There are a couple of things to keep in mind. The first is that you are going to have to follow rules set by people you may never meet or interact with given that you must conform to numerous state and federal guidelines which often make absolutely no sense. The next is that the management hierarchy is very flat which means a huge part of your experience rests on the ability of your administrators. Nothing can make a year go south faster than an admin that undermines your classroom authority or doesn't know how to manage. Unfortunately the principle/assistant principle position can be highly political\unstable depending on the district with quality not always being a huge consideration when choosing one.
You also have to deal with the parents who think their special little snowflake who has never been disciplined in their life can do no wrong so clearly the issue is with you because you are an idiot\hate their child\are racist
The benefits are quickly changing too. This varies wildly by state and district but many are making cuts to the pension plan for new teachers and health care for existing employers. I keep reading all these articles about how great teacher healthcare is yet I have had better and cheaper health care options at my corporate world job than the last two districts my wife has worked at. The pension is still a better than a 401k with match would be...assuming its still around when she retires. (As an investing side note 403b providers are a bit of a free for all for schools as they seem to participate with numerous options with participant be ware. I looked at some of the various participating companies and holy fees batman! There was one company where every plan was above a 1.2 ER
and had a sales charge
+ a 12-1b fee!)
Another consideration is that you will likely have to do a lot of 'Continuing Education' classes that may or may not include getting your Masters Degree. With the rapid rise in education costs and the low pay\shitty raises teacher's often get it is likely not a minor consideration to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a degree to keep your job.
All that said my wife loves her job and does get a shit ton of time off. She puts in a lot of extra time during the year but gets something like 10-12 weeks off a year
Being a teacher is tough. But hearing from my friends who became teachers, I see that the job is less tough as you teach higher grades. Elementary is the worse follow by middle school.
That is going to depend on your temperament. Some people really like EE and wouldn't want to deal HS students. No one likes Middle School though
And I keep hearing her rant about not being paid enough
The pay is pretty shitty for new teachers. Unless you are able to get into one of the great school districts that everyone else is trying to get into your raises might be shit\nonexistent (My wife got a $500 or ~1% raise this year. Yay? OTOH my BIL teacher hasn't gotten a raise in 3 years) and there will be constant talks with management about wage\benefit cuts
It's almost impossible for new teachers to get their foot in the door.
It depends on the area a bit. A couple of years ago I know TX was hiring like crazy although I don't know if they still area. I would imagine areas in ND are hiring
If you do this I would recommend getting a dual cert in something. Both my BIL and wife have certs in math and that saved them from being laid off when positions in science and Spanish (respectively) were cut. Math does seem to be a good cert to get as a lot of people like to focus on a school's math scores
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