Stuck in teaching, want to go back to school

[DuckFan]

Hello all,

Here's my story: I am in my second year teaching High School English. Some times I really, really, really love what I am doing. Other times, I can't stand it. I'm not necessarily a sensitive person, but some of the back-talk and general grief I get from students makes me second guess why I am in education. I am a 25-year-old male with a Master's Degree and a lot of different experiences and individual success.

I hate coming home and having to think about how I am going to grade 140 3-page essays. I hate having to be at school at 7 AM--we start at 7:25. I hate coming home and having to think of new lesson plans everyday (no, I wasn't give a cirriculum book).

After having taught for a year, I have realized that I love being in the classroom--as a student. I don't want to stop learning. I want to go back in school, but for what? I have a BA in Journalism, and a Master's in Education. I have had internships at local and national media outlets, but I believe I can do more than just be in the Journalism field.

Don't get me wrong. I love my students (most of them). I love sharing cool ideas, and sharing our writings. But, I love the language and writing so much that it is a little to see students just "not care."

I want a job where I am only responsible for me, or other professionals. Having to motivate 30 teenagers, every hour, on the hour, five times a day can become draining.

Teaching doesn't start and stop with the bell. You have real life problems enter your classroom. You have emails, phone calls, grading, planning, meetings, all to do outside of the actual school day. The weight of it all is becoming too much.

Any suggestions for graduate school majors? Any advice in general?

Thanks.

[AllisonD]

I just started substituting within the past three weeks and I honestly have so much more respect for teachers now. I love working with children, I even love teaching, but I hate so many aspects of the job I really don't want to do it anymore. I don't even make the lesson plans or grade papers and I just can't imagine having to do that as well at the end of the day. Lunch is 15 minutes if you're lucky, by time you get a planning period all you want to do is rest, and at the end of the day when you should be planning more and grading, all I want to do is go home. And I'm working with great kids who don't even give me any trouble.
I have the utmost respect for the profession and am so happy there are other people who love it. I love to learn as well. I love being in school and would become a career student if I were ever to win the lotto.
You are not stuck and the profession does have ups and downs. You should look into other jobs you thought you might enjoy and maybe look into shadowing someone in that profession over winter break? Even though the economy sucks, there are still jobs out there and you don't always have to go back to school for something unrelated to your degrees. You'd be surprised at how much of your knowledge and skills will transfer to other jobs. Do some research and don't give up hope.

[winneythepooh7]

Are there any other jobs you can apply your current education and experience towards?

I know there is at least one regular poster on here who was not happy with the traditional classroom environment/systemic bureacracy, so she works one-on-one with a special needs child in an educational setting. (I think anyways from reading her posts, I am sure she will see this and elaborate more).

I don't necessarily feel going back and getting yet another degree is always the answer.

Sometimes we just need a "population" change. I know that happens quite a lot in my field, social work, which is somewhat related to the educational field in many ways.

[wordsmith]

Are there any other jobs you can apply your current education and experience towards?

I know there is at least one regular poster on here who was not happy with the traditional classroom environment/systemic bureacracy, so she works one-on-one with a special needs child in an educational setting. (I think anyways from reading her posts, I am sure she will see this and elaborate more).


Yup, this is me. I'm a teacher in a private school run by a foundation that deals with addressing problematic behaviors in developmentally disabled kids (mostly, but not strictly, autism spectrum disorders), and works on academics, behavior, and life/social skills to help prepare them for more independent living and a less restrictive setting. We are one-to one, one teacher to one student. These are kids who are not sufficiently served by traditional school settings, and it's a very intense, high-focus, super structured environment. You may start out spending days exhaustively prompting a student through every step of everything, with the ultimate end result being that he or she will begin doing all his or her day to day tasks with the most indpenendence possible.

It's not a traditional school setting, but it's perfect for me - it took me nearly a decade to find it, though, and doing other jobs in between. I got my degree in English and education, and ended up really disliking the "crowd control" aspect of running a classroom. I always felt that my skills were best suited to working intensively with small groups of students and on-on-one, and those jobs were not readily available, and if they were, they were needs met by volunteer tutors, etc.. When I was in the traditional classroom, dealing with behavior issues was frustrating, because while you're handling negative behaviors from one set of kids, the other kids are sitting there not learning. It was never very effective. Now that I work with one kid exclusively until his/her goals are met, and then progress on to another, and that working on behavior is in the education plan, it's much more productive. If my teenage charge gives me lip or balks at doing something, I can stop and address it, solve the situation, and move on, and it's not the snowballing wreck it is in a large classroom. It can be exhausting, because it's motivating one kid, all day, every day, every minute of the day, constant reinforcement, constantly being "on." But it's also very rewarding, because I actually track and see the daily progress being made by such intensity, and see how my student is able to take care of things for him/herself when I gradually phase out the prompts and monitor the independence.

When I found that I wasn't interested in the typical teaching gig, I started looking for alternatives that still allowed me to do the things I love (helping people learn, being creative, informing people). I ended up working as a youth mentor for a nonprofit, and a journalist, who spent my time informing not kids, but adults. I had a short-lived stint in pro-bono legal services, which was also based around advocating for/informing people in need, but it was pretty bureaucratic and annoying - the least good fit of any of my jobs. It took all these things to lead me to the position I currently have.

I, too, love being a student. Through my job, I feel I'm always learning. We have lots and lots of trainings and enrichment/professional development opportunities, and I do a lot of reading and studying on my own, because I work with kids with complex issues. I would go back to school if it were financially feasible.

Think outside the box - there are really endless opportunities where you can put you background and skills to work in a situation that works better for you. It may not come right away, but keep your feelers up and pay attention to unique work opportunities. Eventually, it pays off.

[HollyM]

I haven't got any more suggestions here but can relate to where you're coming from on the classroom aspect of teaching. I did a teaching qualification last year, managed to pass it and am supply teaching at the moment but there are some things about it that I simply hate.

Classroom discipline - I frequently feel more like a nanny or a policewoman rather than a teacher. In one school I was in last year it was the most important part of the role rather than the teaching.

I was probably spoilt in jobs I had before going back to school but work/life balance just doesn't exist especially in the first few years, instead of working to live, the job becomes your life and your identity.

It's probably different with English but with the subject I'm teaching Music it's viewed by most kids as a doss lesson and the chance to mess around. I'm pretty sensitive too and Music has been my passion for many years and so having to motivate kids who just don't care is pretty draining. Also I find it hard to get motivated and excited about the role because despite doing a music degree I don't feel that school music played a significant role in my musical education. Nearly everything I learnt was through private lessons and through Saturday school and by the age of 15 I'd pretty much given up on classroom music and just continued to study it because it was what I wanted to do at university rather than because the teachers were good or I was inspired. Also there's very little you can do with a university music degree except to continue the cycle and to become a music teacher yourself!

I think the curriculum is different in the US to the UK but here there's no way somebody could become a musician from just covering the school music syllabus, also because the subject has to appeal to the majority at Key Stage Three (aged 11-14) some important aspects are watered down completely or not even mentioned, in many schools kids aren't even taught the basics of notation because some pupils may not like it. As so few pupils do music past the age of 14 nearly all of your classes are with Key Stage Three too.

Some of my family members who have always wanted me to become a teacher want to have endless conversations about it in my spare time and keep trying to persuade me that it's what I really want but having just read this ranting post I think my feelings are pretty strong on the issue! Sorry for threadjacking, if anyone has been in my position and has any advice I'd be interested.

[capella]

Hello all,

Here's my story: I am in my second year teaching High School English. Some times I really, really, really love what I am doing. Other times, I can't stand it. I'm not necessarily a sensitive person, but some of the back-talk and general grief I get from students makes me second guess why I am in education. I am a 25-year-old male with a Master's Degree and a lot of different experiences and individual success.

I hate coming home and having to think about how I am going to grade 140 3-page essays. I hate having to be at school at 7 AM--we start at 7:25. I hate coming home and having to think of new lesson plans everyday (no, I wasn't give a cirriculum book).

After having taught for a year, I have realized that I love being in the classroom--as a student. I don't want to stop learning. I want to go back in school, but for what? I have a BA in Journalism, and a Master's in Education. I have had internships at local and national media outlets, but I believe I can do more than just be in the Journalism field.

Don't get me wrong. I love my students (most of them). I love sharing cool ideas, and sharing our writings. But, I love the language and writing so much that it is a little to see students just "not care."

I want a job where I am only responsible for me, or other professionals. Having to motivate 30 teenagers, every hour, on the hour, five times a day can become draining.

Teaching doesn't start and stop with the bell. You have real life problems enter your classroom. You have emails, phone calls, grading, planning, meetings, all to do outside of the actual school day. The weight of it all is becoming too much.

Any suggestions for graduate school majors? Any advice in general?

Thanks.
You sound just like me two years ago. I was also a former journalist and I also teach English. I taught middle school lang. arts, then elementary and back to middle school lang. arts, quit teaching, and then started teaching high school English. I absolutely hated teaching elementary. Middle schoolers are exhausting. But I love teaching high school. I did "quit" for about six weeks and got a job at an online training development company. I was extremely bored doing that. This is my fifth year teaching and I will likely move to online teaching sometime in the next year or two (my district is starting a virtual HS). I really think that will be my true niche. I will have my masters in Instructional Technology (ISD) this December.

Teaching, while tiring, can be fine if you set boundaries. And I mean REALLY set boundaries. It also helps to be in the right school for you. It took me a while to find that right school and even still there are aspects of my school that I can't stand (my dept. is full of catty bitches). I really can't offer advice... mostly sympathy and understanding. Most people have no idea what the job can do to a person. You'll likely never have that sort of understanding from anyone outside of education. In the end you really just need to decide if it's really for you and try something else if it isn't. Teaching will be there for you still if you decide you want to come back and give it another go.

[crystal_dance]

I have no knowledge or experience with being a teacher but I was wondering if this would be a feasible option for the OP:

Since you find teaching high schoolers to be quite draining (understandably so) even though you still enjoy teaching, why not become an adult education instructor? That way you won't have to deal with raging hormone kenny and his entourage. I also think that the adults who come in to get their GED would be more determined to do well versus the average apathetic high schooler. How about specializing in ESL or English classes for new immigrants?

I heard being more specialized in the field of education bumps up your pay and gives you better hours. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[wordsmith]

There's also the option of teaching journalism.

[texasgirl]

I can relate to the OP. I have a journalism degree and worked in newspapers for two years before I made the move to teaching. There are days when I LOVE what I'm doing and days when I think, "How much longer can I keep doing this???" My school is affluent with gifted kids and few behavior problems, so I'm definitely considered lucky compared to those who teach at other, tougher schools in my district. That said, I still have to come home and grade TONS of essays, plan lessons, reply to e-mails... It's not easy, even if you're at a good school. I feel like teaching is a really good fit for my personality, but it's really, really draining.
Maybe you'd like teaching at the community college level (since you have a master's) or counseling -- both seem like solid matches for someone who wants to help people but not manage an entire classroom. Several of my friends work for test prep companies, too, and they like that they can mix education with a more "adult" atmosphere...
Anyway, know that you're not alone in your love-hate relationship with teaching :rolleyes:

[mcb859]

I was interested in teaching adults to read/literacy etc in northern california before I came to S. Korea to each English as a second language, but it seemed that the state funding is low so most paid jobs are part time. In the bay area, for example, a few professional librarians and literacy coordinators I met were doing a lot of commuting between centers, to combine part time jobs.

Sometimes I feel really frustrated and drained by teaching also. I've been teaching English (ESL)to a mostly adult crowd for 6 mos and I do love teaching, just not the way this Korean school is managed. The speaking level of each student isn't really tested, so I end up with a class full of all different levels. I don't have to grade papers, or do any paperwork but on the other hand there's too much freedom, no curriculum, just me on my own printing out material from the internet. My bosses don't speak English, so there's no quality control of the teaching. It's quite common at schools here. In that way it's kind of a 'fake' teaching job, but I'm hoping to turn it into a real teaching career, just in what exactly I don't know.

[wordsmith]

Based on my seven prior years of newspaper work, I'd have to say that, for me, journalism was notably more draining and time consuming than teaching.

[cameralady]

Based on my seven prior years of newspaper work, I'd have to say that, for me, journalism was notably more draining and time consuming than teaching.
Not to mention it probably paid less.

To the OP: Have you ever though instructional technology or educational psychology or psychometrics?

[wordsmith]

Not to mention it probably paid less.

Yes, but marginally so. Eh, none of my fields of interest are "in the money," so to speak. No biggie.

[dengeist]

Hello all,

Here's my story: I am in my second year teaching High School English. Some times I really, really, really love what I am doing. Other times, I can't stand it. I'm not necessarily a sensitive person, but some of the back-talk and general grief I get from students makes me second guess why I am in education. I am a 25-year-old male with a Master's Degree and a lot of different experiences and individual success.

I hate coming home and having to think about how I am going to grade 140 3-page essays. I hate having to be at school at 7 AM--we start at 7:25. I hate coming home and having to think of new lesson plans everyday (no, I wasn't give a cirriculum book).

After having taught for a year, I have realized that I love being in the classroom--as a student. I don't want to stop learning. I want to go back in school, but for what? I have a BA in Journalism, and a Master's in Education. I have had internships at local and national media outlets, but I believe I can do more than just be in the Journalism field.

Don't get me wrong. I love my students (most of them). I love sharing cool ideas, and sharing our writings. But, I love the language and writing so much that it is a little to see students just "not care."

I want a job where I am only responsible for me, or other professionals. Having to motivate 30 teenagers, every hour, on the hour, five times a day can become draining.

Teaching doesn't start and stop with the bell. You have real life problems enter your classroom. You have emails, phone calls, grading, planning, meetings, all to do outside of the actual school day. The weight of it all is becoming too much.

Any suggestions for graduate school majors? Any advice in general?

Thanks.

Not really much to add, but I've been doing this for 8 years. So all I can really share is my second year was by far my worst year as far as wanting to quit. With that being said, I'm not going to give you the "It gets better" speech.

Right now, I'm working on a children's book. So writing in that vein might open some doors for you. Also, every district isn't the same as far as restrictions and in giving materials, so looking at another district might be another option.

[JamieMarie]

I totally understand what you are saying/how you are feeling!!!!!

I am also a teacher and am currently in my 8th year of teaching. When I was in school I heard a statistic that new teachers leave the field within their first five years-probably for all the reasons you mentioned!

Have you thought about teaching at a community college? With a masters you should be able to do so....what about working towards a PhD in English and then teaching at the college/university level? Basically, if you have a PhD you are more of student for life! Being a professor will require you to write books, poems, articles...etc...Of course you are going to run into undergrad students that are not going to be crazy about writing/reading, but at least you will probably have more students that are very interested in it!!!

What about a PhD in Education.....We definitely need some good professors teaching/researching what works in education!!! You know much of the curriculum and strategies that we use on the elementary/secondary level is created/researched by college/university professors!! I am sure you would "learn" a lot!!!

Those are just suggestions.....take what you want from them...

As for me....I am an ESL teacher and love it, BUT I to get sick of the other things that we have to worry about other than teaching! (Sometimes I think of how it would be to be in a different field or own my own business.) Unfortunately, mostly that is due to the administration/government regulations and all the standards...testing we have to do..in public schools!!! Maybe one day we will be able to actually teach our students to have more of a worldly view....instead of teaching how to take a test!!! Sorry...I get off my soapbox!!

[dengeist]

I also forgot to add, do you "conference" with students during class time? I teach elementary school, but I'm sure it would work in a high school setting. What you do is call about 3-5 students a day and look at their work and talk to them about how to make it better and you can also grade them on the spot.

This puts their nose to the grindstone and it dramatically decreases your work load.