in the whole province has a contract expiring in June, so we are all heading to the table. Going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out. We went without a contract for over a year the last time..... (and we are unable to strike here in my province, it is an agreement between our union and the province so we get to sit back and ride the wave)