Okay, before we get started, I just want to start by saying that I know that every school has its issues. And so I want to encourage you to not always assume that the grass will be greener. On the other side. Every school has its pros, every school has its cons. There's no perfect situation. And as I got space away from the school that I first taught in, which was a school that I loved, like I had such a great experience there, like getting space from that I really started to see some of the things that weren't as great about it. And vice versa when I was at my new school. So I just want to encourage you that every school is so different. And I really think it's important to evaluate every school that you consider and really over time reevaluate like every few years, especially if you're in a school where admin is changing with frequency, like you need to evaluate every two or three years if this is the right place for you, and maybe even every year if there's a lot of transition and a lot of change. So I want to encourage you with that. I also want to encourage you that no perfect school exists. So we just want to look at what will be best for you and your family in the current season that you are in because that's a theme we've been talking about so far in 2023. Okay, and my hope is just that these 10 reflection questions that I walked through will just help you as you're talking through these decisions, you know, with your partner or with your spouse, whatever. Okay, now, disclaimer, I again, I'm going to share some of my personal experiences just to serve as examples for you. I don't want you to think that I'm generalizing My school experiences for all school experiences, I just feel like it is helpful to have specific examples. So I'm going to share those from my experience. And I'm also going to try not to come off as negative, because I really had great experiences at both schools in really different ways. But they also both have their challenges. But I am going to be very transparent. And I think sometimes Transparency can feel, you know, a little harsh, but that's where I'm going to be. So despite some of the downfalls of the schools that I've taught in, I've just grown to love them in different ways, like I said, and so that's where I want to just preface this by saying I love both schools in very different ways. Okay, now, for the preface, let's dive into the questions. First thing I want you to consider, what are the different duties or weekly expectations of teachers that are required? Okay, what's required of you on a weekly basis in terms of duties. I know, for me, at my public school, I just had a lot of meetings, like I was constantly in a meeting with, you know, my department analyzing data or rewriting a department wide test we were required to do, or I was in an IEP evaluation meeting, or I had a random professional development, we had weekly faculty meetings, you know, there were a lot of meetings, I also had a whole duty every day for 30 minutes in my planning, okay, I did get a 90 minute planning period, because we were on a block schedule. So that was amazing, 90 minutes every day is amazing. If you are in that situation, really consider whether or not you want to walk away from it, because when you drop to 45, or 50 minute planning, it's difficult. But I will say in that 90 minutes, I had to spend 30 of it in the hall, you know, not the end of the world, it's not like there was a lot going on during Hall duty, it was just checking people saw passes, but I still had to, you know, it's not like I could be prepping a lot during that time had be grading papers or something like that. So I had a lot of meetings there. Whereas on the other hand, at my private school, we may be met twice a month for like a 30 minute faculty meeting. And then we had like devotions as a faculty on Tuesday mornings before school, but those were like 10 minutes tops. So I do feel like I had a lot more free time in terms of freedom from meetings. And I was able to to, like get things done in my classroom. And, you know, we weren't getting a lot of emails throughout the day, that was another thing at my public school, we would get a lot of emails throughout the day, and they expected you to check them. And I was like, This is crazy, I don't have time to check my email every five seconds. And luckily, I had a lot of teacher neighbors close to me. And so you know, if there was something, they send an email, and we have an emergency meeting after school, we would kind of check in on each other and be like, Hey, did you see that we got to make sure were there. One thing I loved about private schools, they never did that I was never bothered by emails. And if something came up, like, hey, just FYI, we're gonna end it. We weren't planning on it. And we're gonna do a fire drill. Now during fourth period, like my admin would walk around to each classroom and just tell us and I love that because I love any opportunity to disconnect from my inbox and unplug from technology. So that's something I want you to consider. And those are, these are the types of questions I guess I should have said this at the beginning. But here we are, I feel like these are the really good questions for when you are sitting in those interviews, if you get to the point where you're going to be interviewing in other schools. And I feel like there's always a place in the interview where they're like, you know, what questions do you have? For me? These are the types of questions that you might consider asking just to get a good idea of what you're walking into. So I would definitely ask what are the duties or weekly expectations of teachers what's required there? The second thing I would ask or look for potentially on the internet, you could probably find it if it's a public school, is what's this pay scale increase? Like, at my public school, it was a very consistent salary schedule or table, I don't know how you want to refer to it, you could literally google it and find it right now. It was published on the internet. So you saw that, you know, if I have x amount of education, I teach X amount of years, this is how much I'm going to be paid. And it was very, very clear. That was nice in the sense that, like, we knew how to budget, there was no unknowns. We knew this is what how much I was gonna be making. It was nice when I did finish my master's degree, which I did my first two years teaching at night to know like, Okay, this is the raise I can expect, even though we ended up moving to a new school before I was able to enjoy that raise. But that was really nice to see it clearly defined in known. But I will also say it was also very rigid, you know, there, there weren't going to be any changes to that. Whereas in my private school, it was kind of no guarantees, because they didn't make any promises. I will say, the nice thing was I was given an offer initially, that was going to be less than I would make at the public school. And I was able to negotiate and say, Hey, I need to make the same that I could be making down the street at the public school. And that was a possibility. But I also was not guaranteed a pay raise each year like I was at public school. So yeah, I can negotiate on the front end, but then it kind of was stagnant after that with a little I think there was a little bump, maybe you're two or three for cost of living, but that was it. Okay. So I will say there's no you know, rhyme or reason necessarily there. But there also was the potential long term If I needed to negotiate a higher salary in order to stay there, that would be a possibility. We know we kind of got into some of those discussions when I was planning on leaving the classroom, to stay home with my oldest son, we adopted him, you know, there were some negotiations there to get me to stay. But at the end of the day, I just was like, I really wanted to be home with him. I mean, you know, since he was adopted, I already missed the first, you know, nine months of, of his life growing in the womb, so I just didn't want to miss that time with him in those early days. And so there was no number I can put on that. But I will just say I say all this to say, private school felt like a lot of inconsistency, which could be good or bad. Public School felt very consistent, and very clear. But that's also very rigid, and there's no wiggle room. So just something to consider looking into. Another question I would ask would be, What opportunities are there for my position to grow and evolve over the years, I felt like in the public school I was in, you know, there was a lot of politicking, if you will, like I knew if I ever wanted to teach anything, but freshman biology and physical science, I'd have to put in my time and put in some schmoozing with the admin, and kind of wait my turn, like I knew that AP biology or anatomy, or, you know, being in charge of the Teacher Cadet Program, which I thought sounded so fun, all of those were things I'd have to wait in line for, because we're other teachers ahead of me, you know, that we're waiting for the teacher in that position to move to a different school or retire. I also knew in my public school, that part time was not going to be an option when I had children. But that was just something that was very, very clear to us. And again, it was just a very rigid system, but it was clear. So that helped me know for planning purposes, whereas when I was in a private school for four years, my role changed every single year, I was there. And I loved that. And it also just developed and I could see how I could develop that role into maybe some sort of admin role or into an instructional coach, or, you know, they were willing to let me do half days, which is so, so rare in a public school system. And so that's something I want you to consider also is what's kind of the flexibility there. And then also, like with AP Biology, I had the ability to teach AP Biology pretty quickly after being there, it's not like I had to put in a bunch of time to get it, I was able to be very honest about like, you know, what classes, I want to teach kind of what my hopes would be for the long term. And I'm excited too, because, you know, if and when I do get back into the classroom one day, it will most likely be in a part time capacity. And I feel like I can reach out to them because we have such a great relationship still, and kind of see what's available. So for me, personally, I liked and when I was making this decision, for my new job, I chose a private school specifically so that I could have that flexibility, my career would not feel a stagnant and I knew that I could have some kind of professional growth, you know, on my own terms, and not just based on waiting in line for another teacher to retire so I can teach the class that they have. So that's something to consider as well. A fourth question I would ask would be, what professional development and certificate renewal options are available. Okay. So this is something I've told my husband so many times, I am so thankful that I spent my first two years in the public school system. And so this may look different in the state that you teach in. But the way that it works at the time in South Carolina is you get your initial teaching certificate, you know, when you graduate college with your teaching degree, and you take your practice, you know, exams for certification, all that you get like a preliminary certificate, and then your first two years in the classroom, you have to get a certain amount of professional development hours. And you have to make this giant binder that's like a portfolio of all these different things. I mean, there's so many things to it, in order to then be granted your professional certificate, and then your professional certificate, you know, gives you like five years, and you have to get 120 renewal hours and to keep renewing it every five years or something like that. But I'm super grateful because the process to get from the initial to the professional was really tedious. And luckily, in my school, I mean, there was probably eight of us that were new the year I started there, my first year teaching, my school walked us through that entire process, they provided professional development for us that counted towards the state requirements. They also, you know, pointed us to opportunities where we could get the other hours we needed. You know, I had an advisor at my school that helped me with my binder to make sure I had all the pieces I needed to get my formal certificate. And then it was so nice, because from then on, I knew I had this professional certificate and all I had to do is keep it renewed. Whereas, you know, if I had started a private school, it would have been all on me to potentially get, you know, my formal certificate and keep that up. So I'm super grateful I'd gotten to the point where I had least gotten that professional certificate before I left. So that's something to consider. Whereas private school because there aren't as many requirements for PD than there's not that much necessarily available to you. So it was all kind of on me, which in some like instances is great, like none of the professional development that my private school provided. was wasted, like, it was all very applicable, very relevant. It was very much catered to our smaller faculty, a lot of our PD would be one teacher basically teaching for 30 minutes on something that was working in their classroom and how we can apply it to our classrooms. It was awesome. But none of it was recognized or accredited by the state. So all of the PD that I was doing on my private school, which wasn't very much, because we didn't do a lot of it, but what we were doing wasn't counted by my state towards my renewal credits. So I had five years to get 120 renewal hours on my own. And I've been able to do it, but and now I've got another five years. But you know, it's, it's tricky. And so there's a lot of conversations that came that I had to spin on the phone, the State Department of Education, you know, which is not fun. And I've had to pay for some PD opportunities that have been not relevant or helpful to my teaching career at all, but I just had to do it to get my renewal. And so that's just something to consider as well, like, I know that my public school has so much more support for keeping my hours up, it was like something I didn't even have to think of, whereas private school kind of came all on me. So that's something I would ask too, as well. And again, this may be different for the public and private school where you're considering or if you're looking at two different public schools, maybe they're two different districts, though, because you live on the border of two different school districts, they may do things differently. And so that's why I just want to encourage you to ask these types of things. Like are you going to be responsible for finding all the opportunities for you to renew your certificate? Or are they going to help you do that? If you're a teacher coming to the education field, you know, as a second career, and maybe you're doing an alternative certification path? Like how are they going to support you in that? Or do they not? So just some questions to consider. Okay, my fifth thing I want you to think about is what support is provided for higher education. So my state offers a lot of scholarship opportunities for current teachers in the public school system who want to pursue higher ed. So we were constantly getting forwarded emails from our district, and from our admin, you know, about a discounted program through this university or, you know, something here, I know that I was able to get gifted and talented, certified through a local college by taking two online classes for like, 150 bucks, my second year teaching, and it was through a sponsorship program that my admin had sent me. And so that was such a gift. Whereas when I taught at private school, a lot of those opportunities weren't available to me, because they are held specifically for public school teachers. And my school obviously encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do. But it wasn't they weren't able to financially support me in getting my master's, or it's always been my dream to get a doctorate. That's not something that they would be able to support me in. And I don't think my public school could have either, but it's just again, something to consider. I feel like I said that so many times, maybe I should title this podcast, something to consider, because it's all I keep saying, Okay, question number six, what's the faculty environment like, you know what, and this is really helpful if you can actually talk to someone who currently teaches at the school to really get the scoop. This is something you're not going to really be able to feel out from an interview. But I would see what the deal is and and still ask, you know, what are the expectations for collaboration and kind of things like that, that's something you could ask in your interview. Because when I was at a public school, I was one of five biology teachers. So I constantly had a work community, which was amazing. As a first year teacher, my job was extremely collaborative. And the work environment was very social for me, which was also draining because I'm an introvert. But it was very social, it was very fun. It was exactly what I needed. The community was really encouraging. But it could also be really distracting, because there were so many of us, and we're constantly talking all day long, and planning together and all that. And, you know, of the five of us that work together, I really jived with one other teacher who is Jamie, I had her on the podcast, she was one of the first people I interviewed, I love her so much. And then you know, I got along with two or three others, but there's always kind of one that's, you know, not really participating in the group project. And so that was hard. Like, that's where collaborative work environments are awesome, but they can be really hard, if not, everyone's collaborating. So that's something to kind of think through if that's what that sounds like something you need in this season of your life, like Do you need some collaboration and support? Or do you seem to be able to go rogue, because that's what I loved about my private school. I was the only teacher who taught my subject areas, which is kind of sad. But it's also awesome because you can do whatever you want, you can literally run with anything because you don't have to report to anyone else. I will say though it made my first year at that school really lonely. I felt like I didn't have anyone bouncing ideas off of and I had been so used to that. And I also felt like it was harder to build relationships because every person who was on my floor and in my hallway taught a different subject. So it's not like we were ever naturally Crossing Paths to like share ideas and collaborate. You know, we would chat of course, but it wasn't it wasn't the same level at all. So that's something to consider. I also will say though, I felt like I had an amazing admin at both schools. I love my admin so much and coworkers but i will say i felt like the atmosphere of my private school felt a lot more positive than at my public school. And I'm super grateful for that encouragement, especially because in the years that I was at the private school was when we were experiencing our unexplained infertility diagnosis and walking through that, and then walking through the adoption process, like we had a lot going on in our personal lives. I lost my grandmother unexpectedly and she was one of the people that really raised me. So there was a we had a lot going on, but I'm so glad I was in that atmosphere for that. So I would just really try to get a read on what the faculty environment is like.