Teachers

I don't see it as complaining, but it's hardly "excellent" compared to my friends in corporate America or my co-workers who have spouses that laugh at our insurance and just put everyone in the family on their plans that are far superior, cost less, have lower out of pocket, lower deductible, lower prescription costs, and better preventative care options.

If you think it's that great, alternative certification is an option! You could finally take a vacation!

 

Mclawson thanx for your post repped. btw nice username it came in vogue lol

I have some questions ..when you work all these hours 6:30-3:30 you have class every single one?
Why teachers have to pay for the class supplies? That leaves a huge loophole here.
I am sorry but I'm ignorant on a lot of things on the american educational system.

Anyway keep up the good work. I have tremendous respect and feel thankful for some of my teachers from the past that passed on me the passion for reading and reinforced the love for hunting knowledge. Teachers can really influence young minds and make a difference in the world.

 

For me the impossible task is differentiation.

In any given class you will have kids who cannot calculate 21-13 and you have kids who are working on 21x - 13y. It is impossible to tailor each kid's needs.
You can stream the gifted kids and the slow kids, but in those classes, kids separate just the same as a regular class. Also some researchers are against streaming as it would damage kids' confidence.


As a result there will always be kids who went through the system and learnt very little. And back to the original question, the 25% difficult kids who need the best teachers are working on 21-13, then you have another 50% who have no clue how to do -21-13. And I'm talking about 16 year olds here, there is really no need for rocket scientists to be in the profession. The good kids will figure it out themselves, it's the low ability kids who need help.

 

The government should provide a compensation package that is just sufficient to attract the employee they want. Since your wife has never been happier, assuming she is good at her job, it sounds like they are either providing enough or too much compensation. It is called a free labor market.

 

Was this sarcasm? With the stupid emoticon I honestly couldn't tell if this was a Swoly-like post that I should just ignore or if you're being serious. Being happy at one's job because of what the job is doesn't mean they aren't underpaid and undervalued. Like mclawson said, even after 15 years of doing it, she will be making little more than she is now as a 2nd year teacher.

If it was sarcasm, then ha-ha, I guess.

 

I think it's Denmark that requires teachers to have a Masters in education so the quality of teacher and instruction is just so much higher than in the United States. Some people obviousiy have a knack for teaching but I think there are too many teachers in this country that don't know or really care to know anything about teaching. The barrier to entry is too low. I wish we could change that and spend less money on paper pushing admins and more money on decreasing class sizes and improving pay/benefits to attract better teachers.

 

They need a bonus structure, so the better teachers get more of the money and the others strive to get better to get more money.

DD

 

It's really tough (impossible?) to come up with an adequate bonus system that sufficiently rewards those that teach non-testing subjects as well as tested subjects. How do you compare freshman Biology teachers who have students that take a STAAR exam with the life-skills teacher who deals with kids that **** themselves on a regular basis? How do you compare someone who teaches nothing but AP level classes with someone who teaches Ag. Mechanics? How do you compare someone who teaches Art 1 with someone who teaches the behavior kids? How do you make any of those comparisons in a fair and balanced way that would properly reward their efforts with their students?

 

The biggest issue in the classroom is that kids treat education as a burden and not a privilege. Tied with that might be that we, as a society, want to force every kid into this college-attending box when it's just not for everyone. Tracking and learning a trade would be the best thing in the world for a lot of these kids but we will never do it because that might be considered leaving some child behind. Never mind the fact that plumbers, electricians, and other tradesmen make more than most teachers.

Oh, and my school is above average. That's why the kids have the pope's email.

 

Thanks malakas. I do not have classes during that whole time. Our work day officially begins at 7:00, with classes starting around 7:30. I have a 45 minute conference period that I use to make parent contact, attend 504/SpEd meetings, do meaningless paperwork, etc. I also have a 45 minute planning period that I share with others that teach my subjects. We usually plan during that time, prepare common assessments, make copies, and other things like that. We also have tasks that are assigned to us during this block of time, including training sessions and other mandatory meetings. Since I teach science classes we also do some lab prep during this time, but it's usually nowhere near enough to get solutions prepared, labs set up, etc., which is why most science teachers get there early, stay late, or both. My wife teaches English and only has the one conference period and not the common planning period. She has no time to grade essays or papers at work and so spends a lot of time at home doing the grading and commenting on papers.

Oh, and we don't *have* to pay, but most of us do. For example, I needed sucrose, glucose, potatoes, dialysis tubing, and some other random things for a lab next week. I can order most of those things from various sources, but the potatoes require something like a Wal-Mart PO. The process for getting that done is so ridiculously cumbersome and lengthy (since they're not an approved vendor) that I just buy the damned spuds myself. The same goes for petunias later in the year and a dozen other small items, like toothpicks, that I need throughout the year. They make it so hard to buy stuff that most people just do it themselves. There is a tax write-off for it, but it maxes out at $250. Awesome.

 

I think it was just another perspective of looking at it is my guess, and the emoticon was just to make it more light-hearted, cause you obviously are very serious about this subject. Do you really see no validity to the point that the free market should play a (huge) role in teacher's salaries?

 

It was not sarcasm. An employer should pay no more than the minimum required to attract a competent workforce. An employee should accept no less than the minimum amount for which they are willing to do the job asked of them. It sounds as though your wife is willing to continue doing the job asked of her at the rate they are paying her. It is possible that she would be willing to do the job for even less. Therefor, she is not being underpaid. Outside of rare circumstances where people have no options to seek other employment and have no ability to remain unemployed and continue with a reasonable lifestyle, there is really no such thing as underpaid. There is such a thing as overpaid, because the employer does not have perfect information with regard to the minimum amount the employee is willing to accept. The emoticon served the dual purpose of light-hearted fun and derision at the idea that someone is underpaid when they are the happiest they have ever been.

 

You realize at a higher salary level you get a higher benefits package. Compared to people who make 50K your benefits package is excellent. Many at that level have no benefits no healthcare group buy in and are on their own. You are complaining, and health care costs a bunch. Everyone agrees. Compare your plan to any on the marketplace. It is better. Compare your pension to a 401K matching 5%. Compare your job security. 19 years teaching I guess you have a pretty sweet retirement. Complain less, admit your personal choices and move on. You health insurance and benefits package is excellently above average. This is the exchange you made for lower pay.

Your friends laughing at your benefits package are jerks. Do they also laugh at your salary?

 

I am comparing it to friends and husbands of co-workers who make the same salary. They get much better benefits than I do. I actually asked a dozen or so co-workers during a planning period today about their spouse's insurance and all said our paled in comparison to theirs, no matter the status in the company, size of the company, salary, or length of time in the company.

Please do compare my pension to those with matching 401Ks at 5%. According to a couple of calculators a 5% matched 401K for me at this point would have $92,596 at this point and around $220k in 10 more years. After 18 years I have $74,810.23 in my TRS account. Not sure I'm winning that one.

I'm in membership tier 2 based on years of service and the year I started. I can make $29k/year (factoring in 3% raises/year) on that if I retire in 10 years, when I'm eligible. That's pretty damned sweet! I get an extra 2.3% of the average of my 5 highest salaries for every extra year worked. SWEET! The same 401K calculators (same 3% raises/year) give me $30,618.96/year. Yeah, I'm absolutely destroying those other poor saps in the private sector with my truly excellent and above average retirement plan.

Oh, and since you mentioned the marketplace, after doing research we will be buying a cheaper plan there next year.

Also, have you considered a change to a teaching career for yourself? Did you check out the alternative certification link I posted? It sounds like my job is way better than yours so you should certainly consider it! Let me know if you need any pointers!

 

??? This is news to me.

When I started at my current job 8 years ago, I made about the same as my teacher wife (50K). The benefits at my job were so much better that we immediately switched to my insurance. The benefits here are the same no matter what you make (unless you're part time obviously).

Of course, now (8 years later) my benefits haven't improved because I make more money - they're pretty much the same. Of course I make about 12K more...but my teacher wife's salary has only increased about 2K over the 8 years.
You'd think after 20yrs of teaching she'd be making a lot more (especially with a Masters in curriculum), but the entry level jobs in teaching are almost what she's been making after 20yrs and thats sad.

But then again, she's teaching in a fairly high-income area - she could make more money if she went to a low-income district. Thats the trade-off in education. the Lower income districts have to pay more to keep teachers because the kids are so much harder to deal with.

 

At my company, and every company I am personally aware of, the full-time secretary making $30,000/year has the same company health insurance options as the CEO making $500,000/year.

 

You can have nothing but PhD's teaching K-12 but it's not going to change anything until the parents start getting involved. Great teachers are going to have some sorry students. How often do you see great parents having sorry students??

As far as benefits go, before my wife and I had our boys, we just assumed they would go on her insurance. Surely hers would be better than mine. But once we did the math, putting them on mine was WAY more beneficial. Plan-wise and money-wise.

 

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