Submitted by MojitoSipper t3_zcqv1l in massachusetts
Any additional advice or tips would be helpful also!
EDIT: I may have worded the title in a way that caused misinterpretation. I'm from Massachusetts, planning to get my license to teach. Was looking for advice/tips on being a first-year teacher.
There isn’t any schools here.
get a job in a rich town like Brookline or Newton or Danvers over whatever for the good salary, otherwise you can get stuck making $30,000 a year in Quincy as a part time teacher.
Well, we can tell by your grammar skills that you can't find one, but I can assure you there are plenty of schools here.
Friend used to work Q schools- the 6 week maternity leave is very medieval
It really depends on what content area you teach and where you live. What do you teach? Where do you live? I've taught in the state for over fifteen years.
Read the contract before you accept any offers. It's easy to get over excited when you get an offer and hear the salary, but you have to dig deeper. How many personal days do you get? Sick days? Is your work year 182 days? 187? 190? Max class size? Teaching load to prep period ratio? Duties outside of teaching? Is there any level of reimbursement for the mandatory graduate credits you will be required to earn?
Working conditions and respect for the profession always trump pay for me. I could make more elsewhere, but I'd have to lose some sweet bennies from my current workplace.
Ok so which towns are the best?
Concord carlisle for hs. If you want k-8, carlisle school doesn’t have many teachers leaving after they get hired.
Unless you have some previous teaching experience you will find it hard to break into the more desirable districts. Andover, Reading, and Lexington come to mind. They often want good young teachers with 4 - 6 years experience. Too much and they have to pay you more. Cities can pay well but come with problems Cities deal with. They often receive more funding from the state if they serve larger low income communities.
I do not know which state you are coming from but city/town taxes pay for the schools. The lower the tax rate the possible more difficulty funding the schools.
You can also look on DESE ( department of elementary and secondary education) for how much each town spends per pupil. It can give you some framework of how supported is per location.
If you're looking in Western Massachusetts, Amherst is the district to be at. I'd expect Lenox to be great as well with how much money they have.
Comment perfection right here...
Is Danvers considered rich? I never knew.
Right now, with zero teaching experience, I doubt those districts would hire me. I will try though, just for the hell of it.
Right now I'm trying to find educational jobs teaching kids/teens/adults about things in my field.
Reading is actually not a great district, some of the worst special education outcomes in the state and they had to beg the local parents to come in and be bodies in rooms last winter during covid.
I am a teacher and wouldn't choose to work at a place like Reading.
Lexington is great but comes with its own set of problems--high stress kids, high expectation parents.
Honestly, a place like Chelmsford or Westford would be the happy medium in my eyes.
Currently right now, since I don't have any teaching experience as a teacher, I am trying to find jobs that are teaching related - like: instructor, museum educator, etc - while I am in the process of getting my teaching license. Will those experiences make a difference on the resume when I start applying for teaching jobs?
I come from a multi generational family of educators.
Don’t.
Don't be too sure they wouldn't hire you. I work in a "desirable" district and I've seen them pass over more experienced candidates because they were too high on the pay scale. The one thing I would say that we do tend to require is a master's degree.
Also, what subject are you interested in teaching? The teacher shortage is real in science, special ed, and math and even in my district we struggle to hire in those subjects.
Yeah probably but a good way in is as an instructional assistant in special ed. That way you'll already know the school and will have experience in special ed. Every classroom is a special ed classroom.
I think they are trying hard. Last year when I was looking at wedding venues the one in Danvers heavily implied we wouldn't be able to afford the place despite the pseudo-budget we asked them to make for our 200 guest wedding putting us well above their above per guest price. We ended up going to Holyoke because the Danvers venue was ultimately too small for the ceremony but also the disrespect we got for our "Hudson people."
That's crazy. Danvers isn't anything fancy IMO. It has the prep, but the actual town isn't obviously monied like Newburyport or Boxford, nevermind a town in the metro west like Weston.
I guess you have to fake it til you make it, huh Danvers?
Yes, having teaching experience on the resume will help get you interviews. You may want to consider working as a TA in a school system or as an after-school program teacher at a public school. If you already work for a school system in one of those roles, you will have a much better chance of getting a teaching job there when one pops up.
dredging up that memory I decided to check the Danversport reviews cause I thought maybe this was an isolated incident. A few other reviewers probably had the same person we were stuck with because one had similar complaints just last year and others complained about booking the venue and then being treated only as dollar signs.
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I'm planning to teach environmental science. I have an Associate's of Art in General Studies, Bachelor's of Art in Environmental Science with a Minor in Environmental Anthropology.
One downside is: I graduated with a ~2.70 GPA, which is a B- average. I read that the minimum GPA to be a teacher in MA is 3.
I came here to say “The Capital.“ but this is way better.
Don’t work for a Commonwealth Charter school. Longer hours, less pay, more rules, more strict, no union to back you up. Fuck commonwealth charter schools. I’ve had many friends and students who’ve had negative experiences as teachers and students. They are run like a corporation and don’t care about you. Work for a district with a union. You will be protected and treated better.
I agree with you. Only problem is I'm competing with other potential teachers. I also have zero experience. My options are very limited. I wouldn't mind working a year or two anywhere to get my foot in the door, then transition to a safer and better financial teaching position.
For a full license, you need practice teaching, pass standardized exams, and a master’s degree. DESE should have all the requirements and regulations online.
Not true. You’re at the low end of the pay scale. Apply to any district near you. As you get more years and experience you’d be amazed how some districts don’t want to pay the money to get the experience
you need a masters degree to get the big bucks
Being a para is also good for resumes. It’s not uncommon for a school to hire a para on as a teacher after they get their degree. It happened to me and quite a few other people I know.
You could get hired as a sub without any experience, tomorrow.
Work as a paraprofessional if you want to see what it takes.
You don’t need a masters to teach
You won’t be teaching specific courses like environmental science. You will be teaching broad general studies topics like: earth science or chemistry.
My advice is stay away from charters period. You could easily burn out in a couple years.
I'll try my best, but I can't promise anything. I need experience and money atm. I can't afford to stand on principles atm. My financial situation won't allow me to be picky. One or maybe two years don't sound that bad if that's my only choice.
I'm perfectly okay with that. I graduated with a general track in it. I really enjoy talking about the natural science side of Env. Sci.
More like 75k after ten years. You must also deal with mediocre leadership, asshole parents, andrunny nosed kids.
I'm actually currently looking for those opportunities as we speak haha
Can you clarify a little more what you mean by para?
When I was teaching, Reading was seen as good. I went to a teaching job fair at Northeastern and the line for Reading was significant. OP sounds like someone not from this state and Reading with the tax income has the ability to be better.
Yeah, it's desired but not required. Only a bachelor's in the respective field is
Not quite fully accurate. You just need a bachelors depending on the job and the district. I’m a teacher from another state who just moved here and getting licensed for MA. My bachelors is not in my content area.
Are you on schoolspring?
Should check out social studies too maybe.
A paraprofessional or a TA. They usually are hired to assist the special ed department. Some positions deal with intense cases but a lot of positions function as support for mild to moderate disabilities, like helping students with ADHD stay organized or working through math problems with a student who has a math disability.
Pick a good town.
What's that?
But if you know history, you’re probably going to have to learn to coach football too.
Make sure you major in something in demand. Avoid English and History as jobs in those subjects are much harder to find than Sciences. If you can do SPED, Physics, Stats, or any upperclassmen math classes, you'll be set.
Does the degree have to be a BS? I have a BA but it's in Environmental Science, so I'll be teaching natural science.
As a recent alum, those teachers make $$$ (relatively speaking), nice facilities, well supported and invested admin and parents, good students… I think it’s a great district to work in
What are you planning to teach here?
I am actually from this state, haha. I guess I worded my title a little funny, so that's my fault. Just looking for advice from other teachers in this state about being a teacher, especially advice for my first year teaching.
To teach science you need to have the licenses for those specific courses and many districts will want you to have degrees in those specific fields.
I read a comment that said you don’t know what a para is…and you have zero teaching experience.
Please don’t just walk into a school and try to get a job…you might get it…but the kids are going to suffer.
Go through a licensure program, get some experience, get your SEI certification and maybe see if this is even a job you want or can do.
I’m getting serious “I’ll just teach” or “teaching sounds easy” vibes - and you’re going to burn yourself out and mess with the kids in the process of finding out why those ideas are dangerous
Substitute clients for parents and…many jobs? /s
And you’re tenured. Adjuncts, ooof.
Off topic, but surprising that Andover makes the list. I question the level of intelligence coming out of that city with every person I meet that’s grown up there
We have all been there, you'll be able to move about eventually. When you start out you don't really have a lot of choice. You might get lucky with a long-term sub position in a desirable district. Or an early retirement they weren't expecting. But for the most part you need to start at a not as great district and then apply to other districts as you gain experience.
I think a lot of districts like teachers with 3 to 6 years of experience. They probably see that as a sweet spot because you don't cost too much yet, but you aren't brand new.
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Lexington admin were assholes in my experience. I ended up in a tech school and loved it.
A master’s degree is indeed required in MA. You have 5 years to obtain it after being hired.
I applied to Minuteman and Shawsheen...wish I had gotten a job at either. Tech schools pay great and you don't get the insane people at a Lexington.
Maybe someday!
Who is making 100k as a PE teacher? Go read some town reports.
Have you gotten your teaching license yet? The literacy and communication piece is very easy, but not sure about your subject area. You should look into getting ESL certified while you’re at it.
I teach English and language arts.
Shawsheen is amazing!! Keep trying.
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Good luck getting hired. We had a PE position open at my school and we had over 130 applicants.
Solid advice!
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Keep trying. Both of these guys are 15-20 years in. One is clearly coaching in addition to teaching.
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Ahh. You’re right. But putting in 20 years to reach 100k is stupid. Get an engineering degree and make that after 2 years and double that after 10-15.
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>is st johns prep even full of money kids compared to governors academy thats in the area?
por que no los dos? Both are expensive schools. Govs might be a little more fancy but the prep is certainly a school for wealthy young men.
I interviewed to work there, actually, and I didn't get the job. Not sure I would have been the best fit in a place like that.
What area do you live in? I know Saint Michaels in Lowell is looking. Great, small school.
St Johns is 30k compared to 53k for day at Govenors. Bruh I legit freaked when I saw the tuition at Governors. The tuition is almost a full 70 percent more.
Is St Johns super preppy compared to other catholic school?
From my perspecitve, yeah. Beautiful campus though!
Lots of elite private schools in MA. Weird to think some of the best high schools in the world are just a few towns over.
The difference between a man and a woman, and which bathrooms they are to use.
Make sure you get that down.
You can definitely teach full-time environmental science (my school of about 1,000 students has 2 full time environmental teachers), but there is no environmental science MTEL you could take for licensure. You would need to take either the bio or chem MTEL to get your science license.
While you should probably go for whichever subject you're better at, keep in mind that bio, by far, has the most applicants for any open job. Chem is much, much harder to find someone for. The last time we were hiring for a chem teacher, there were just two licensed teachers who applied. The last bio position we hired for had over 30 licensed applicants.
Technically, you have 10 years after getting your initial license, since you can extend your initial license once by request. If you got a preliminary license first, you could delay the master's degree by as much as 15 years.
Edit: To be even more technical, if you go the route of Master Teacher certification through Pearson, you'll never need a master's degree... though I hope you like staying on the Bachelor's / Bachelor's +15 step 5 pay scale for eternity.
This is why I advise the GSA at our school.
I had to ask that question of my principal in 2008. The student was male, kept going into the girls' room like it's NBD.
Don’t sell yourself short. As of a couple of months ago there were several hundred teaching positions available in Boston Public Schools, one of the highest paying in the state. There is a massive teacher shortage everywhere. You have some capital to work with. Don’t take the easy way out. The lowest paying charter schools will offer anyone a job… so will a lot of school districts that really need someone, especially mid year. Just keep looking. You will find a district within a 45 minute drive that needs you.
That's strange, I noticed that too. The state's education website has a practice exam for environmental science and says they are supposed to have an exam for it. But there's no option to sign up for it on the Pearson website where people sign up to take the exams, there's no option for ES.
No plans too
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