Highly Satisfied
Last updated Jan 22 2025
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Middle School Teacher Reviews
What is it like working as a Middle School Teacher?
August 2019
Students love his class.
Middle School Teacher in Pleasant Valley:
Pros: Offering my experience to my students.
Cons: Discipline problems.
August 2019
A Fair Trade-off?
Middle School Teacher in Quincy:
Pros: There are MANY great things about working at a Catholic School, especially if you are a religious person. Even if you are not, there are still numerous reasons to teach there. First and foremost, I love that there is a distinct “family” atmosphere beyond what you would typically see at a secular school. The amount of personal support is tremendous, and the teachers who stay are there because they love the job, not the money. Secondly, there is so much less “red tape”. I think there’s more freedom to express myself, create my own curriculum and to acquire materials I need to teach. Along those same lines, one of my favorite things about it is our ability to celebrate all holidays which is now taboo in public schools. I hated that I couldn’t say “Merry Christmas” to a child when I was at a public school. I always felt like you had to walk on eggshells with everything you did there. Being at a non-secular school has been much less stressful of an environment in that regard. The last thing I’d say that I like the most is that the students are generally better behaved and there is more parental support. The small class sizes make it easier to manage behavior and I am better able to meet the needs of diverse learners.
Cons: The negatives of the job are that we make MUCH less money and have fewer “rights” than public school teachers. With no HR department, the principal is basically where the buck stops. If there’s something you’re not happy about, there’s nowhere else to go. No union means no bargaining power and we are constantly losing precious prep time. There are no substitutes for specialists, so if one of them is absent we lose our prep that day. Same if an assembly or other activity is scheduled during our prep. If we have lunch duty there’s no separate lunch time given to us. There has been countless days where I’ve had no preps plus lunch duty, meaning I get ZERO breaks all day- and I’m pretty sure that’s against Federal employment laws- but nobody ever says anything about it. There’s an attitude of “oh well, that’s just how it is at a Catholic school”. Nor are we compensated financially for any of that time lost or any of the “above & beyond” time required of us. I wouldn’t mind so much if we made even CLOSE to the same salary as public school teachers. I know a teacher who started at a public middle school in the city at the same time that I started at mine, and this year she will be making over $70k to my $38k. It’s a hard pill to swallow, and I won’t even get started on the lack of a pension...
So is it a fair trade-off? Having worked at both types of schools, I really don’t think it is. But it’s hard for me to leave such a good working environment-obviously since I’m still there!
August 2019
Exhausting.
Middle School Teacher in Toledo:
Pros: hopefully helping students
Cons: stress level, lack of materials, no training, constant changing environment, no obvious mission
July 2019
Works very well for me.
Middle School Teacher in Carlsbad:
Pros: Making a difference with youths. My principal leaves me alone to do my job.
Cons: Liberal ideology
June 2019
Informative and a good professional learning experience.
Middle School Teacher in Dehradun:
Pros: The management and the co workers along with the students
Cons: Pay structure
June 2019
Teachers Flee Bay Area For Cheaper Regions.
Middle School Teacher in Sunnyvale:
Pros: Working with and educating young people.
Cons: Administrative detritus.
April 2019
Don’t go into education.
Middle School Teacher in Gallatin:
Pros: The students and planning lessons that engage and excite.
Cons: Parents that assume their child is perfect and believe them over an adult when work is missing, more and more work is required of us-meaning I work many extra hours, and my student load-160 to 180 students means an entire weekend of grading.
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