I just moved back to Texas and should be starting up again with my old company in a new office. Same position I held before, same pay, different location. I am grateful it worked out. However, I can't let go of the feeling that I may enjoy teaching more. I taught at the collegiate level when I was a grad student and had a short contract as an Instructor, and I loved it. Would this translate to the middle or high school level? I know it's a vastly different environment.

The old/new job pays less than a starting teaching salary, gives the standard two weeks vacation, decent benefits and 401k. However, it is a consulting company and hours are generally 50 - 60 a week just to make 75% chargeability goals. Overtime is only given if chargeable hours are over 44 per week (essentially no one on salary gets overtime). There's a pretty high burnout rate especially among young people.

With teaching, I would make more at the beginning of my career (but probably not at the mid or senior level), there's way more vacation, good benefits and retirement. Hours during the school year are high as well with no overtime. Plus parents and admin can be terrible.

So there are pros and cons to both. Does anyone here actually enjoy teaching? I see a lot on this board about transitioning from teaching into something else. Has the teaching field become unbearable?

I think you have to find the right content and school.

I'm in year 11. I teach physics and en engineering design class. I love every minute. Sure, I have rough spots with the kids, but I really couldn't imagine doing anything else.

I don't know, I hate teaching. All the testing standards I have to deal with among other things, it's just not enjoyable. Of course, my previous career was teaching in informal education at zoos and aquariums, so that is pretty and difficult to beat.

My long-term goal is to teach on the university level or work at a University.

I enjoy teaching. I agree with AgMarauder. You have to find the right school and the right subject. I couldn't do my job as well as I did if I didn't have a passion for it.

For instance, next week we are starting a unit on Asia. I just spent an entire day creating lesson plans not because I had to do that during Spring Break but because I wanted the kids to enjoy it and I had fun coming up with activities for the kids to do in my classroom.

This will also be my 11th year and there have been a lot of things that have made teaching more enjoyable for me.

1.) I don't grade anything outside of the school day.
2.) I don't look at my email after the school day.
3.) I get to know my parents VERY well. It makes things easier when something goes sour if they know you have their best interest at heart.
4.) Always have a positive attitude and stay away from people with a negative one.
5.) Have fun teaching! If it's boring for you. It's going to be boring for the kids and that leads to discipline issues.

My brother just switched to teaching from an unfulfilling career. He was real excited about - and now at almost the end of his first year he hates it and doesn't know if he'll do a second year.

Part of it is personal - the commute where he found work is brutal.

The other part though is that it seems the admin has set him up for failure. He has had so much put on his plate that he doesn't feel he can do a proper job of preparing for any one class.

There are other things he doesn't like, but in he key take away is that it's not very fulfilling to him.

Just don't walk in with an idealistic "I'm going to change everything" attitude cause you won't. Admin won't be helpful, you won't have enough resources, etc. There is much less pressure on non-tested subjects. My school has close to zero technology, few resources, and I teach 3 different subjects since we are a small school (I'm math and science certified, and we have 230ish HS students). Yet, admin wants us to teach using technology, and give more online assignments, even though close to half of our students don't have internet or a computer at home (rural e tenn). Yeah, that doesn't make sense.

I love teaching and coaching. I can't imagine doing anything else, except maybe administration to help other teachers. Sure, there are tough days, but those make the rewards of graduating a student that much sweeter. As a teacher you have to have a mindset that things won't always work out no matter how hard you try and how much blood, sweat and, tears you pour into to helping someone.

My non-negotiable as an Athletic Coordinator are teachers and coaches who chose teaching as plan B or C and just need the paycheck. You have to want to teach and you have to want to make those around you better or you'll hate education.

Not all schools are bad. Not all admin are non-supportive. A lot of it comes down to effort. This is my tenth year to be a full time teacher and coach.

Teaching HS and teaching college are two very different things. First, the student's motivation for being there. Second, the maturity of the student. I've taught both levels. Vastly prefer the college level.

Also, socioeconomic level of students matters. I teach at a title 1 school. 90% of the parents could care less what grades their children make up, despite me trying to contact them frequently. I only have 4 or 5 parents show up at open house for 110 students. 75-80% of the students don't care what grades they make. The parents see school as day care. If you do go into teaching, try to find a more affluent area.

Did it for 4 years. Many teachers feel more like babysitters than teachers. I felt the same some days. Don't think your time in the classroom will be spent on you professing your knowledge. IMO if you dont want to spend your time getting kids to even act right, I wouldn't do this.

Did it for 4.5 years. Loved it and probably would have remained, but wanted to see what else was out there (background: engineering undergrad, math grad).

Biggest issue I had was how little care was shown by some of the other teachers I worked with. Compensation was never going to be a huge issue, but getting more than 3% raise a year now is nice.

Taught for 6 years at a public high school in Fort Worth; loved it. Transitioned out of teaching into software to support a new family and reduce stress levels at home (wife and I were both teachers at the time).

However, this is a tricky question to answer and you should take every single answer here with a grain of salt (mine included) because there is almost no way of knowing if teaching is right for you unless you try it. And even if you try it your experience at one school could be completely different from an experience at a school right down the road. So please don't read too much into posters who say "I hated it" or "I loved it" - though I do think it's important to know that your possible emotional response to teaching could easily swing to both ends.

/beginSoapbox

Double however: I'm a firm believer in ignoring pessimists and the power of supportive, positive peers - there are a lot of people who do in fact abhor teaching (who really should not be teaching our children in the first place) - and taking their advice is potentially much more devastating to the field than listening to an overly optimistic person. If you love education and have the optimism to persevere despite the tremendous amount of B.S. (which by the way is not particularly unique to teaching) - you actually can make a difference in people's lives. Anyone who tells you otherwise should be ignored.

/endSoapbox

Finally - I have not taught in college, but I'm confident that the two experiences are worlds apart, so keep that in mind. Schools out there can always use a great teacher - even if you only teach for a couple years you can impact hundreds of students' lives.

Thank you for all the responses! I have a lot to think about for sure. I may continue on in the professional world for a bit and work on obtaining my alternative teaching certificate so I can transfer into it in a year or so.

As for what consulting job pays less than a teaching job? An environmental science one does! I have an MS and BS in Geology with an emphasis in petroleum, but that tanked hard the year I graduated with my MS. I have been in environmental work ever since and it pays peanuts. Another perk to teaching would be that I could better utilize my degrees and teach earth science, environmental science, and perhaps chemistry.

Richierich2323 said:

---

I enjoy teaching. I agree with AgMarauder. You have to find the right school and the right subject. I couldn't do my job as well as I did if I didn't have a passion for it.

For instance, next week we are starting a unit on Asia. I just spent an entire day creating lesson plans not because I had to do that during Spring Break but because I wanted the kids to enjoy it and I had fun coming up with activities for the kids to do in my classroom.

This will also be my 11th year and there have been a lot of things that have made teaching more enjoyable for me.

1.) I don't grade anything outside of the school day.
2.) I don't look at my email after the school day.
3.) I get to know my parents VERY well. It makes things easier when something goes sour if they know you have their best interest at heart.
4.) Always have a positive attitude and stay away from people with a negative one.
5.) Have fun teaching! If it's boring for you. It's going to be boring for the kids and that leads to discipline issues.

---

To each there own- but I wouldn't advise being inaccessible via email outside of school hours. I have my work email linked to my phone. It doesn't waste much time and I can get on top of things that need prompt attention. I cant stand some of the gatekeeper ladies I work with that become damn near impossible to reach for extended periods of time, when I need them for something urgent.

Can't recommend it right now but I've had some pretty poor leadership lately which leads me to that train of thought.

I do suggest if you do it to try and go into a non-state tested field. There is EXTREME pressure put on those teachers. Will probably be more pressure put on CTE Teachers as well now with the new A-F rating system taking things like certifications earned while in HS into account.

From my teacher friends:

Love teaching; hate the bull**** that comes along with it

Richierich2323 said:

---

1.) I don't grade anything outside of the school day.

This! I rarely take anything home to grade and that helps decompress from work a little easier
2.) I don't look at my email after the school day.
Impossible for me as athletic coordinator, but I crack up when the principal sends out "you can wear jeans tomorrow" at 9pm and I know the teachers that won't be in jeans because they only check their email at work.
3.) I get to know my parents VERY well. It makes things easier when something goes sour if they know you have their best interest at heart. Yes, yes, yes! Don't wait for something negative to be the first time you reach out to a parent
4.) Always have a positive attitude and stay away from people with a negative one. 100% yes. I've literally walked away from conversations where the group just wants to vent
5.) Have fun teaching! If it's boring for you. It's going to be boring for the kids and that leads to discipline issues.
Church, yo! Preach on!!!

---

I'm in my third year (title 1 school) and I love it. You might see about subbing first, just to get a feel for it.

Vernada said:

---

My brother just switched to teaching from an unfulfilling career. He was real excited about - and now at almost the end of his first year he hates it and doesn't know if he'll do a second year.

Part of it is personal - the commute where he found work is brutal.

The other part though is that it seems the admin has set him up for failure. He has had so much put on his plate that he doesn't feel he can do a proper job of preparing for any one class.

There are other things he doesn't like, but in he key take away is that it's not very fulfilling to him.

---

This is my wife's #1 complaint.

Most of the time, school administrators have never been outside the education bubble and thus have absolutely zero actual experience in an environment that is not educational. That's not a good thing. To a T, almost every admin she deals with seems to have the attitude that the teachers work for the admin and any effort the admin has to do to support the teachers is generally met with angst, sighs and anger at having to put out effort. There are way too many administrators, and each one of them feels the need to justify their job and ensure that their butt is covered in any circumstance.

Beyond that, the regulations forced down by various government agencies, DOJ, etc. make it much more difficult than it should be. And she has to keep records of anything and everything because in the event a parent has an issue with a student that receives a failing grade, etc. - she better be able to prove to both the parent and the admin that there is a reason for it. Unfortunately, politics has a heavy hand in teaching.

Luckily she teaches in the technical field at our local HS, so she doesn't have to really deal with the standardized testing and normal BS that other teachers have to deal with, but at the same time there is not a single administrator that has an inkling of what her program does, what the requirements or limitations are. And every year she has to go sit and argue with her direct supervisor and the counselors and explain to them the same things over and over again.

She loves the teaching aspect of things, and the ability to spend summers and spring break with our kids. But she dislikes having to deal with the administrators and the PC political culture that comes with public schools.

Administrator here. The frustrating things about teaching wil be there no matter where you go, and it's really about attitude. If you're going to get into the profession, remember this one thing: We're in the kid business. Not the education business. It's about relationships with everyone involved, including your parents and admin. It's about being a part of your community. (So pick wisely where you end up). It's about thanklessly adding where you can.

You can be a good teacher if you're willing to invest in your craft to help kids learn, and have the heart to be patient and stubborn with kids when they don't want to learn. I hope you get into it, the education world needs more servants out there.