Considering Switching Schools? 10 Questions to Think Through
12:49AM Mar 13, 2023
Speakers:
Rebecca
Keywords:
private school
public school
school
felt
teacher
teaching
taught
parents
students
curriculum
years
certificate
admin
classroom
questions
meeting
ap biology
job
professional development
walk
You're listening to episode number 65 of the secondary science simplified podcast,
my first official teaching job was at Publix for a school with over 50% of the students below the poverty line. Those first two years of teaching at that school in a city were hard. But I also loved where I was. And I had great respect for my administration. I never wanted to leave, I loved the school, I loved my co workers. Honestly, I loved the district that I was in. But two years into my teaching career, my husband got a promotion, and that was going to move us across the state. And so when I traveled down to do some interviews, I was so beyond blessed to receive job offers at both the local public high school and a private Christian school. And making the decision between the two was truly one of the hardest decisions of my life. Because the public school in this new town was a lot different from the public school in my previous area that I was living, it was a lot smaller, it was a whole different atmosphere with the admin, the district was really different. And so I knew that I couldn't just go into that public school job expecting it to be the same because it was going to be really different. And so instead, I decided to try something totally new. And I went with a private Christian school for a couple of reasons, which I'll share later. And now I'm so thankful for that decision. I'm just so grateful for the diverse experiences I had between those two different teaching opportunities. But I'm going to be honest, the first year at the private school was rough, I would argue to say it may have been harder than my first year of teaching. And so I'm telling you this because I know that many of you are approaching contract season, meaning the time of year where you're going to be receiving your contract for the next school year, and then deciding if you're going to sign it or not. And I want to help you make that decision. And so the next few weeks, we're going to do episodes that will hopefully help with that. And so if you are considering making a switch to a new school next year, then this episode is for you. I'm going to share with you 10 Questions to consider as you evaluate the different options you may have for schools to teach in. And these are all based on my experience of making this decision myself. And kind of 10 things I really thought through. I'm also going to share just some really specific and honestly personal insights, if you're considering making the leap from public to private or vice versa. And I know that you can't generalize, like not all public schools are the same and not all private schools are the same at all. So I just want to preface with that. But I do want to be honest with you and as transparent as possible about some of the challenges I experienced. In the public school. I taught in verse a private school I taught it and hopefully that'll just give you some things to think on and chew on and just decide what will be best for you and for your family and for your lifestyle. Okay, so I hope this will be helpful for you. Let's just go ahead and dive right in. This is secondary science simplified a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I'm Rebecca joiner from it's not rocket science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place teacher friend, let's get to today's episode.
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.
Question number seven, consider how many preps do most teachers have and how much planning time is there I mentioned this earlier, but like a 90 minute planning period versus a 50 minute, night and day different, like it's life changing. When I was at public school, I taught physical science CPE, and honors and then biology CPE, and honors. But I only taught two of those a semester, because we were on Semester block planning. So I never had more than two preps really at a time. And then I had 90 minute planning every day, it was awesome. I love semester block and getting new students in January, I thought that was like the greatest ever. The only bummer is if a kid gets sick, and misses, like three days of school, it's like they've missed almost a half a unit, you know, because you're covering so much in 90 minute periods. But I love that. Whereas my private school, I had physical science CPE and honors biology, CP and honors AP Biology in a Bible course, at one time, that was like the most plannings I ever had, at one experience. And I only had 15 minutes to plan. And again, only person teaching all this stuff. So no one to bounce ideas off of it was a lot. And I had those students 50 minutes every day, all year. And so the nice thing is if like you get sick and you're out, and you're just missing one day, like you barely have to leave any sub plans, because they don't get that much done without you in 15 minutes. But it was very hard to have that little prep time for that many preps. Okay, question number eight, what guidelines and resources are used for developing curriculum at this school. So when I was in my public school, first year teaching job, it was amazing to walk into a school that had this group of teachers writing their curriculum and have literally handed to me what they were doing. But I will say, once I got started, it was hard because I had a lot of things that I wanted to do differently. And there were things in the curriculum that I did not like that I did not think or explained well, that I thought, you know, this lab can be replaced something so much better. And it was frustrating that I was kind of restricted to what the group wanted to do, and also restricted by what the district was requiring. It felt like three or four times while I was there, there was some new district initiative that was pushed out and mandated. And it was like we were constantly just having to change what we were doing to adopt whatever new initiative was in place. And that's tiring to not have any flexibility. It's nice to have everything handed to you. But really big bummer if you're not allowed to make any changes to it. And so that was one of the reasons why I was most attracted to the private school teaching offer when I had both. And when we moved, I walked into that private school and I was given absolutely nothing other than a link to the NGSS standards. That was literally it. If I had been a first year teacher, that honestly would have been semi traumatizing, I would not have known where to begin. But coming in as a third year teacher who is fresh out of grad school, getting a master's and curriculum design. Plus, I had, you know, two years of experience really seeing what I liked and what I really didn't like working on a team and the curriculum that they had come up with. I was so excited for this job. Like this was my dream, I had so much passion for curriculum design, and I was ready to start writing my own curriculum from scratch. I was so here for this. I love the autonomy. I love to be able to be as creative as I wanted. It was awesome for me in that season. Again, I don't know if I'd want to be in that season with a new baby or first year teaching. So things to consider for your own season. Okay, two more. Thanks for hanging with me. And let's see if I can finish this episode without saying things to consider again. Okay, that's gonna be my goal. These next two questions I posed for you. So question number nine, what differences are there in parent and student culture? Okay, I want you to just kind of try to get a read on the parent culture and the student culture. Again, if you can talk to someone who's currently teaching at this school, that's going to be your best way to get insight on this. But I felt like when I was in public school, the students can be amazing or really, really challenging to deal with. There was a lot of diversity there and what we were dealing with, and then the parents were borderline non existent. I still had to call them all the time and document it as part of my job, but I never saw any support from the home front. And very rarely criticism. I had like one or two parents. It got a little dicey with but other than that, like that was just like not even part of my job. It was almost just like, Oh, hey, check Get off unless you call them now move on. Whereas private school, holy cow, I found it really hard to deal with the entitlement of the students coming from my experience in the public school, it was so different. And that attitude was really, really hard for me. My first year teaching, I had a student that was not passing. And I told him, like, you literally will not pass this cause I need like, what can we do? Let's partner let's do this. And I told him, I was like, I want to bring in your parents and like, let's get on the same page. So we can pass this class and not retake it. And at the time, no one had ever failed. Physical Science at my school, no eighth grader had ever failed an eighth grade course before. And so they didn't even have a protocol for how to handle that moving into high school. And I will never get this student looked at me, and I'm just gonna to for privacy sakes, let's say that his dad's name was Casey. And he said, what Casey wants case he gets, if Casey doesn't want me to fail this class, I'm not going to fail this class. And my jaw literally dropped. I was like, what, but I think there was this mentalities as parents were investing so much financially in their children's education, that they had a lot of control. And so that was really difficult for me, and but also parents were just so much more involved. I mean, I was talking to parents every single day, and my private school teaching job, which was crazy, because it was so different from what I experienced before. And so the nice part though, in that is that you do have parents you can partner with, and actually having those conversations with them does change student's behavior and work ethic, the hard part is you're gonna have to devote way more time to interact with parents, you know, email, or face to face, or whatever. And you're also going to have to deal with some of those entitlement issues, potentially, you know, I don't want to say for sure, that's what it'll be like for you. But for me, that was a really big difference. And I felt like I kind of had to earn some respect at the school before parents, and students stopped trying to like, kind of walk over me, if you will, I will say, too, I had eight teen parent conferences, my first month at this school, y'all, that's a lot, especially for someone who had maybe had to in the two years previous Lee and like, had never really spent much time with parents. So I learned a lot. And I learned it the hard way. But also, you know, it was a really good learning experience for me. And once I kind of built those relationships in that rapport parents, it was awesome to have them on my side. But at first, it was a lot and the student attitudes were a lot too. Okay, last thing I want you to consider. Oh, man, I said it. I said I was going to try not to say it again. Okay, last thing I want you to think about, okay, is how will this affect my retirement and benefits? Okay. For me, personally, this was a non issue, because the way my husband and I had set up our retirement, and we started investing in that when we first got married, I wasn't planning on being dependent on any benefits from my school or school district. And I will say, too, I didn't have great benefits or anything in that regard. So I know some of you are in states where like, the pension is awesome, if you can make it 25 years. So you're going to be a lot more motivated by this than I was. And then I will also say to for insurance purposes, I was on my husband's insurance. So switching schools in that regard, didn't affect me either. But that's something of course, that you will have to consider. I know a lot of my public school coworkers thought that I was crazy to switch to private school and lose some of those benefits. But I also kind of always knew in the back of my mind, I wasn't going to be in the public school system for 25 years to get a lot of those retirement benefits anyway, you know, I had done my master's in curriculum design, I loved it, it's on my bucket list to get my doctorate, I would love to teach at the college level. So this is before I even started, it's not rocket science. And I just knew that that probably wasn't my long term. So that wasn't a big decision factor for me. But that's something you are going to want to think through. At the end of the day, you just have to weigh out the positives and negatives for again, for you and your family in your priorities. And remember that no school be perfect and have every single thing that you want to need. But it's your job just to assess what's most important to you and your current season of life. Because I truly believe that different seasons call for different things. And if you need to switch schools a few times, that's okay. And stay tuned, because over the next few weeks, we're going to continue this conversation, you can always come back to this episode and re listen to those 10 questions. Again, if you want, or check the show notes at it's not rocket science classroom.com/episode 65 We'll have all 10 of these questions just listed out there for a quick reference. If you're trying to look back and reflect on those, and again, we're gonna keep unpacking this over the next few weeks for those of you considering switching schools, or even leaving the education field, you know, and taking a break from it. So stick with me. I'm here for you in this transitional season. And if you have any specific questions about this conversation, please reach out and let me know how I can serve you as you're maybe making this decision. You know for you Your family right now. I really just want you to know that I want to support you in this because I've been there. You know, I've switched schools and I've left you know, a traditional teaching job for a little bit so I know where you're at and I'm here for you.
Alright, teacher friends. That wraps up today's episode. If you're looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to It's not rocket science classroom.com/challenge to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It's totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I'll see you here next week. Until then, I'll be really free teacher friend.