Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
(OP)
Hello Everyone,
Recently, I had a conversation with a teacher friend of mine and he was telling me how desperate high schools are for math and science teachers (nothing new there). I think it would be fairly easy for an engineer to switch careers and become a high school math or science teacher. Not only that, he or she would be bring some valuable real world experience to the classroom as well. I am curious why more engineers don't make this transition.
Engineering can be very demanding and stressful. Not only that, we get bogged down with many nontechnical and mundane tasks. When you're having a bad day at the office, summers off is a nice fantasy. Teaching seems like it could be fun, but I think I would miss the action too much. Not to mention, the money isn't so good. But even then, I'm surprised I don't hear of many engineers throwing in the towel to become a teacher. With the economy as bad as it is, becoming a teacher could be a stable alternative.
Has anyone ever seriously considered becoming a high school teacher? Do you know anyone who has actually made the switch? If so, were they happy with their decision?
I hope others will find this topic interesting.
Thanks everyone!
Recently, I had a conversation with a teacher friend of mine and he was telling me how desperate high schools are for math and science teachers (nothing new there). I think it would be fairly easy for an engineer to switch careers and become a high school math or science teacher. Not only that, he or she would be bring some valuable real world experience to the classroom as well. I am curious why more engineers don't make this transition.
Engineering can be very demanding and stressful. Not only that, we get bogged down with many nontechnical and mundane tasks. When you're having a bad day at the office, summers off is a nice fantasy. Teaching seems like it could be fun, but I think I would miss the action too much. Not to mention, the money isn't so good. But even then, I'm surprised I don't hear of many engineers throwing in the towel to become a teacher. With the economy as bad as it is, becoming a teacher could be a stable alternative.
Has anyone ever seriously considered becoming a high school teacher? Do you know anyone who has actually made the switch? If so, were they happy with their decision?
I hope others will find this topic interesting.
Thanks everyone!





RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
At least in my state in the US, the system does not place any value on what an experienced engineer has to offer high school students.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
But then go watch a high school "special" on TV - the reason concealed carry was allowed in many states....
The pay is not that good - but the benefits may be - depends on time in service...
Look into private schools.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Pay isn't that good.
Benefits often aren't as good as they used to be.
It's no longer a secure/stable profession.
You have to put up with kids.
You have to put up with kids parents.
You have to put up with the principal (plus possibly dept head)
You have to put up with the school district bureaucracy.
You have to put up with the teachers union.
You have to put up on advancement etc. generally based on time served, with little allowance for merit.
You get to teach the same thing over and over again, bar the ever changing syllabus and testing requirements etc.
I'm sure there are other reasons not to do it, many of them relating to boring and mundane tasks.
That said, one of my Physics teachers at school had been a material engineer/scientist previously.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I'm flabbergasted by the amount of stupidly designed, repetitious, useless paperwork she has to generate, update, and process, including individual customized learning plans for each of her hundreds of students, and daily plans specifying what will be taught in each class, and reports ad infinitum, and grading papers, and calling parents begging them to induce their kids to do their homework.
Summers off? Yeah, sure, but she's also required to take continuing education classes, in summer, at her expense, to maintain her certification.
She also has to get back to school a couple weeks before classes start in order to get the classroom in shape, inventory and physically move tons of books, get materials ordered, and start to wade into the new year's mountain of paperwork, and attend mind-numbing meetings conducted by people who've never taught a class, telling her how to do something she's been doing for 45 years.
No way would I want to deal with the current and future criminals she has to teach. They don't get less dangerous as they age.
They're big and mean. The boys are almost as bad.
I worry about her physical safety every day.
If I had any money, I'd make her stay at home and give it up. ... if I could make her do or not do anything, that is.
She would divorce me first, of course. She loves it. Certainly not all of it, certainly not most of it, .... but every once in a while she meets a former student who thanks her for caring and for working so hard on their behalf and for trying to maintain high standards despite the general dumbing down of the entire educational system.
The school district here does have some kind of transition program for technical people who want to teach. They can defer some of the paperwork in order to speed your entry and give you some classroom time. You still have to, eventually, take the 'education' classes. AFAIK, much worse than economics.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
At the elementary school my granddaughters go to there are two principals, and NINE Assistant principals. Every one of them justifies their existence by holding meetings and requiring the useless paperwork that MikeHalloran was talking about. In that school the budget for administration is much higher than the sum of the teachers salaries. I understand that this is not the norm, but it isn't that far from the norm.
It is sad, many engineers are out of work and most schools are screaming for math and science teachers. Sounds like a fit until you factor in a bureaucracy that devalues a technical education and only rewards a curriculum that most of us call a very small step from "Film Appreciation" or "Underwater Basket Weaving".
I may end up teaching in college some day, but never in middle or high school for me.
David
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I still think about teach high school calculus or physics at some point, but it would be far off in the future.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
When she saw that the pre-eng students were no smarter than she, she switched to engineering and did very well. She never made any less that me in her engineering career.
Switch to education? What a joke.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
It may be a joke if all you're worried about is money...
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I'm not saying someone can't be good at both, but just because you know math doesn't mean you can be a teacher.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
As Jed brought attention to, I know I don't have the most patience and tend to see a lot of things as pointless and ignorable in favor of focusing on the hard facts. This type of attitude is great when solving problems but I can't imagine it going over well when trying to control a room of 8th graders.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
moltenmetal: I'm in NJ.
Lburg: Your wife's experience sounds closest to what my friend was telling me. It almost sounds too good to be true. That's why I was wondering why more engineers don't get fed up with the grind and make the switch.
JedClampett: I agree with you. Many engineers would not make good teachers. However, I have been lucky enough to work with many experienced engineers and have often felt a strong teacher/student relationship develop. In addition, I feel like college learning (with its right or wrong answers) conditioned me for black and white reasoning. Although, with time, I realized that few things are that simple (and I think most do the same). Also, from my experience, most engineers are flexible and patient. We have to be. All day long, I work with other people to solve problems and get things done. We are more social than we give ourselves credit for.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
She told me this morning that one of her teachers told her yesterday:
"There are three reasons why somebody wants to be a teacher...
June, July, and August."
I believe it!
Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Regardless, I've already taken steps to ultimately make the transition from engineering into teaching. But I will be teaching dogs (or their owners), not kids. Unlike kids, dogs are always eager to please, have a reasonably consistent work ethic, and all they ever ask for in return is a cookie.
I also am married to a teacher (who teaches dogs, more specifically, dog owners). It's true what some people have posted: most of the WORK in teaching is done on your own time, at home, on weekends, with lesson plans and all of the "prep" stuff you need before you even set foot in a classroom. In my wife's case, she works on a seminar for 15-20 hours before she actually gets paid for the 8 that the students see. It's probably not something you want to try unless you are pretty convinced you will like it.
Regards,
SNORGY.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I'm not sure about the supposed shortage of math/science teachers either, I hear about teacher cutbacks not cries for more teachers.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Your daughter said one of her teachers said that "There are three reasons why somebody wants to be a teacher...June, July, and August."
That might be a consideration for me if the wage paid could finance a vacation, and if teachers in Washington did not have to go to school in the summer themselves to stay current with the changing obligations of the profession - the only time they have to do so. My daughter's husband is a PE teacher and soccer coach in the school system and he has very little family time, they both work, and still have problems getting the ends to meet.
Needless to say here, I just cannot buy what the teacher told your daughter.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I think the teacher was joking.
Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
If I ever had the opportunity to teach in a program like that, I would seriously consider it.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
When I went to school my metalwork teacher was an engineer who was passionate about his work. At age 13, I had fabricated a hacksaw frame by forging , I made a sprocket extractor ; using the lathe to cut a screw thread, a milling machine to cut the notches for the swing legs, Heat treated and tempered the ends of the hooks in the forge, and draw filed the body to clean it up.
Unfortunately he resigned in my final year to start his own business, and his replacement was one of the aforementioned teachers who had never seen the inside of a real machine shop yet alone worked in one.
B.E.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Teach for America is always looking.
Several teachers made a difference, made an impression, and I owe them. I do cub scouts instead, but that's an hour a week instead of 8 a day. My wife teaches art at a school for kids that can't attend regular schools because of legal or mental health reasons, she loves it. I'm not sure it's a job for everybody. Some districts welcome uncertified subs, none do around me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
The Adirondacks are beautiful, and I interacted with my Canadian brothers, too. I had great kids, and we had fun in field and waterfront activities. My specialty was riflery and archery. There was even dramatics with the counselors playing stage roles. One memorable play was 'Guys and Dolls.'
The last two wks were devoted to the Olympiad, a serious competition between one half of the camp and the other. The camp colors were blue and yellow. Even the counselors were divided within the blue and yellow teams. We wrote our own marching songs, and the teams were rated on everything including appearance and clothing. Competition involved all the field and waterfront sports including sailing. I still have my T-shirt with Camp Meenagah on the front. Buster Crabbe, the actor, spent summers at the camp with his family. Great memories.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
That sounds like a teacher who had been out in the real world.
B.E.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Most inspiring is where they take 20 year old looking students who are borderline thugs/ drug addicts/pushers and make them useful citizens....
So engineers would make a big difference....
Yeah.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
By college you can assume that the kids want to be there, and if they don't, it's not your problem.
Maybe I am just becoming a grumpy old man, or maybe it was my upbringing, but when I was a kid, if any adult accused me of wrongdoing, it was punishment first, ask questions later. Parents today seem to have come down with a serious case of denial-not my little angel. The parents of these future serial killers don't take any responsibility, it is always the fault of the teacher or the school.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
While I was giving him this pep talk I wasn't sure it would work but it did. He seems more interested in math and science now and is getting better grades.
Observations:
1. I don't think kids get challenged enough (like do only 10 problems out of an exercise of 50)
2. Pep talks do work
3. They need to meet and interact with professionals of the area they are interested in.
4. Inspiring a student to do well and helping him do so is very satisfying
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I did teach two years of high school, chemistry and mathematics. Enough of a reason to get the engineering degree.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Out of everyone, you have the most direct experience; you were a teacher and now you are an engineer. How was teaching worse than engineering? Was there anything better about it? I can imagine what you might say, but you might surprise us with more!
Thank you for your posts everyone.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Teaching is rough, but I might go back to it later as a sort of retirement.
Many of my students refused to do homework, sometimes even take tests, and had parole officers. The most challenging part was teaching the students who were there to learn while placating the students who weren't. Where my creativity and lack of experience allowed I would create games and puzzles to illustrate the concepts, which worked well for both groups (the learners and the others).
The worst part was when I KNEW a student knew how to work a problem but they just wouldn't lift a pencil during the test.
It sounds like I'm describing a nightmare but it wasn't. I was there to teach, and I taught, and I felt like I made a connection or at least an impression. While my goal was for everyone to learn, on some level I can't beat myself up for all the circumstances working againist the students. You do your best.
Some of the other emergency certified teachers I know went to much better funded schools. Where you teach will have a lot to do with your experience. Very entitled students can bring a different set of challenges.
Anyway, I can see doing it again. Though teaching an electronics lab on the college level would be a lot easier and more fun.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
The only way to teach at a university is to get the Ph.D. and become a full professor. Education is very political.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Some of my profs at Uni (UK) were 'Mr' not 'Doctor' or 'Professor', these were typically guys brought in from industry.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
The only thing worse was tutoring engineering students, which goes directly to the other conversation on women engineers. In three years of tutoring, nearly every one of the females dropped out once they realized they can make more money dancing three nights a week at the Starlight than they would 5 years after they get their degree. Out of the 4,000 enrolled students for my graduating class, two females graduated, which twice that number danced every night at the Starlight. I felt even worse when one of the only two got laid off immediately from her job, the other found better employment going direct to the military.
The one thing worse than trying to talk young and intelligent women from quitting engineering to go dancing at the nudie bar was tutoring at the jock dorm. I used to read Hunter Thompson "Fear and loathing" to gear up for that.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I think you must be doing it wrong.
Here's the teachers pay rates where I work.
http://w
That tops out at 90k, roughly what a 35-40 year old engineer would make round here if they were good and had indulged in a couple of well-handled job changes.
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
So, the hourly wage probably does end up pretty competitive, if you aren't one of the teachers that does a lot of marking, lesson prep etc. in the evenings & at weekends.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
My advice, run like the wind away from teaching. High School in particular. Lots of extra hours on things teachers of younger students never deal with.
If you do teach, never ever calculate your actual hourly wage. Never ever actually count the number of hours you spend planning, grading, meeting, filling out forms, calling parents and meeting again. It will make you ill.
As previously stated, NCLB killed the joy and creativity from class.
I'm currently looking for other work.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I wonder how many of the folks on this thread know what this is, much less done it.
no fair googling it!!
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Did you get the dreaded cut, and file a square hole in a block, then file a cube to fit in it exercise?
B.E.
Going slightly off topic I helped man a booth at the Maker Faire in San Mateo last weekend. The purpose of which was to get kids interested in reading books at an early age. Trying to make more rounded people, than those who learn everything off a computor screen. Which is where the country seems to be headed.
B.E.
The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
The worst part of the experience was some of the other teachers. Once they had tenure (3 years), many stopped caring about the job. I knew of at least one teacher that hated the students, the school, and teaching, but had tenure and could not be fired, so he just kept going waiting for retirement.
Most of the teachers were good though, and so were most of the students. It did not work out for me since I did not like what I was stuck teaching in that school and left to go back to industry.
Would I do it again? In the right situation - maybe.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
So how do you read an E-reader with a flat battery?
Non the less it is a good point.
B.E.
The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
My technological advancement stalled somewhere earlier this millennium.
I was just wondering if by 'off the computer' you meant the freely available media of sometimes questionable accuracy etc. as opposed to the more controlled 'book' format or something like that.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Long ago, one of my childhood friends attacked my first cousin, who was the principal, over the way he handled her kid. She forgot the family relation as she recounted the story to me.
When she was finished, I laughed because I remembered how "bad" she was in school. I refreshed her memory on my family tree. I said if her daughter was anything like her, she was not innocent. And if her daughter was innocent, she got disciplined for something my friend didn't years earlier. Paybacks always find us one way or the other. Silence on the phone! We're still friends, too, so she wasn't too upset with me.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
That was precisely where I, and the person running the booth were going. Giving kids the opportunity to enjoy literature freely, without controls and political correctness.
I think we are getting a little more off track here, next thing , we have Dave jumping all over us.
B.E.
The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
No, luckily. My dad was a naval apprentice and he had to do that. He handed his piece of work to the instructor. The instructor looks at it, cocks an eyeborow, and places it in the gauge. The gauge plate is supposed to be a barely sliding fit on the cube, with cigarette paper clearance or less. It drops straight through and bounces onto the floor.
"Locock, what branch are you?"
"Electrical, sir"
"OK, we'll call that a pass"
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
Priceless,
B.E.
The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
I took a short break from engineering, completed a MS in physics and chemistry education, made it through a student teaching assignment in an all girls middle school teaching chemistry/math/earth science, and immediately found a job as a high school physics/chemistry teacher in a good school district upon graduation. I could only handle a year of teaching.
I did enjoy seeing the light bulb click on for those students who cared enough to make an effort to understand vs those who merely studied for the test, however, that was the exception, not the norm. The final straw for me came the day one of my senior physics students told me she couldn't take the mid term because her boyfriend broke up with her the night before. The principal actually made me give her a 2 week extension. I started re-exploring opportunities in industry soon after that.
I can truly say I respect those teachers who are capable of fostering true learning, while dealing with all the crap that comes along with it. I came away from the experience with a greater appreciation for my engineering career and the knowledge that its okay to admit defeat when coming to the stark realization that the grass isn't always greener.
My suggestion: Talk with a few teachers in your area who moved into it from another career, find out if they'd do it again, if they had the chance to go back. Several of the people I went through the ed program with are back in their own careers.
RE: Have you ever considered becoming a high school teacher?
No touchy feely things I presume there.
I also hear they it's easy and pays really well (100K+). One of my friends in grad school first wanted to go the route of PhD then uni. prof. and one day decided not to and went the college teacher route.
Last I talked to him, he never looked back.
Some places the minimum requirement is a B.Eng.
Fe