Any school teachers on TB?

[OshKoshJoash]

Just wondering if there are any teachers/educators (non bass related)on TB. I'm currently a graduate student in a Masters of Teaching program, hoping to start teaching middle school or high school social studies next fall.

Where do you teach, and what grades/subject? How do you like your job?

Also, I had a question. What do you guys do during the summers? Ideally it'd be cool if during the summers I toured with my band and just played music and made tons of money doing it, but thats just a dream. I want to start thinking of how I'll make additional income during the 3 months each year when school isn't in session.

[iamlowsound]

There are a few. Maki is and thebigO used to be. I had thought about it for a while, but decided against.

lowsound

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

There are a few. Maki is and thebigO used to be. I had thought about it for a while, but decided against.

lowsound

Yep. I also used to be TheBigO.

I taught high school science (freshman honors, chemistry and physics) for seven years in my early to late 20's. I also was a substitute after college and then again for a few months while waiting for my (very long) background check for my new job to be completed.

I loved and hated teaching. It's a very dichotomous job in my opinion.

It is a ton of work. Well, it is if you do it well. It's actually easy to be a crappy teacher. I've seen a few colleagues who just did the bare minimum of work and certainly had an easier time of it than I did, but I digress. Preparing lesson plans, setting up labs/demo equipment (for science at least) and grading papers take a lot of time outside of class. I generally had two to four hours of work each weeknight and often spent most of either Saturday or Sunday doing work. But at the same time you do get a number of vacation days and summers off so there is time to recharge.

Also, it can be incredibly rewarding, but dealing with some unruly kids (or whole classes), sometimes unreasonable parents and a lot of the red tape and BS from the administration or state and federal guidelines can be stifling and frustrating.

My experience is that it really takes three years before you start to really get a handle on things and after that I did enjoy it more and found ways to be as effective without killing myself in terms of my workload. I'd also say a key is finding new ways to teach things each year. Teaching for 10 years is not the same as teaching one year 10 times.

As for summers I spent them in a variety of ways. My first summer WAS spent touring with my band at the time which was a blast. I also spent summers teaching summer school, grading AP and the now defunct Golden State Exams and two summers on extended brewery summers. Guess which ones I enjoyed most. It really depends on how much you need the money. But it's nice to have the choice of how to spend that time.

Feel free to PM me if there's any other questions I can answer.

[DigMe]

I teach 4th grade Reading, Science and Writing. I really enjoy it. In the past summers I've traveled, done work around the house, played a lot of video games etc.. This summer I have a son so we've spent a lot of good time together. I've still played a lot of video games during his nap time though.

it's a great job. You'll never get rich or anything but I like it a lot more than I liked the corporate life!

bc

[::::BASSIST::::]

Originally Posted by Jared Lash

Yep. I also used to be TheBigO.

I taught high school science (freshman honors, chemistry and physics) for seven years in my early to late 20's. I also was a substitute after college and then again for a few months while waiting for my (very long) background check for my new job to be completed.

I loved and hated teaching. It's a very dichotomous job in my opinion.

It is a ton of work. Well, it is if you do it well. It's actually easy to be a crappy teacher. I've seen a few colleagues who just did the bare minimum of work and certainly had an easier time of it than I did, but I digress. Preparing lesson plans, setting up labs/demo equipment (for science at least) and grading papers take a lot of time outside of class. I generally had two to four hours of work each weeknight and often spent most of either Saturday or Sunday doing work. But at the same time you do get a number of vacation days and summers off so there is time to recharge.

Also, it can be incredibly rewarding, but dealing with some unruly kids (or whole classes), sometimes unreasonable parents and a lot of the red tape and BS from the administration or state and federal guidelines can be stifling and frustrating.

My experience is that it really takes three years before you start to really get a handle on things and after that I did enjoy it more and found ways to be as effective without killing myself in terms of my workload. I'd also say a key is finding new ways to teach things each year. Teaching for 10 years is not the same as teaching one year 10 times.

As for summers I spent them in a variety of ways. My first summer WAS spent touring with my band at the time which was a blast. I also spent summers teaching summer school, grading AP and the now defunct Golden State Exams and two summers on extended brewery summers. Guess which ones I enjoyed most. It really depends on how much you need the money. But it's nice to have the choice of how to spend that time.

Feel free to PM me if there's any other questions I can answer.

Dead right. It is a ton of work. I work as a teacher and special ed assitant in a school for students with learning disabilities. Honestly, if I were to go back in time I'd reconsider my career. You do alot of work outside the classroom. 2hrs + a nite no problem. When report cards are due you can expect to log at least an extra 30 hours. The biggest plus is the kids. Thats why I do it and thats why I love it. All the extra work, plus the crap you have to deal with from the admin, parents and other teachers makes it a challenging career. If you just want to coast thru your job dont be a teacher. The kids are the ones who lose out.

Jared, what are you doing now?

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by Jared Lash

Yep. I also used to be TheBigO.

OK, that explains it. I though this was someone else who stole his avatar. Not a real common avatar, so I figured whoever kiped it was a loser.

-Mike

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by ::::BASSIST::::

Dead right. It is a ton of work. I work as a teacher and special ed assitant in a school for students with learning disabilities. Honestly, if I were to go back time I'd reconsider my career. You do alot of work outside the classroom. 2hrs + a nite no problem. When report cards are due you can expect to log at least an extra 30 hours. The biggest plus is the kids. Thats why I do it and thats why I love it. All the extra work, plus the crap you have to deal with from the admin, parents and other teachers makes it a challenging career. If you just want to coast thru your job dont be a teacher. The kids are the ones who lose out.

Good points. The kids do make it worth it. In my case it was often kids coming back from college to thank me and let me know how they were doing, but teachings special education (which I subbed for quite a bit) was very rewarding but could be incredibly frustrating. Kudos to you for doing it.

Originally Posted by ::::BASSIST::::

Jared, what are you doing now?

I went through the process of becoming a criminalist with the DOJ but at the last minute was hired by a company that manufactures science education equipment and wanted me to be part of their marketing department.

Originally Posted by MJ5150

OK, that explains it. I though this was someone else who stole his avatar. Not a real common avatar, so I figured whoever kiped it was a loser.

-Mike

It'd be pretty sad if someone was trying to copy me. What's the old joke? "I'm not worried about identity theft. I don't even want to be me, I can't imagine anyone else would."

[MakiSupaStar]

I teach 7th and 8th grade computers and 7th grade English in an area with a lot of gang activity. Jared is right. It's easy to be a crappy teacher, but it does take about three years to get on top of your curriculum. After that you can kind of assess what works, what doesn't, and how to make things better. A good teacher has an open mind, a constant drive to learn, and a great classroom management system. There are many teachers with the first two in place, but in the end either quit or become one of the crappy teachers because they don't have a good system of classroom management in place. In the summer I work as an ocean lifeguard for the city of Huntington Beach. My life is a nice blend of work, free time, and a mix of brains and body. I don't know about you, but I like teaching, but I also like earning my evening beer sore from a day of working outside in the ocean.

[WookieeForLife]

Whats the job outlook for teachers?

[justBrian]

I've been teaching for about 20 years. This year I'm teaching AP Lit. and Comp., Lord of the Rings, Creative Writing and Contemporary Novels.

I still think it's a great job and most days can't believe that they pay me to do it. That being said, I did teach middle school/jr. high for 2 years and absolutely hated it. IMO, most of those teachers have a direct line to sainthood.

[Eric Perry]

My Master's is in secondary school counseling. I need to get into a school and get away from community mental health asap!

[Armbruster]

I think it'd be awesome to have a hip, bass-shredding teacher.

[LiquidMidnight]

Originally Posted by Eric618

My Master's is in secondary school counseling. I need to get into a school and get away from community mental health asap!

...or go into research. Looking at ANOVAs and rambling on about improving internal validity by counter balancing the treatment for a between-groups research design will give you a good break from listening to other people's problems.

[BassChuck]

I teach 7th grade Electronic Music. Computer based compostion and music app. The kids I have are the ones that rejected band, chorus and orchestra. The trick is to use technology to allow them to explore their own musical abilities. Some don't have that much, others have found some very interesting thing within.

I love the work and the challenge. I hate getting up at 5:30 to be at school on time. During summers I continue to play with the bands I play with during the school year, but I get myself on a more 'conservatory like' practice schedule.

[Absentia]

Originally Posted by WookieeForLife

Whats the job outlook for teachers?

Not good, it's not good, there are alot of teachers, lazy and just want to get through the curriculum whether the kids are paying attention or not and collect their paycheck, I've seen many good ones but there are more bad ones.
I work in IT for a pre-K - 12 all title 1.

From what I see alot of people just can't get into the classroom so they settle for 15/hr part time parapro positions. There definitely isn't a shortage of teachers our turn around is quite high but we always have a new teacher to take over the next day or often the same day.

Charter schools should be your first look there are alot of them opening across the country and they like first years cause they are cheap.
Middle school eh, that takes balls.

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by justBrian

This year I'm teaching......Lord of the Rings.....

An entire class on LOTR? Cool man. I want to take that class.

-Mike

[Mark Latimour]

I wouldn't say I'm a teacher in the professional sense, but i've "schooled" a lot of the n00bs in OT over the years.

[electracoyote]

I'm a retired high school English teacher. I opted out early. That tells you how much I liked it. I do music full-time now. I like it better.

[CrispyDelicious]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

An entire class on LOTR? Cool man. I want to take that class.

-Mike

It's amazing how fun some specialized some classes are. I took an English lit. class entirely on Apocalyptic Science Fiction.

[WookieeForLife]

I ment by outlook how many openings are there. How many years typically do you have to sub before you land a job? Specifically Social studies?