I really appreciate your comments
Oldie, no one could have laid it out better than you!
I am a second year teacher. I studied business administration in college, and was in Marketing/Management for 4 years. After my position was downsized, I began to search for a job in my career field, but in a failing economy, there were none. After going to interview after interview and being told "we're looking for someone else to fill this position", I decided that I'd had enough of the rat race and needed a career change. So I chose education. I completed college hours in elementary ed, completed an 18 month certification program and am now a certified elemenary teacher.
When I began teaching, I was ostracized from the beginning. There are many educators who went the traditional route to become a teacher, and they resent someone like me who comes in "off the street" and can make just as much (if not more) than they do, and they've been at it 5+ years. I had no support from my grade-level team. The only person who supported and encouraged me was my principal and in the end, that was all that mattered. Information would be purposefully given to me at the last minute, and while these teachers had the knowledge up front and could be proactive, I would always be behind. I had to endure the gossip, snickers and snide comments from other teachers. What was worse was observing these veteran, "highly qualified" teachers gossip IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN about the students and their parents, academic performance and behavior. I saw teachers that spent more time in the halways talking than in their classroms teaching. Yet they wondered how come the school was on the bubble for AYP. After one year, I was disgusted with the school and public education itself.
The contract-administrator in me is FURIOUS with the red-tape and beauracracy of public education. I take care of my paperwork FIRST so that I can get it out the way and TEACH. It takes a lot of pre-planning and organization and you have to find a system that works only for you. However, there aren't enough hours in the day to do BOTH! I've spent many late nights, on into the wee hours of the morning getting the work done so that I could go in and give me students my undivided attention. And the thanks that we as teachers get for our job is a salary that is significantly lower than that of a physician, attorney, or executive...who put in as many hours in education/trainingas we do, but we get paid less! Is there any wonder why teachers are burned out?!
But the nurturer and protector in me makes me want to "suffer the slings and arrows" of public education because I realize that these kids need someone who cares enough about them and has the tenacity that it takes to make a difference. I have come home in tears many evenings after learning the circumstances and backgrounds my students come from; it's heartbreaking. I've spent many nights tossing and turning, trying to figure out what makes these kids tick so that I can reach them. Then there are the times when you're teaching a lesson and you're helpless because your students just don't get it. And, you may have found a strategy or materials that work, but an administrator gets wind of it and makes you stop, and when you try to explain, they won't listen, because public education (especially here in Texas) has become so test-oriented that deviating from the script results in you getting written up and putting in calls to your union rep.
I truly believe that it's not that these teachers want to project their negativity towards you, they are just giving you a dose of reality so that you understand that teaching is a very stressful, demanding job.
