if you're a high school teacher, please read this!?

Question

I'd like to become a high school teacher someday. Do you think I'd be better off in elementary? Do you regret working at a high school? I'm expecting bad attitudes and catty girls. Do you like teaching teenagers?

Answer 1

I teach high school and some days I absolutely love it and other days it makes me so sick to my stomach I could vomit. It's not so much the kids as it is the administration and the fact that utter morons who shouldn't even be allowed in public are in charge.

Bad attitudes and catty girls aren't a huge factor, at least not for me. The girls usually reserve their snide remarks and catty behavior for each other - not the teachers. I teach math, so I'm just resigned to bad attitudes. Because every single one of my students hates math...without exception. Not a single one can tell me why; they just do. Althought, oddly enough, the majority of my students say they love my class, and can handle the work, but they still hate math. Maybe they just think they're supposed to hate math?

All I know is that when I graduated with 600 other education majors. About ten of us were secondary ed and the rest were elementary ed. Every time I went to a job fair, they were absolutely swarming with elementary teachers, or recent graduates, searching for jobs. So just from that perspective, you may want to check your local job listings and see what the situation is in your area. Are they looking for more elementary or secondary teachers?

I really like teenagers, actually I adore them. I remember what it was like to be that age, and it's great to be surrounded by all that life, hope and spirit. It always amazes me how in one moment they're planning careers and choosing colleges and in the next they're squabbling over markers, stickers, and cookies (I bake on Fridays and special occasions).

We talk about books, music, TV, and who they want to be when they grow up. I have students who are always bowled over by the fact that my husband (a science teacher in the same building) still watch cartoons, play video games and go to see the same movies. We always seem to have groups of students sitting next to us at sporting events and once in a while when we're at the movies some of the kids will ask if it's okay if they sit with us. They're also very concerned that we don't have children yet; they desperately want to babysit and teach our kids all kinds of "neat stuff." (I have no idea what this "neat stuff" is and I'm afraid to ask.)

I don't regret teaching or working at a highschool, even though some times I think dead sea slugs are more motivated than my students. I do however regret that our current administration (local and otherwise) is more concerned with looking good, than really helping their students suceed.

Consider very seriously what you want to do. Talk to some of your high school teachers; they can offer you invaluable advice.

Answer 2

I was a high school teacher for 5 year. LOVED IT!!! I am now a drug rep because I wanted to make more money, and administration in education is deplorable! but I really really miss the kids. Of coarse you will get attitudes and catty girls but they are so much more fun to talk to and joke around with. I still keep in touch with a lot of my ex-students and I feel that, through teaching, I was able to meet some amazing people. If money wasn't an issue, I would go back to teaching high-school in a heart beat!

Answer 3

I am not a high school teacher but know teaching as it is at all levels. It is my advice not to go to teaching profession,unless it is a genuine craze.All over the world teaching is looked down upon.Unqualified persons with money motives,take over the field with business tactics, when a qualified teacher becomes a helpless tool in their hands. Again e-teaching is replacing the teacher.More over teaching is the least paid every where.Students too do not respect the teacher,in these days of tremendous information exchange. Hence I would advise you to drop any idea of taking up any teaching profession.Try your luck anywhere.
Wishing good fortune,
Manibal

Answer 4

Teaching HS is challenging but I prefer working with older kids. I don't have the patience to deal with little ones and their short attention spans. Also an elementary school teacher has to teach all subjects while a HS teacher can teach just one or two.
A lot depends on what kind of school you are in. In a nice suburban school, the kids are fairly well behaved and are goal oriented. If you are in an urban setting, the job is much more difficult.

Answer 5

Go ahead, work in high school as a teacher. You can reason better with teenagers and it is an opportunity to project a role model for these difficult teen years. Do not doubt yourself. Teeners can see through incompetence but incompetence is worse in the formative years. Develop and show your competence. Remember that teaching is not about what you know but about what you can inspire. No human has monopoly of knowledge.

Answer 6

You could teach at a private boys school. Then there would be no catty girls. There would still be bad attitudes, but not as bad as in inner city public schools. Try it you might like it.

Answer 7

I'm not a high school teacher, but my dad taught middle-school. I think no matter what level of school you teach, you are going to encounter some bad apples - it's inevitable. Even on a grammar school level, there are going to be some disciplinary nightmares. The means of misconduct may differ slightly with age, but that's about it.

Answer 8

I feel fortunate that I work with teenagers. Of course, I am in a rural area and a small school so our discipline problems probably differ from larger and/or urban schools. But the age of the student you work with isn't nearly as important as the fact that you show the kids you care about them as humans.

Answer 9

I love teaching HS. I wouldn't be happy with younger grades. I teach Freshmen, generally, so I get the most immature of the 4 years - and it's still a blast.

Part of what's fun is that we're the ones who get to really help them get started right on their path. K-8 have to get them ready to really learn and cover the toughest parts of growing and starting to figure out who they are - We HS teachers get to help them decide who they're going to BE.

Wouldn't trade it for the world. I may move on and teach college again, but for right now, I really like HS.

Orion

Answer 10

I'm not a teacher. But if you were to become a high school teacher, I'd go with private schools, the students are usually much better behaved