District 150 Revising Early Dismissal!!! on the Peoria.com Forums - Page 2

I am not a teacher because I didn't want to be a teacher. I am just saying that if you take into account the number of work hours and the pay then they have a high hourly rate. If you take my example from above then if a teacher worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year then they would make $59,425.60 a year, which is a great salary.

Many jobs have unpleasant aspects to them. I don't like all of my clients but I have some that I love. I have to have continuing education for my certification, as do many other jobs.

I agree that dealing with students and their parents must be a pain but that is not exclusive to teachers.

This is not meant to bash teachers, just to show the facts.

The fact is that teachers put in more than 40 hours a week and don't get paid for many of those hours.  Starting pay for teachers is often between 18,000 and 25,000, which is hardly $28 an hour.    $60,000 a year is hardly a great salary.  It is barely middle class.  You say you don't mean to be bashing teachers but by saying again and again that they are overpaid, you are bashing teachers.  


You say you chose not to be a teacher, so why are you complaining about the hours you work: You chose those hours.

I am not complaining about how much teachers make, and I didn't complain about the hours I work, I really like my job and work for a great company. I am just saying that teachers earn a high hourly rate for the number of hours that they work. The teachers that I know do not work more than 40 hours a week and they also have more holiday/ vacation time then anyone else I know.

I just looked on the disrtict 150 site and ther are 198 teacher days, including inservice and conferences. I will say they work an 8 hour day that is 1,584 hours a year. I also looked and found a job posting for a kindergarten teacher that pays $34,000 a year. That is $21.46 an hour. That is not a great salary but I am willing to bet that many people would be happy to make $21.46 an hour, epsecially in Peoria.

Leslie, I understand your point...I don't think you are trying to slam teachers either. I think Leslie is just trying to re-affirm that like any profession, teachers should not shortchange their student's time in school to achieve professional development. I believe we are all on the same page on this one.

jnj- thanks, I am really not bashing teachers. I would be happy if they made $100,000.00 a year.

My ex and her whole family are teachers, I'll give you some pros and some cons about being a teacher in the public school system around here.

Cons:

The pay sucks!

Every one above you (admin., government) controls how you can teach, each child has a certain way of learning, and those ways differ greatly, a teacher needs the freedom to search each childs strength and weakness and choose the best format so that child can grow to their full potential, the system we have groups all the kids together under one teaching style.

A large portion of your union dues goes to the ACLU, even if you're against them and that sucks!

You do have some long evenings grading papers and writing lesson plans.

Because of the ACLU, admin., the school board, and politicians you are unable to do what you need to do in the classroom to get the job done.

Pros:

You do get a lot of time off.

You don't pay into the crappy social security system, you pay into TRS (teachers retirement system), and when you retire you will get in most cases about 80% of your last years salery, that ain't bad!

If you work a job during the summer and pay into social security you get to double dip when you retire.

And in most cases everyone pats you on the back your whole life and tells you how great you are all while feeling sorry for you for choosing to be a teacher in our great nation.

I never felt the pay "sucked" as a teacher... not the full time ones anyway.. I felt the hours were great, you got paid year round for about eight months of work, and the work day was generally over in six hours with another hour and a half being for "prep" and lunch. With a little luck I'd get prep time at the end of the day and sneak out that much earlier. Now teachers aids.. there's a job that sucked. They had to do all the lackey work for the teacher and they still had to have a college education. What's worse.. their salary. When I worked for Seapco (teachers aids had to change dirty diapers there... UGH!!) I was offered full time employment for a whopping 13k a year. Uh.. ok.. but who's going to pay all those student loans? Needless to say, desperate as I may have been I was preparing to return to Florida rather than accept the position. As a substitute they had to pay me teachers salary even if I subbed for an assistant. Otherwise I just couldn't do it.

Regardless.. teaching is a calling. You really have to want to be a teacher to enjoy it. Personally, I was terrible at it. I just can't have a logical discussion with a child that cries. That never happened in the boardrooms.... oh my

Seapco has always had the lowest pay.

So you were a sped teacher?

That would be a very hard field to take on.

Very high burn-out rate.

lol.. and now I'm a customer service rep.. but the pays the same.