New Teacher Wants to Become a Nurse: Advice Please!!

[teacher1986]

hello,

i am new to this forum and would like some positive help. i am going to just put my thoughts out there for you and they may become jumbled. please forgive me!! i know that there are some posts like this one and i have read them, but none of them are really just like me. i may ramble and this will probably get long, but please bear with me!

i am a first year teacher in alabama and after spending four years in school, i've realized that this is just not for me. i really noticed that it was not what i wanted during my student teaching last year, but i was too close to finishing my degree to stop then! i went ahead and tried it out this year, and i've just not enjoyed it. i'm at a great school, with great administration and faculty. i couldn't ask for a better place to work. that being said, it's just not for me. everyone says that teachers work nine months out of the year, with summers off and lots of vacations. in alabama now, we're down to two months off and we go for different training sessions all throughout our summer vacation. i am in my classroom by 6:45 each morning and do not leave until after 3:00... several hours after 3:00 most days. i don't get paid competitively, compared to other professions with a bachelor's degree, and there's really no way for me to move up. i have no interest in being in administration, a librarian, or a counselor (and the pay is not much better for them). many think that based on the time we work, that we are paid fairly. we are not. no one but a teacher realizes how much out-of-pocket money is spent on school because there simply is not any in the budget at school. i have to spend my allocated instructional money on copies each month, so there is none left to spend on fun things for my classroom, or even necessary things. i have spent a small fortune on paper, printer ink, bulletin boards, spare pencils, markers, colored pencils, index cards, and the list goes on and on.

i have had a child try to punch me this year (great school system and the administration handled it perfectly-still, it happened), parents who accused me of "giving" their child a bad grade (grades are earned-not given), and parents who enable their child's disrespectful behavior (by doing their discipline work for them). people are irrational about their children. i knew this going in. i teach 139 5th graders and i will fight for them against the other teachers (and extremely rude lunchroom ladies) when they get in trouble for things they didn't do... i do understand to some point, even though i don't have kids of my own, but these people are ridiculous. i don't mean to be rude, but i am good at my job. i don't like it, but i am the only positive influence that many of these kids have, so i make it a point to be good. it's my first year and i undoubtedly can become much better, but i do a good job. the kids like me, and the administration likes me. i have gotten great reports from all of my observations both from my principal and from our superintendent during walk-throughs.

i know all about the retirement and the insurance too. it's not free, i pay in monthly for all of it.

i was torn between becoming a nurse or a teacher in high school, and now i'm wishing that i'd chosen nursing. there are so many options with nursing that i don't have in teaching. i realize that no job will ever be perfect-everything will have its downfalls. i am too young (22) to be stuck in a career that i hate for 25 years. i am married, but have no children and am not looking to have any for several more years. by then, i hope to be settled in a career! i plan to start taking classes this summer towards my rn and continue them through the next year. already having a degree will make it much faster for me to go through and finish up.

i guess i am asking for a push and some good advice. i have weighed the benefits that i get teaching, but for me, they are just not enough. i "nursed" both of my grandparents though a multitude of things when they were alive. i administered iv antibiotics for my grandmother, gave shots, medications, nebulizer treatments, cleaned and wrapped wounds, removed stitches and staples, and that's just to name a few things. i realize that this was my family who i care about, but enjoyed it. i really feel like i would enjoy it immensely. i could be an advocate for people that hurt, be constantly challenged and learning. with teaching, i go though much new training, but i still teach the same ol' things. it gets old. the medical world is changing constantly. i'm really excited about this. i feel a little bit like i'm throwing away something that i worked four years for, but i'm not. the degree is still mine, it won't go away. please give me some positive advice.

thanks!!!

[isabunny]

I did beebop. I will send you a private back. Thanks for responding. Appreciate talking to someone in teaching-nursing.

[isabunny]

Beebop,

I am new to posting on this site and haven't found out how to send the PM yet. I am a long time lurker, but just started posting. As to your message, I think my particular situation with teaching is not the norm. I ended up working for some people who were not honest. However, all the teachers I have ever known, including music teachers, spend lots of their own money for supplies. It is normal to spend $1000-$3000 a year on supplies. In the K-12 classroom you do make more $ than in preschool (preschools pay poverty salary) so it's not quite as bad to spend money for your students. I taught 4th grade in a public school and I had to constantly bring pencils, paper, markers, ect... It was in a poor school district. I remember at one point teachers had to bring in toilet paper for the staff bathrooms because the school ran over budget on janitorial supplies and couldn't buy TP. Now not all schools in the US are the same. There are lots of schools that are doing OK budget wise. Usually they are in wealthier areas. My own children go to some great schools. However, all the No Child Left Behind Laws, Raise to the Top, and a host of other problems, have made teaching really difficult here in the US. However there still are some teachers that are in really good school districts and doing just fine. It just depends on where you work.

[Beebop25]

you are required to spend 1000-3000 of your salary? what happens if you dont? What if your mortgage and student loan payments and groceries take up your whole salary and you can not afford to spend any at all? I am just curious because i know i could never afford to do that.

[holli_80_73]

Beebop

I wouldn't say you were required to spend it but sometimes the school books you are given to use are 8+ yrs old and you would like to provide updated info or study charts, worksheets..etc. Many schools have decided that with the 100-500 they give teachers each year for classroom materials that they will get some of that back by making teachers pay for their own copies. Our copies were 5 cents each. I had 197 students on average each year so if I make many copies at all it finishes my budget. I just signed every dollar over to the school and made copies or borrowed from other teachers. At the same time you are paying for copies you still have to buy your own expos or chalk, pens, supplement materials or anything you can think of seeing in a classroom down to staples. If you are lucky the teacher before you will hand you down something but lucky me walked into a brand new position with a bare walled room. Our curriculum director expected a colorful and inviting room from each teacher. Posters that promote learning, decorations or whatever else you can think of. I paid 50.00 for a roll of paper to cover the bulletin board that had been there for no telling how long...older than me for sure. No teacher would donate any because they hoard their own supplies because they too paid for them. The school expects you to be creative and inventive and think outside the text..so in order to think outside the text with activities that means you will have to bring something else in plain and simple. So in a way..you will be spending money. Now if you are like me, you had a car note, student loan repayment, apartment rent, credit card bills (ran up trying to make it in grad school--I know it was dumb) gas to get to work that was over an hour and a half one way, food, you know the rest..and I was on my own because I had no help from parents nor my boyfriend at that time because he too was struggling in his own degree when I finished ahead of him. I ended up having to move to closer to the school and live alone because gas was too much and they volunteered me to take over the dance team which practiced daily. I was told if I didn't take the dance team ...do not expect to come back to work next year so you can imagine the gas I spent just to see him on the weekends but it was better than everyday.

So it is no wonder that many teachers get tired of all of this before the famous 5 year mark. Most teachers quit by their 5th year or before. I have met nurses turned teachers so I guess it goes both ways and just depends on what you really want. If you really want it you will get it and be happy you did. I recommend that any teacher quitting just try to find a way to keep up the certificate so you don't have to re-take all those exams to be re-certified and you can always fall back on what you did before to make ends meet if you find it is not for you..if you don't try you will never know and you are never too old to go back to school if you want to.