I'm a 34 year old 7th grade Math teacher and I make about $35,000 a year. I have been teaching for 5 years and I do enjoy it(not love) and I would consider myself a good teacher as I was just awarded Teacher of the Year as nominated by my peers. My problem is that the money is not good enough and there is no way to increase your salary, bad teachers make just as much as excellent ones. I knew that teachers would not become rich before going into the profession but it's starting to bother me that my friends and relatives who are less intelligent than I are making much better money. My brother-in-law for instance makes about $80k a year selling some ballon that doctors use in spinal surgeries! His job does not interest me as there is too much traveling but you get the point. I would like some ideas or thoughts you all may have concerning my dilemma, what should I do? Thanks.
Need some career advice.
- Thread starter Medellon
- Start date
My friend just quit the programming gig to become a real estate agent. He is making a heck of alot more money than before.
Are you married? If your wife works and makes enough for the two of you to live on I would say go back to school and get a masters in one of the engineering disciplines. Take out loans to help fill in any gaps. It would be extremely tough but you would be pretty much guaranteed of a pretty fine salary after graduation.
Hrm....My mother-inlaw makes a little over 65K a year as a teacher, of course she has been doing it for around 15 years though, and she teaches in a little a$$ town, people who live in california south valley
will know this town, Earlimart, and my wife makes around the same as you in the same school dist as her mom and is a 5 grade teacher and has been doing this job for less then a year.
But have you though of trying perhaps to change your grade lvl your teaching or try to teach special ed or soemthing on that order?
will know this town, Earlimart, and my wife makes around the same as you in the same school dist as her mom and is a 5 grade teacher and has been doing this job for less then a year.
But have you though of trying perhaps to change your grade lvl your teaching or try to teach special ed or soemthing on that order?
In Texas all teachers make the same regardless of what grade they teach. It seems that Texas is pretty low with regards to teacher salary.
is there anything else you like doing or that you think you might like doing? not a lot of people enjoy their jobs i don't think. so there's something to be said about a job you enjoy, even if you don't love it. does your bro-in-law enjoy being in sales?
have you done any research into other areas of the country and their teaching salaries? in the school district where i grew up they had to abandon teaching calculus a couple of years ago because none of the math teachers were qualified. it's rockland county in new york. i believe their salaries are pretty good.
Have you thought about becoming a school administrator? Here in California many of them make 60-80k+.
You are 34 yo and came here for career advice? You do know that most of the people here are in college, and are looking for career advice themselves.
Why don't you tell us more about what you are qualified to do and what you enjoy doing and maybe some of us can give you some advice.
Why don't you tell us more about what you are qualified to do and what you enjoy doing and maybe some of us can give you some advice.
First, CONGRATULATIONS! Teacher of the Year is nothing to sneeze at.
Second, I totally sympathize with you. I teach too, and one of the reasons I can afford to teach is because my husband makes good money in the IT industry.
Without going back to school, your best bet is probably sales. My sister has her degree in English Lit and makes $$$$$$ in sales, but she also has to put up with a lot of BS. At least with teaching, you don't have to be available 24/7 for your clients!
Either way, it is a shame that teaching is such an undervalued profession in this country.
my advice: don't come to nyc and teach
pay sucks
kids sucks
very high standard of living
mayor thinking of laying off teachers around the city
unless of course you can score a position in Long Island
pay sucks
kids sucks
very high standard of living
mayor thinking of laying off teachers around the city
unless of course you can score a position in Long Island
Originally posted by: m2kewl
my advice: don't come to nyc and teach
pay sucks
kids sucks
very high standard of living
mayor thinking of laying off teachers around the city
unless of course you can score a position in Long Island
Same with Cali then.
I would look into other areas that need teachers,
MN seems to pay their teachers pretty well from what I hear.
It is harder to move up without that masters though from what I have heard.
MN seems to pay their teachers pretty well from what I hear.
It is harder to move up without that masters though from what I have heard.
Find a city or some volunteering and find out what you would like to do, because money is not everything.
My brother in-law is a senior programmer at IBM & is at the top of his pay scale, which is 3X higher wage than his wife that work at a research lab with a Master in Biochem (and his pay scale is about 60% higher than mine). However my sister love her job, while her husband is bored with the work for the last 4-5 years but the money is just too good give up.
Like you, I sometime wonder what life would be like to have more money, but more money seemed to come with more stress and responsibility as in the case of my siblings. I?m assuming that the simple living that I make in this beautiful city of Victoria, BC. is more than money, because most of my family & siblings all live here. I could have make much more money by going to a bigger & industrious city that my first degree would be more of a use instead of being a network tech, but I would have to give up the life of tranquility in this city that I?m currently love.
I have a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies so I don't have a Mathematics degree. I did take quite a bit of Math in college and a ton of Science in which I am very knowledgable. I have a talent for computers and things electronic. I don't mean programming but troubleshooting and figuring things out and finding the solution. I don't have great people skills as I am a little shy and timid but I'm not rude or disrespectful. I wish I could be more assertive but I was extremely shy as a child and young adult. I can't stand up to people very well or tell them what I think but I don't get walked on at the same time. I wish I could be more like my dad who will tell anyone what he thinks and not care.
Teaching is an undervalue profession in every country. 2 of my aunt & one uncle are science profs at universities in Vietnam and their combine wage is about 2/3 of mine (they barely get by with the salary that they are making). I have 2 sisters that are teachers one have a master in education and she make less than me working at the school board. The other have a PHD in foreign language and is currently teaching at the Beijing University, because she can?t find work here in Canada (she is fluent in Vietnamese/English/French/Spanish/Japanese/Chinese and also know how to speak Korean).Originally posted by: Isla
First, CONGRATULATIONS! Teacher of the Year is nothing to sneeze at.
Second, I totally sympathize with you. I teach too, and one of the reasons I can afford to teach is because my husband makes good money in the IT industry.
Without going back to school, your best bet is probably sales. My sister has her degree in English Lit and makes $$$$$$ in sales, but she also has to put up with a lot of BS. At least with teaching, you don't have to be available 24/7 for your clients!
Either way, it is a shame that teaching is such an undervalued profession in this country.
are you willing to move? teach in the district i went to... teachers there were making 65-80k a year
Er.... I thought that most schools systems had a system where the salaries increased the longer they taught? One of my old teachers who is now one of my good friends makes pretty good money... he's been teaching for 30-40 years, drives a benz...
If that's not the case with your school district, maybe you should move to one that will compensate you better for your skills
If that's not the case with your school district, maybe you should move to one that will compensate you better for your skills
Exactly what I was thinking. You probably need at least a Master's degree. You could also try to get a good summer job if you have summers off. Maybe teaching at a science camp or something?
CPA
Elite Member
- Nov 19, 2001
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In Houston, they have been paying sign-on bonuses, so it's not the same all around the state. The downside of your profession, though, is that you are in a union, and unions are notorious for setting wages across the board, no matter how good you are. You might want to look into private schools or becoming a tutor and setting up your own storefront, similar to Kaman tutoring schools.
I have a friend who is an English teacher, about 11 years now, and he has the same thoughts as you, unfortunately he is not willing to take a risk to change his lot, at least you are seriously considering it, which is a good first step.
Get to another school district ASAP in case you get one like mine where pay is based on seniority as well as degree. Around here, you can top out about 75k.
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