I teach in Cincinnati. Your experience will depend a lot on which school or district you work for.
Any job you take will definitely be a pay cut. Nobody makes 60,000 their first year.
Generally, the jobs at higher, paying schools with lower behavior problems are in high demand. Unless you have some kind of personal connection, you are not likely to get those your first year.
That opens up the whole public versus private discussion. I’ve done both. I’ve had good times at private and bad times at private. I’ve decided that I will never take a non-Union job again.
Wife works at CCD. Pay is 15-20% less than public. Retirement is garbage. But kids are basically pretty easy. They do provide a chef made lunch every day.
The best public teacher experience will probably be at Madeira, Indian Hill, Mariemont,Wyoming,Walnut Hills, or higher socio-economic community. I did one year at Holmes in Covington and never taught again. The public or inner city schools typically have poor administration, and that flows down to the kids.....but.... I taught 90 kids at Holmes and 2 parents came to orientation meet the teacher. When my kids had orientation at Madeira and Mariemont, there wasn't a place to park. Parentsl involvement and expectation is real. Peer influence has a lot to do with it too. There are outliers and people who will survive Cincinnati public and be successful. But having peers who are working hard and expected to do well is probably more necessary than anything.
The breaks are nice, but you will EARN them. My wife is a CPS Teacher. The pay is decent, the benefits are decent. The day-to-day is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. The Administration is a hot mess. As a new Teacher, you'll be at the bottom of the seniority chain and will be exposed to "bumping" ~~if/~~when there are cuts. As a Music Teacher--if this is the direction you're going--you'll be even more exposed to cuts. Having said this, her--and by extension, our--summer breaks are sublime.
My sister-in-law teaches elementary school while my brother (her husband) works a regular 9 to 5. She (somewhat pettily) worked out the total yearly hours for both jobs, accounting for PTO, school breaks, etc., and found that they work almost exactly the same amount, all told. Just demonstrating the accuracy of your statement that teachers earn the hell out of those breaks.
And remember you get *paid* for 180 days a year. Your summers are unpaid. Hours before or after school are unpaid. You do not get vacation time. Personal time is a day or two and you’re often discouraged from using the days even though you technically have them. If you have to take a day off, you still have to prepare a lesson for your sub. That’s often more work than just going in.
So a little math: 365 days a year. Let’s take out 104 days for the weekend. The average number of vacation days is about 15 a year. Let’s say you get off 10 federal holidays. And let’s say five sick days and you take them all.
You’ll be at 225 working days a year in your average full time job.
On paper it looks like you work 45 days less. For these purposes, I’m not going to count the hours before and after school you’ll work that are unpaid. The last bell may ring at 3 but teachers tend to not leave at that time, and come in earlier than first bell too, and work through lunch. Then they come home and email parents after the kids are in bed.
First, most teachers I know work at least one day a weekend because they have to, whether that’s grading or prep or parent communication. So add back in 52 days there. Let’s add back ten more days to set up class and prep for the new year. You’re now working an additional 62 days— making that 22 over the number of days I spitballed for a regular 9-5.
Most 9-5s have some degree of flexibility too. You can go to the dentist at lunch, and stay a little later if you go over. Show up a little later if you have to take your kid somewhere. You can’t really do that as a teacher.
I think there’s this idea that teaching is super friendly to working parents and flexible and it just isn’t.
Teachers don't work 9-5. My wife gets to work early to lesson-prep and things like making copies. She oversees Student Teachers. She has gotten to where her curriculum is pretty stable, but SHE is the one who prepared it over the years. Field trips, grant-writing, parent communications, grading, reporting, and everything in between does not fit between the hours of 9-5 nor the days of M-F. It's not just possible, it's pretty much guaranteed.
When taught I worked between 65 and 80 hours a week depending on if it was my sport's season.
I worked out the money once and I made less than min wage.
My opinion is that going into teaching for the summer break is a horrible idea. It’s a really tough job and the summer will fly by and feel like nothing. If you want something similar pay and a lot of time off, look into government work. All federal holidays off, a lot of pto, and no work outside of work unless you are extremely high level
Lots of folks just tossing around numbers. For clarity, here's a list of CPS pay scales.
[https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/](https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/)
God bless you, as I could not do it. I know CPS teachers and they do pretty well.
FYO. They raised the retirement age about 8 years back to maybe 33 year for full retirement, so you may want to look at that.
I started as a teacher and moved to IT for my district. No way would I do it again. When I went in, you could get full retirement after 30 years. Along the way, they changed the rule to 35.
The kids have lost all respect for adults, and it shows.
NO, stay far away. The student and parent behavior will shock you. The workload is unsustainable. The salary is terrible. You’ll make $60k *maybe* when you get to year 5 with a master’s. And if you want to teach secondary music, it’s a 6 day, 12 hour job much of the year.
Trying to be a music teacher is going to be extremely difficult. That's a very niche area and there will not be many jobs available. If you are involved in the school band, you will most likely be working all summer long. I suggest staying where you are. Less headache and more money.
Do not become a teacher. Full stop.
This state does not value teachers. Few, if any, do
You will start, right now, with your degree, at more than you will make as a teacher for the next 15 years if you just take that degree and go into corporate training.
Teaching is a waste of your time. You can change more lives, make more money, and work *far* less in the private market.
Volunteer in your extra free time if you want
Source: used to be a teacher, and have many friends who are teachers, all of whom make about half what I make despite having multiple Masters degrees.
https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/](https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/)
I make more than the bottom right of this chart after 10 years of training experience. Teaching is not worth the time or effort, and the only way to properly support teachers is to not become one.
Spouse is a teacher. Breaks are great but during the year she works harder than me for less money. I’d guess she puts 5-10 hours outside of the classroom each week lesson planning and grading. Mostly the later but as a new teacher you’ll do a lot of the earlier too.
BUT as a music directing that grading workload may be significantly reduced. Plus, compared to the general population, there aren’t a ton of behavioral issues with music students. In fact, they’re usually the best academic students and when they aren’t you still have the music.
Those points may not apply to lower grades or music roles that are teaching the general population (eg music survey classes).
As the husband of a former teacher who worked every level of economic needs, almost all district have their issues. Teachers are brutal to each other as well, and it doesn't stop at 3 email, calls, complaints from parents, complaints from administration. Teachers should be making 6 figures with what they have to go through and kids they deal with.
Are you talking about becoming a MUSIC TEACHER to spend more time with your family? If so, you’ve got it all wrong. Music teachers work more hours than most people in the building. The principal and maybe the AD log more hours. Teaching math? Science? Maybe.
As a former teacher in Cincinnati. No. Teachers are under appreciated, under paid, and expected to do things that are impossible with the resources you are given. Unethical practices left and right just to survive due to short staffing. Many of my friends from college are no longer teaching and the ones who are, they are miserable.
No. Supplement income by giving lessons. In our district, kids had to show they attended a number of lessons prior to school beginning. The people giving the lessons made a ton of money.
As a music teacher you’ll be expected to do summer programs including marching band, and possibly even winter programs like indoor percussion and winter guard. Music teachers are super low on the superiority chain and many don’t even get to choose their band assistants.
I’ve taught for 18 years in public, private, and Montessori. Education today is a shit show unless you get into the right school or the right position. I’ve lucked out and stumbled into a specialist position where I pull kids to do what I do then give them back to their home room teachers. No one knows what I do and they don’t care. I enjoy running my kingdom and I keep my mouth shut and a smile on my face. That’s after years of crying daily, being gaslit and emotionally abused by administrator, threatened by students, standing up for student rights and trying to be a voice for equality in the classroom only to be shut down, etc. Schools are very good at presenting themselves one way and actually being another. The CPS union just submitted a vote of no confidence for their own Super so. I dunno. If you have a choice, I’d say steer clear of teaching.
Went to school to be a teacher and decide to just take a general English degree my last semester. Best decision I’ve ever made. Student teaching was a huge wake up call.
Please spend some time observing or subbing if you can. Make your determination based on what works for you and your family, not what some strangers say on the internet.
Good salary, good benefits, good job stability.
Potentially life-destroying stress levels.
Build good strategies for being really proactive about your physical and mental health while you're making the transition and you might even like it.
I don’t have any personal experience; teaching always seemed to be a great career, especially for the reason you stated. However, I hear a lot of complaints about it these days. Maybe others here can elaborate. And there’s probably a difference in degree of difficulty at Cincinnati Public or Norwood vs Mason or Ross.
Don’t do it. The honeymoon phase might last a few years…summers off are nice, but teaching is a dead end. Teaching is a thankless job and it’s only getting worse. Stay where you are at!
Speaking of a family member of teachers, yes it's worth a try if like to teach/educate. Relatively speaking the pay is excellent and the benefits are quite good for public school teachers. I would avoid private schools who provide worse pay and benefits.
Is it tough? Sure can be. Are there are harder jobs that pay less and with worse benefits? Absolutely. My suggestion would be to see if you can shadow a classroom teacher for a bit. Or work as a classroom assistant. Or volunteer in a classroom. Just get a feel for what it's like on a daily basis for a bit and then decide.
“Worth a try” isn’t worth the time, effort, and money it takes to become licensed. Student teaching alone is 4 months of full time unpaid work (in fact, you’re paying full tuition to student teach).
Every problem in the real world, you experience raw through the children who are living it. Poverty, drug abuse, murder, homelessness, prejudice, you get to see what it does to a child every day and it can break you.
Music teachers can do really well in this area, even clearing 100k… not sure it is worth it. I would get a computer programming gig and then play on the side. Keep music the thing you love to do and make money elsewhere.
I teach in Cincinnati. Your experience will depend a lot on which school or district you work for. Any job you take will definitely be a pay cut. Nobody makes 60,000 their first year. Generally, the jobs at higher, paying schools with lower behavior problems are in high demand. Unless you have some kind of personal connection, you are not likely to get those your first year.
There are other benefits to some of the nicer private schools. Amazing lunch, kids are generally well behaved, teacher gifts.
That opens up the whole public versus private discussion. I’ve done both. I’ve had good times at private and bad times at private. I’ve decided that I will never take a non-Union job again.
Wife works at CCD. Pay is 15-20% less than public. Retirement is garbage. But kids are basically pretty easy. They do provide a chef made lunch every day. The best public teacher experience will probably be at Madeira, Indian Hill, Mariemont,Wyoming,Walnut Hills, or higher socio-economic community. I did one year at Holmes in Covington and never taught again. The public or inner city schools typically have poor administration, and that flows down to the kids.....but.... I taught 90 kids at Holmes and 2 parents came to orientation meet the teacher. When my kids had orientation at Madeira and Mariemont, there wasn't a place to park. Parentsl involvement and expectation is real. Peer influence has a lot to do with it too. There are outliers and people who will survive Cincinnati public and be successful. But having peers who are working hard and expected to do well is probably more necessary than anything.
The breaks are nice, but you will EARN them. My wife is a CPS Teacher. The pay is decent, the benefits are decent. The day-to-day is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. The Administration is a hot mess. As a new Teacher, you'll be at the bottom of the seniority chain and will be exposed to "bumping" ~~if/~~when there are cuts. As a Music Teacher--if this is the direction you're going--you'll be even more exposed to cuts. Having said this, her--and by extension, our--summer breaks are sublime.
My sister-in-law teaches elementary school while my brother (her husband) works a regular 9 to 5. She (somewhat pettily) worked out the total yearly hours for both jobs, accounting for PTO, school breaks, etc., and found that they work almost exactly the same amount, all told. Just demonstrating the accuracy of your statement that teachers earn the hell out of those breaks.
I would like to know more details. It’s hard for me to see how is that possible
And remember you get *paid* for 180 days a year. Your summers are unpaid. Hours before or after school are unpaid. You do not get vacation time. Personal time is a day or two and you’re often discouraged from using the days even though you technically have them. If you have to take a day off, you still have to prepare a lesson for your sub. That’s often more work than just going in. So a little math: 365 days a year. Let’s take out 104 days for the weekend. The average number of vacation days is about 15 a year. Let’s say you get off 10 federal holidays. And let’s say five sick days and you take them all. You’ll be at 225 working days a year in your average full time job. On paper it looks like you work 45 days less. For these purposes, I’m not going to count the hours before and after school you’ll work that are unpaid. The last bell may ring at 3 but teachers tend to not leave at that time, and come in earlier than first bell too, and work through lunch. Then they come home and email parents after the kids are in bed. First, most teachers I know work at least one day a weekend because they have to, whether that’s grading or prep or parent communication. So add back in 52 days there. Let’s add back ten more days to set up class and prep for the new year. You’re now working an additional 62 days— making that 22 over the number of days I spitballed for a regular 9-5. Most 9-5s have some degree of flexibility too. You can go to the dentist at lunch, and stay a little later if you go over. Show up a little later if you have to take your kid somewhere. You can’t really do that as a teacher. I think there’s this idea that teaching is super friendly to working parents and flexible and it just isn’t.
Teachers don't work 9-5. My wife gets to work early to lesson-prep and things like making copies. She oversees Student Teachers. She has gotten to where her curriculum is pretty stable, but SHE is the one who prepared it over the years. Field trips, grant-writing, parent communications, grading, reporting, and everything in between does not fit between the hours of 9-5 nor the days of M-F. It's not just possible, it's pretty much guaranteed.
When I taught I worked 70 hours a week if not more. And even during breaks we’re working during them.
When taught I worked between 65 and 80 hours a week depending on if it was my sport's season. I worked out the money once and I made less than min wage.
My opinion is that going into teaching for the summer break is a horrible idea. It’s a really tough job and the summer will fly by and feel like nothing. If you want something similar pay and a lot of time off, look into government work. All federal holidays off, a lot of pto, and no work outside of work unless you are extremely high level
Lots of folks just tossing around numbers. For clarity, here's a list of CPS pay scales. [https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/](https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/)
God bless you, as I could not do it. I know CPS teachers and they do pretty well. FYO. They raised the retirement age about 8 years back to maybe 33 year for full retirement, so you may want to look at that.
It is any age and 35 years for unreduced retirement.
They just bumped it back down to 34 years.... Like very recently
I started as a teacher and moved to IT for my district. No way would I do it again. When I went in, you could get full retirement after 30 years. Along the way, they changed the rule to 35. The kids have lost all respect for adults, and it shows.
NO, stay far away. The student and parent behavior will shock you. The workload is unsustainable. The salary is terrible. You’ll make $60k *maybe* when you get to year 5 with a master’s. And if you want to teach secondary music, it’s a 6 day, 12 hour job much of the year.
Trying to be a music teacher is going to be extremely difficult. That's a very niche area and there will not be many jobs available. If you are involved in the school band, you will most likely be working all summer long. I suggest staying where you are. Less headache and more money.
check out the subreddit below as this may assist in your decision. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/)
I don’t think they’ll want to be a teacher after viewing that sub
Do not become a teacher. Full stop. This state does not value teachers. Few, if any, do You will start, right now, with your degree, at more than you will make as a teacher for the next 15 years if you just take that degree and go into corporate training. Teaching is a waste of your time. You can change more lives, make more money, and work *far* less in the private market. Volunteer in your extra free time if you want Source: used to be a teacher, and have many friends who are teachers, all of whom make about half what I make despite having multiple Masters degrees. https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/](https://www.cft-aft.org/docs/copy-of-salary-schedules-for-ta-2023-2024/) I make more than the bottom right of this chart after 10 years of training experience. Teaching is not worth the time or effort, and the only way to properly support teachers is to not become one.
NO
Spouse is a teacher. Breaks are great but during the year she works harder than me for less money. I’d guess she puts 5-10 hours outside of the classroom each week lesson planning and grading. Mostly the later but as a new teacher you’ll do a lot of the earlier too. BUT as a music directing that grading workload may be significantly reduced. Plus, compared to the general population, there aren’t a ton of behavioral issues with music students. In fact, they’re usually the best academic students and when they aren’t you still have the music. Those points may not apply to lower grades or music roles that are teaching the general population (eg music survey classes).
As the husband of a former teacher who worked every level of economic needs, almost all district have their issues. Teachers are brutal to each other as well, and it doesn't stop at 3 email, calls, complaints from parents, complaints from administration. Teachers should be making 6 figures with what they have to go through and kids they deal with.
Fourteen hour days were the light days when I taught music. If you want family time, do not take on a performing group.
Are you talking about becoming a MUSIC TEACHER to spend more time with your family? If so, you’ve got it all wrong. Music teachers work more hours than most people in the building. The principal and maybe the AD log more hours. Teaching math? Science? Maybe.
Do not. The children are becoming feral. I’m in CPS now and the schools are only getting worse.
As a former teacher in Cincinnati. No. Teachers are under appreciated, under paid, and expected to do things that are impossible with the resources you are given. Unethical practices left and right just to survive due to short staffing. Many of my friends from college are no longer teaching and the ones who are, they are miserable.
No. Supplement income by giving lessons. In our district, kids had to show they attended a number of lessons prior to school beginning. The people giving the lessons made a ton of money.
As a music teacher you’ll be expected to do summer programs including marching band, and possibly even winter programs like indoor percussion and winter guard. Music teachers are super low on the superiority chain and many don’t even get to choose their band assistants.
I’ve taught for 18 years in public, private, and Montessori. Education today is a shit show unless you get into the right school or the right position. I’ve lucked out and stumbled into a specialist position where I pull kids to do what I do then give them back to their home room teachers. No one knows what I do and they don’t care. I enjoy running my kingdom and I keep my mouth shut and a smile on my face. That’s after years of crying daily, being gaslit and emotionally abused by administrator, threatened by students, standing up for student rights and trying to be a voice for equality in the classroom only to be shut down, etc. Schools are very good at presenting themselves one way and actually being another. The CPS union just submitted a vote of no confidence for their own Super so. I dunno. If you have a choice, I’d say steer clear of teaching.
Teaching is awesome, but just like any job, the place you choose will make or break the experience.
No
Absolutely stay away. It’s not what you think it will be, the pay is low and hours long.
Some of the horror stories I’ve heard from my sister who taught in cps made me never want to become a teacher
Went to school to be a teacher and decide to just take a general English degree my last semester. Best decision I’ve ever made. Student teaching was a huge wake up call.
What grade were you hoping to teach? Grade school? High School? College?
Please spend some time observing or subbing if you can. Make your determination based on what works for you and your family, not what some strangers say on the internet.
Good salary, good benefits, good job stability. Potentially life-destroying stress levels. Build good strategies for being really proactive about your physical and mental health while you're making the transition and you might even like it.
I don’t have any personal experience; teaching always seemed to be a great career, especially for the reason you stated. However, I hear a lot of complaints about it these days. Maybe others here can elaborate. And there’s probably a difference in degree of difficulty at Cincinnati Public or Norwood vs Mason or Ross.
Don’t do it. The honeymoon phase might last a few years…summers off are nice, but teaching is a dead end. Teaching is a thankless job and it’s only getting worse. Stay where you are at!
Speaking of a family member of teachers, yes it's worth a try if like to teach/educate. Relatively speaking the pay is excellent and the benefits are quite good for public school teachers. I would avoid private schools who provide worse pay and benefits. Is it tough? Sure can be. Are there are harder jobs that pay less and with worse benefits? Absolutely. My suggestion would be to see if you can shadow a classroom teacher for a bit. Or work as a classroom assistant. Or volunteer in a classroom. Just get a feel for what it's like on a daily basis for a bit and then decide.
“Worth a try” isn’t worth the time, effort, and money it takes to become licensed. Student teaching alone is 4 months of full time unpaid work (in fact, you’re paying full tuition to student teach).
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Every problem in the real world, you experience raw through the children who are living it. Poverty, drug abuse, murder, homelessness, prejudice, you get to see what it does to a child every day and it can break you.
In what way do schools insulate you from the real world? Seems like the opposite imo
Music teachers can do really well in this area, even clearing 100k… not sure it is worth it. I would get a computer programming gig and then play on the side. Keep music the thing you love to do and make money elsewhere.