teacher

elementary school teacher

substitute teacher

special education teacher

english teacher

Fairfax County Public Schools

Subbing at FCPS is convenient for the most part but highly dependent on your experience, your relationships with the kids, the staff, and the administrators. The pay is okay, but for not enough in many cases, particularly when you have special ed classes where the risk of injury may be possible and having some experience and training with populations is helpful. Staff may vary in attitude towards you. Some teachers and IAs are demanding and give you scant directions, yet expect you to keep up. Others are more helpful and are able to explain things to you. The challenge of subbing is that you’re often not privvy to the kids’ background info and, unless the teachers instruct you how to handle them, you find out the hard way. Some schools and classes are more challenging then others, depending on their kids’ special needs. Getting to know the kids definitely helps. Staff who are more informative and willing to not “throw you to the wolves” are wonderful. Otherwise, there are those who enjoy badmouthing subs and judge you on the spot, despite it being your first day or being given insufficient info or chances to get to learn. Teachers and other staff are given the chance to bond with their kids over time. The challenge with subbing is being able to form a strong, working rapport and enough trust with the kids to get them to perform for you. Sometimes they work better for you because you don’t have that built up hostility where they keep butting heads with the same staff. That is tremendously gratifying because then you can view their true potential and can help staff change their approach with certain students, particularly those in special ed. Don’t be too discouraged. This knowledge comes from years of experience. I love the flexibility and it allows one to not become bored in the same routine every day. On the flipside, you don’t develop as strong a bond with fellow staff and students. Developing rapport with teachers and staff will allow you more job ops. 

Pay for subs was reduced, probably accommodate more quality staff and salary raises. I do believe this has hurt the system and the kids as well as sub morale and willingness to work. Sub pay should also be increased accordingly to experience and how often one works. Long-term IA positions should be paid at a higher rate as well.

I’ve been with FCPS for over a decade. It’s basically like working at The Office but the teacher version. The workload and demands are always increasing while they cut PD quality and availability. Administrators have a great deal of autonomy and power, often ignoring county guidelines and messages. When they break laws or county policy, there are no consequences other than getting sued and the county paying out. They keep their jobs. The public doesn’t see this side of the leadership structure and culture. Teachers are not supported, even more so than I’ve experienced in other districts and when there are clear reasons to do so. You are treated as highly disposable and replaceable, regardless of how many awards or endorsements you may have earned. My workload and work expectations are unsustainable and inappropriate, as well as ever increasing. The pay looks good, when coming from outside this expensive region, but I have to tutor after school and work summers to make ends meet in this region. It’s an exhausting grind. There’s a lot of talk, even all the right talk, but it’s rarely backed up with action. Administrators will pass you over for other opportunities when you are good in the classroom, not wanting to “lose” you. However, they end up losing good people to other professions anyway, while promoting mediocracy instead. It’s a dysfunctional school distract that looks great on the outside because we have a lot of money to throw at problems and a community who values and supports education. The leadership can get away with being weak because the community is supporting the students well, all on their own. I’d recommend looking for a position in surrounding districts instead, especially if you plan to settle down here. My local friends, who live and work in neighboring counties, are much happier, though that alway depends on their admin. I’ve worked with five different FCPS principals, not counting vice principals, and in three schools. They’ve never been of the quality I experienced in my last state. 

Fairfax County Public Schools is a good institution to work for because of the flexibility of the schedule, the variety of locations to work, the opportunity for professional development and the option for career advancement.  

A typical day at work for me includes doing in-take interviews with potential new students and their parents, which means making sure all of the administrative paperwork is accurate and sent to the correct people in a timely manner. I then teach four English classes to probationary students, which range from grades 9-12, and special education to honors. When the students leave for the day, I answer emails, fill out court paperwork for the students, have meetings with the juvenile court staff, enroll or dis-enroll any students entering or leaving our program, contact schools for student transcripts, review students' IEP's, document each student's behavior and academic progress for the day, create lesson plans, grade papers, review the day's events and make changes where necessary. 

I work at an interagency school, which means Fairfax County Public Schools pairs up with another agency, in this case, Fairfax County Juvenile Court.  This means I have two sets of management; those on the school side and those on the court side.  Both are wonderful to work with: supportive, hands on, accommodating and efficient.  

The hardest part of the job is dealing with students who have so many disadvantages and cannot always see beyond their difficult circumstances.  There is so much more involved here than just teaching.  Students need to be constantly motivated, refocused, and made to believe that they can acquire the academic and social skills to succeed in society.  They have made mistakes, but these can be corrected and can be learning experiences.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the same as what is most difficult.  I love working with students who require this kind of attention.  The progress I see is amazing and the reward of witnessing students receive good grades for the first time in their lives, exiting probation, and returning to their base school is priceless.  Last year we had a student accepted to Embry Riddle College in Florida where he is studying aerospace engineering.  These success stories make the difficult aspects of the job rewarding,

As the daily activities of a SQL Server Database Administrator depends on many other things such as nature of Tickets issued by the Supervisor or the problems/issues that straight way come to me from the end users i.e. users of the application servers. 
Some times I have to perform almost similar type of works such as monitor the  server activity and tune up its  performance if it slowed down anyway. Ensure that all automated jobs such as backup, recovery and maintenance plans are running well; if not take immediate action to resolve the same upon detection and analyzing the RC behind it. As a regular routine work I also ensure that all automated jobs have good error handling process like automated alert settings and others  and those are up running perfectly well. 
We also have native and third party monitoring tools in place to monitor and ensure the up-time and availability of the system. 
On regular basis I also verify that the system has the appropriate security in order to protect the data within it. I also monitor the available disk space and growth rate of the databases on regular basis and maintain a record of it. I also monitor the SQL Server Logs,  Windows Logs and tempDB files regular basis. I also monitor the HA and DR logs  such as Mirroring, Log Shipping, Replication and AlwaysOn Availability Groups  regularly.    
I also check the escalated issues  and resolve the same on priority basis and SLA.   
If I find any strange issue (such as network or IO related) regarding SQL Server Logs and Windows Logs I immediately notify the storage and network teams and check the centralized error logs if any.   

I have designed some native scripts using T-SQL to automate the monitoring process side by side the 3rd party tool like SolarWind and LiteSpeed. 

I also ensure that all backup jobs have been made successfully and saved to a secure location. Check the failure alert and correct the error and rerun the backup. Review the duration of all the backups and maintain a record about the same and if there is any abnormal issue detected resolve the same on urgent basis. Validate the backup file using restore verify only. We have also set up an alter job to notify the failure of the backup files validation.

Your experience will vary greatly depending on is you work for the county, at a specific school, or teach in a specific subject area.

When working with teachers from other schools, I always got the impression that my principal was more flexible and understanding. I've enjoyed working for my administration team. They're mostly helpful and good listeners and usually have teachers' backs.

The hardest part about the job is the work/life balance. If you want to be a good teacher, it's like you have to give up your life 10 months of the year. There is a lot of paperwork and meetings I didn't have in other school districts. Get involved, but keep yourself first.

Communication from the county to the school administration to the teachers is terrible! There are often opportunities to voice your opinion or send a representative, but sometimes it feels like it's just for show because we often don't get a compromise or a response about why a compromise is not possible. Expectations are not communicated clearly. Many teachers have the impression that no one at the county level makes decisions, so we walk around not knowing what is expected of us. We just try to teach as best we can and hope it suffices. The handling of the new state-required evaluation process has been a failure, but I think this year is kind of being treated as a "let's see how it goes." The nature of the evaluation forced me to have a lower evaluation than last year, just because that's how it is. That's not their fault though-- that came from the state.

The best part is having lots of professional development opportunities if you search or ask for them. They've also begun assisting with tuition for continuing education-- something is better than nothing. I don't expect a raise any time soon.

A typical day at work involves working on ADA accommodations, religious accommodations, and EEO complaint cases.  Talking to employees, doctors, lawyers, principals, other management.  With complaints:  Conducting interviews with complainant, witnesses, and other individuals.  Reviewing evidence provided and looking for supporting evidence.  Reviewing comparative data, personnel files, emails, evaluations.  Analyze evidence and deliver findings, follow up with complainant, accused, and management verbally and in writing.  Recommend corrective action when violation is found.  With ADA cases- review the medical information, engage in interactive process with employee and physician, make ADA determination, work with manager on granting accommodation in the workplace. Follow up verbally and in writing. Interact with employees who are seeking religious accommodations and work with managers on granting reasonable accommodations.  Develop training for diversity/harassment.  Review and rewrite regulations.  Conduct mediations between employees who are having a workplace conflict. 

I've learned how to conduct internal and external investigations, write findings reports, response letters, and position statements to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  I stay up to day on recent EEO trends and court rulings.  I've learned how to successfully engage in the interactive process regarding ADA and religious accommodations.  

Most of the management here at FCPS is excellent.  Very smart and able to think outside the box.  They are dedicated to doing what is best for the students and staff.  

My co-workers are great!  We all work together as a team to get things done and help others.

The hardest part of the job is hearing from students that a staff member has harmed them. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is helping people.

Working as an SLP in Fairfax County Public Schools is both rewarding and fast-paced. A typical day usually includes a mix of direct therapy sessions, classroom collaboration, evaluations, IEP meetings, paperwork, and communicating with teachers and families. No two days are exactly the same, which keeps the job interesting but also requires flexibility and strong time management.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is how important collaboration is. Working closely with teachers, psychologists, occupational therapists, parents, and special education staff helps students make the most progress. I’ve also learned how to balance being organized and adaptable because schedules and student needs can change quickly.

Management and administrative support can vary from school to school, but overall FCPS tends to provide strong professional resources, ongoing training opportunities, and access to experienced colleagues. There is a large SLP community within the district, which can be very supportive, especially for newer clinicians.

The workplace culture is generally collaborative and student-centered. Most staff members genuinely care about helping students succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. SLPs are often viewed as valuable members of the educational team, though the workload can sometimes feel overwhelming due to high caseloads and documentation requirements.

The hardest part of the job is balancing everything at once  while still trying to give every student the attention they deserve. Managing large caseloads and finding enough time in the day can definitely be challenging.

The most enjoyable part is seeing student growth and building relationships with students over time. Watching a student gain confidence communicating, meet a goal they’ve struggled with, or successfully participate more fully in class can make the job incredibly meaningful. The connections with students, families, and coworkers are often what make the work so fulfilling.

A typical work day for me begins with greeting the students as they arrive for the day and assessing they're moods as they enter the building. This give me the opportunity to have an idea of what the work day may be like. It also allows me to address the needs of our students right away when necessary. My staff and I do our best to provide a safe and secure environment for the school community through out the day.
I have learned that my responsibility is more than just the physical security of the building and the people in it. It is also about creating relationships with our students and supporting the complete mission of the school which is our students success.
The management / administrators have been very supportive and really seem to understand what challenges that the security team faces day to day.
At present I am fortunate to have a great staff working for me.  As far as the other staff people I get along well with most but maintain a professional relationship with everyone.
The hardest part of the job is that our student have many personal challenges and this can sometimes make it difficult for them to focus on why they come to school. It's not just my job to implement the rules of FCPS but to also try and redirect students back into the classroom when I can.
The most enjoyable part of my job is watching students who were once freshmen make it to the day when I get to see them walk across the stage and graduate as seniors and that I had an opportunity to play a small part in that happing.

Working in the field of education is something that I have always been passionate about. I strongly believe in providing a free and appropriate public education regardless of ability or disability, socioeconomic status, cultural background, or gender identity. It is no surprise that I ended up working at Cedar Lane. We are a small, tight community of staff and students.The staff work tirelessly to help meet the needs of students with disabilities, specifically students with emotional disabilities, autism, behavioral/conduct disorders, or ADD/ADHD. Given that these students are high-school aged students ranging in age from 14-22 years old, our staff must be prepared to deal with both the academic and emotional needs of our students which are all unique. The work we do and the efforts we make can at times result in frustration or disappointment. However, there are also times when our efforts produce positive, long-lasting results. Regardless of the outcome, all of us at Cedar Lane believe that change is possible, and as a  result I have had the privilege of working with some phenomenal colleagues to help change the lives of some pretty terrific children. To me, there is no better job than that, despite the rather significant challenges we face on a daily basis. 

I am thankful to be employed by one of the most respected school systems in the county. I love the work I do at Cedar Lane. Working with children in a small environment, while operating within a large school system that has resources has been both professionally and personally rewarding.

Working with Fairfax County Public schools is rewarding. We work as teachers; our goal is to cater to the students' needs. We work as a team and we get a lot done during our Common planning. 
A typical day at work would include greeting the students as they walk into the classroom. Students would write the agenda for the day and complete the warm up. (the warm up is usually on their desk or they pick the handout from me.) After the bell rings,  I enter the classroom, explain what our objective is for the day and quickly review the agenda of the day. 
We do many activities to reinforce the lesson taught for the day. For example, if I am teaching a grammar concept, students read aloud one or two paragraphs (together as one), a power point is presented, a video is reinforced, and a hands on activity is handed out to reinforce lesson taught. Assessments are administered on a daily basis, however, in a different way. Jeopardy, guess the word or phrase game (such as wheel-of-fortune), toss the ball around the classroom and my favorite game of all KAHOOT. Each day is different and students enjoy the variety. 
The hardest part of the job includes completing the county requirements. We can't spend too much time conversing with our colleagues because we have to complete deadlines that are required to maintain our certification points.
The most enjoyable part of this job is calling a parent with a positive report of their child. Second, is when a student (with or without an IEP) understands a concept and expresses it extrovertly to me and others in the classroom.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 15 salaries reported	$78,417 per year
Elementary school teacher 8 salaries reported	$67,469 per year
Substitute teacher 10 salaries reported	$21.32 per hour
Special education teacher 14 salaries reported	$76,929 per year
English teacher 9 salaries reported	$62,222 per year

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