teacher

elementary school teacher

police officer

substitute teacher

tutor

Granite School District

As an administrator, my routines involved roaming the halls as much as possible. Being "visible" gave me an opportunity to praise staff and students all day whenever I witnessed wonderful occurrences. Other typical events were helping solve problems, managing budgets, general supervision, and making sure all areas of the campus were supervised, especially before and after school, class changes and lunchtime. All of these times are when students are exceedingly vulnerable to aggression, bullying, and overall well being in terms of safety issues.  I viewed this as my primary responsibility to organize supervision with all hourly staff, custodians, trackers and anyone in the building we could count on during these high-risk time intervals.  

As a manager, don't make school-wide impacting decisions without getting buy-in from the faculty.  One time I was so excited to get two additional FTE (2 full-time teacher equivalent positions) to augment our reading program.  But when I announced the great news at faculty meeting, I didn't anticipate them not sharing in my enthusiasm, but even responding in ways such as, "We don't need another program, we already have enough on our plates." I failed in projecting my own feelings onto those of others - a mistake I've made much too often.

Sometimes when it seems so clear you're making a decision based on what is best, you get "knocked off your horse" in ways you couldn't have imagined. Quickly, one school as the principal, I adopted a hall sweep policy every class change. I soon discovered that girls didn't have nearly enough toilets without having to wait. Hence many girls were late to class. The school was designed for a certain amount of female and male student and staff restrooms.  For over 30 years, a student girl's restroom with 13 stalls was transformed into a faculty women's restroom.  This restroom just happened to be next to the English hall that only had female teachers dating back to when I taught there 20 years prior. With the support of my School Services Director and a district person in charge of those issues, I (we) changed the 13-stall restroom back to a student one. I don't want to begin to tell you the political ramifications that went along with that situation. I've repressed it anyway and don't remember a thing!

The most enjoyable part of the job was knowing I was an advocate for students, staff and parents.  I realize that as well-intentioned as I tried to be, know enough to realize some of my decisions I was most proud of could have easily have had negative impacts on someone or a particular group.  We have to learn that the decisions we make, when possible, should get as much input as possible, not to be confused as which is so often the case where someone or some organization pretends their seeking input when their decision has already been made.

The hardest part of the job is when you realize you are a supervisor.  This was really difficult for me because oftentimes I created an illusion for myself that I wasn't someone's supervisor. I did so because of my desire to be a partner instead.  I never minded being the supervisor of students due to my feelings of being highly competent in this area, only after some much needed experience, to say the least.  The fact of the matter is I never stepped into the supervisor role much.  My strategy was to insulate the staff from some tough issues they were constantly undergoing with students and parents.

A day in the life of a school counselor is to expect that everything that you planned to do when you started that day probably wont get done. You work in a face paced environment that requires you to be able to effectively multitask on sometimes more that 5 different things at the same time while still being able to seamlessly start back up on the work you amateurs down an hour ago because you were interrupted. If I had to pick just one thing I learned from work I ng here is to read your contract thoroughly and ensure that you ask clarifying questions so you are fully informed of each and every policy, procedure, directive, or decision that you are required to follow. Within the contract every contracted employee on their payroll has to sign is a bullet point that states "if an employee brings ridicule on the district they the employee may be disciplined up to and including termination." If you read that from a new graduates perspective, of course they aren't going to do that, but when you dig a little deeper that one bullet point is saying that if you get a single complaint about you the district has every legal right to follow the disciplinary steps, which you'll have no idea what these are until you go through then, and can even terminate you for that singular complaint. Many of their policies are so vague that if leadership at the district does not like you they can interpret the policy to appear as if you are breaking that policy so that they can remove anyone from their employment that they do not get a long with. 

Every job has pros and cons. Pros- I appreciate the annual bonus for working in a title 1 school, having a wellness center (although getting an appointment is crazy), some opportunity for outside training if your admin allows it, and the COVID bonuses. There are some really dedicated employees who care a lot about children. I appreciate they seek feedback for the BTS training.

Cons- These outweighs the pros for me. GSD does a horrendous job of keeping horrible administrators on. They allow extremely bad behavior to continue. I probably had PTSD from one erratic admin who seemed to enjoy to manipulate and hurt many employs at several locations. GSD eventually moves them and counts that as good. Same with low achieving teachers. Unfortunately, it impacts children the most. People who shouldn’t work with children stay in their job, maybe observed a little more, but usually little happens.

GSD has old thinking with many of the same leaders. Almost no support in science, social studies and the arts. The district has the worst communication, not from the comm dept but from district to the schools and teachers. They throw out a program with minimal training and little to no accountability. The waste with taxpayer dollars for unused programs is horrible as a result. I’m floored at who they hire in leadership at times. It would be nice if they offered endorsement programs for educators, but we have to go to neighboring district for most of that professional development.

I wish they would split the district so it would be more manageable. Kids and staff deserve that.

Substitute teachers receive no training, no support and no consideration. More than that, human resources cannot be trusted, saying one thing and doing another, and even prevaricating directly when the true story is already known.

There are many substitutes working for Granite that are doing well, but there are many who cannot even find the classrooms without help even during the day when they've been there. The quality of the substitute teachers is quite low overall.

Substitute teachers in many schools are not given keys to the classrooms, providing an incredible danger should there be a need to lock the school down. Classrooms with substitutes in those schools would be at risk. When notified of this oversight human resources said they felt the reporter was trying to get others in trouble.

At least one school leaves the children outside during thunderstorms, once again putting students at great risk. Once again human resources responded by stating it's not good to try to get others in trouble.

When asked for training for substitutes on classroom discipline and classroom protocol, human resources responded that the substitute should already know those things.

Recommending anyone work for Granite as a substitute teacher is not possible.

Granite School District fails to support you where it's really needed. I had a student in my classroom causing damage and harm on a daily basis. I met with the district multiple times about him and they kept telling me to implement new things in my classroom to help this student. These were ineffective suggestions that effected the learning of the 25 other students in our class. It wasn't until 2 YEARS LATER that this student was finally put into a special unit class. 

The district promised us a teacher during fall surplus time, and after waiting almost two months, they said they didn't have anyone for us. Instead of sending one of their many district employees to the school to fulfill their promise until they could find a suitable teacher, we were left making up the difference. Our students' and teachers' learning and mental health suffered tremendously for months because the district didn't fulfill their promise. 

The district continues to change programs and protocols each year in a way that is stressful and unmanageable for its teachers.  They expect so much out of the teacher's own time in order to take on these changes. They have district employees creating posters and handouts and websites that don't actually help teachers where it's needed. Granite School District will broadcast their great benefits all day, but they don't actually show up for their teachers when it counts.

I work here for 13 years. I was taken advantage of, watched people get pushed out when they were close to retirement, watched creeps get transferred to another building, with kids, that should have been let go. I also was a great worker and employee that worked hard and I was made to endure a principal that didn’t like me and created A hostile work environment to the point I gave up a head custodians position because she was intentionally making it so I could not succeed at my job so she could write me up or move me because she didn’t not like that I stood up for myself. I told my managers, they told me deal with it or leave but admitted that she was creating a hostile environment. I would never work here again. They also keep calling me for a month after quitting. I had to tell them to stop calling and texting me since I didn’t work there anymore. And block their numbers because the principal would just call from another phone. I left them set up

Getting hired on was a slow process. It took them two weeks to get everything processed. I can’t tell if it was just the school that I was working for or the district itself. I set up direct deposit and it still comes in pretty late. 

Don’t expect to get paid every two weeks on the dot. It takes about 3 days for it to get processed again I’m not sure if it was due to the school i was working at and their timeliness in getting paperwork in or the school district itself. I personally find this unacceptable. 

The job itself is difficult. I was a self-contained paraprofessional meaning I dealt with students who had behavioral issues. You had to come to work prepared for absolutely anything. Some days it was a breeze and some days we’re challenging. This job takes a lot of patience, willingness to intervene and interact in these children’s lives..

In the end, I don’t think I’ll be returning to work at Granite School District. Perhaps if they would pay people on time and be a little quicker about paperwork.

I have worked for GSD for 2 years and now going on my 3rd. This is one of the best districts to work for in Utah. There are so many children, and they all need a place to go to school. Granite School District has the most opportunities for students of minority and disadvantaged socio-economic background. My administrators and district liaisons have been amazing to work with, and they've supported me through out the entire process as a provisional teacher. The special education department works very hard to support colleagues and the families served. Although some educators may not like their current placement due to any (unsatisfactory) circumstance, I have to shout out to the Granite Special Education Team, my school administration and coaches that support me everyday. They have taught me so many new skills that I would not have achieved on my own. Remember, life is a journey, and you will learn something valuable if you accept the wisdom that is offered.

Before I started with GSD, I worked 2 minimum wage jobs to support my family. This is a much better place to be in my life.

One skill would be being able to relate to those students who have
come from different cultural backgrounds. I would need to be a support
to them as they try to become part of the American teen culture.
One important thing is to have students with different issues respect
each other. Issues can be dealt with better when there is respect. I
would find mentors that the students admire to help each group with
their problems and issues.Because of my teaching experience in Iraq, I have gained a love of
teaching Mathematics and Physics. Because I am a refugee to the United
States, I am able to relate to students of many different cultural
backgrounds.I believe outstanding teachers have the ability to relate well to
their students. They are non-judgmental, and are accepting of
students from all cultures, religions, economic statuses, etc.
Outstanding teachers are experts at their subject matter and are able
to instill in their students a love of the subject matter.

Challenging but rewarding job.  Very upbeat and diverse.  Worked in a very diverse area working with groups of children who spoke about 6 different languages. Each day I was responsible for teaching children many skills including pre-writing, alphabet knowledge, math, social skills, emotional skills, phonological awareness, book knowledge, etc.  I would work with kids in both large and small groups.  We would help distribute snack and play with them outside each day. 
 I worked with amazing teams and that showed a lot of team work.  I had a lot of support from coaches, coordinator, assistant, Special Ed teachers and Speech Therapists.  It was good to have a schedule and routine, but with different lessons taught each day. I enjoyed almost every day of the job. I was rarely frustrated with management, although it would occasionally be disappointing when working with a very behaviorally challenging student.  I loved seeing the progress made from the children throughout the year based on their standardized test we gave me three times yearly.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 13 salaries reported	$66,527 per year
Elementary school teacher 17 salaries reported	$47,794 per year
Police officer 11 salaries reported	$40.84 per hour
Substitute teacher 3 salaries reported	$19.33 per hour
Tutor 3 salaries reported	$18.75 per hour

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