teacher

elementary school teacher

english teacher

educator

high school teacher

Hillsborough County Public Schools

Everything that has been stated previously is true. It is a hostile place to work. There is no support the same systems and routines that they expect you to implement in the classroom they don’t have countywide or school wide there are hardly any systems or routines that are establish as far as processes. They don’t have countywide orientation you will have 2 years via a canvas course. professional development is an email or a canvas course by yourself there is no face-to-face support. Most times most schools are understaffed or short staffed and they take these roles and delegate those tasks to your job. Job expectations change every day and they are always piling on new things saying I need it today or tomorrow. The pay is laughable and the admin most times are just looking to threaten you with sanctions and make you a docile. terrible place of work if you have a voice and will speak up against mistreatment/processes that don’t make sense/ unrealistic expectations. great place to work if you are a sheep, and will go along with the flow regardless of how Terrible or unmanageable it is or in a financial bind with your back against the wall in the distress place where they feel that you need this job, and that you can’t find better. there is no work life balance they want you to make this job your life with poor compensation, and no help -be prepared to teach yourself no modeling with explicit instruction, no step by step, and also to set up your own classrooms technology, and to not have any resources or support besides classroom wallet  when it comes  second semester.  it is a free fall  - it is definitely about who you know and not what you know please go to another surrounding county, or even South Florida. If you want to succeed, definitely kiss a lot of butt and be friendly with all of your coworkers, especially your admin and they will promote you based on their personal relationships so make sure that you are very mixy and stay in their faces and get involved in their personal lives. The friendlier you are with the admin the less problems you will have and the more you will be able to get away with, like taking off days/showing up late  without repercussions while others are talked to about their poor attendance. If you just come and do your job and are not friendly with admin, then you will need to worry about constantly being watched and targeted for not being compliant to the list of ever-growing demands. Most times if you are close with admin, then you will get a promotion to a non-instructional role or additional supplements and jobs to increase your pay usually these jobs, supplements and club opportunities are only given to those on the in crowd-  where you get to walk around or sit in the office and be available to for their personal demands. If you are not friendly with admin, then you will be stuck with the instructional job and no room for growth or opportunity. They will use their opportunity for an evaluation to, let you know exactly how they feel about you regardless of your performance. The evaluation system here is very biased. Coaches don’t know how to coach administrators don’t know how to administrate but I am not surprised since there is no great training going on within the county I mean they don’t even have a new teachers orientation, so how are the coaches being coached and are they being a valuated on how they are coaching are the teachers able to provide feedback about the coaching process or about the administration? The union sucks you can get barely get anyone to call you back or actually know how to answer your questions so you might as well just fight by yourself. 

My position as a Security Patrol Officer with Hillsborough County School District was great. I absolutely enjoyed being an officer daily and interacting with the schools in the entire county. I had to go through schooling to obtain this job and obtained my "D" and "G" licensing, in addition to extension law enforcement/security training for safety, rules, laws, protection and qualification to be licensed to carry a fire arm. Daily routine was not routine. It was responding to where I was dispatched to. This included schools for any emergencies or parental, child or staff issues to resolve. I also was able to visit schools on a daily basis by just checking in and showing  officer presence was available and represent the department. I was part of the metal detection team that did random checks of class rooms at random schools to ensure that there was safety. I also did site coverage for any school that the resource officer or our departmental officer was out. This was great for interaction with the youth of all ages. I also was part of the Truancy team and assisted with any change of placement deliveries to parents and attended the hearings.Management really taught me a lot about law enforcement and the responsibility of the meaning of " To Serve and Protect".  My co-workers were great to work with. We all had each other to radio and respond immediately to back each other up. Still have great relationships with a lot of officers and management. The toughest part of the job was adjusting the work schedule when I was requested to go to mid night shift and adjusting to sleep, but I adapted. Working midnight shift consisted of responding to any school alarms, fire alarms or ground patrols. This required the checking and securing areas that the alarms were coming from ensure that there was not any burglaries or criminal mischief. I wrote reports, drove a county issued vehicle with no issues. Worked at all times with the county and city local law enforcement agencies to make sure that the Hillsborough County Schools were safe 24 hours a day and 365 days per year. The interaction with all county school staff and children made me happy.My reason for leaving this this job was the pay, as I was single parent and had to leave for higher pay scale.

School based leadership at my schools were great.  It is the higher ups (district level and politicians) that make ridiculous demands that are impossible to fulfill.  The general culture is good teachers work for free and stay late.  If you complain about being forced to work for free you are shunned by leadership and sometimes your peers.  The kids are great and so are the majority of your co workers.   The thing that stinks is the stress.  You are given "30 minutes" (much less because after dropping off children and going to the bathroom it is much less and yes you cannot go to the bathroom whenever you need to) to plan during your day to plan, call parents, gather materials for lessons, grade, input grades, fill out conference forms, etc.... You technically have planning after school but you have duty which takes forever and often buses are late so you have to wait until they show up which equals less planning time.  Also parents don't pick their kids up on time so you have to wait with them and call their parents which also equals less planning time.  You are expected to buy materials for your classroom like books for a class library, markers, crayons, tape, scissors, etc...The teachers hav a contract but they decided to just not pay on it this year and want to call is a pause which means you aren't getting your money.  However, the higher ups gave themselves $10,000 per year raises (already making 6 figures) because they were taking on additional responsibilities. Hmmmm so have all of the teachers and site based employees because site based support is being slashed.  The max you can make as a teachers is $66,000.  Can you imagine working somewhere for 30 years and only making that!?!  You get health insurance and it isn't bad for the employee but it is astronomical to add any dependents like I am taking 1 dependent is $350 per week (no, I am not exaggerating).  You are supposed to get 30 minutes for lunch but since most schools have unfilled positions in the cafeteria you are usually forced to eat lunch with your students.  You also have to deal with parents that treat you like trash and don't help with the education of students.  I have children tell me regularly that their parents told them it is my job to teach them stuff not theirs.

Meet with Children and their teachers or family members in the Clinic environment. Triage, vitals, documenting, phone communication, between family, and their doctors. Maintain, and follow, doctor orders. Administration of medications, procedures, and follow ups.

I have learned be a better listener, to prioritize, and manage my time much better than I ever did. I learned how to multitask better than before under pressure. I learned how to quickly and accurately assess children, better. Verbally communicate in a clear, effective, and timely manor.

I manage my time better, plan accordingly to be at a certain time and place to get things done in priority order. Manage the nursing office and the children or people in it accordingly. Manage procedures and diabetic schedules, per orders.

Some Co-workers  are difficult to get along with and some easy to get along with. There is a variety out there, depending on the school you work at. I am easy to get along with and live by do onto others as you would have others do onto you. Co-workers here work well together as a team. Communication is most important here. The Co-workers must also be able to work independent when needed.

Hardest part is having lots of kids coming to the clinic in need, while at the same time you need to be with another child for a procedure and you are working by your self. Determining which child is not really sick when you are not familiar with their medical history.

Presenting your self to the child, and listening to them, and their every need. Having a parent or child come and thank you for all that you do and that the child is feeling much better, or the parent thanks me for the advice I gave them and the out come for their child was positive.

Typical Day:
*Arrive 1 hour early each day (unpaid)
*Report to supervision post, meetings, etc.
*Teach 6 math classes: 50 minutes each (120-140 students daily) and 1 planning period: 50 minutes
*Lunch: 30 minutes
*Report to afternoon supervision post after school
*Stay 1.5 hours late (unpaid) to organize for the next day, follow up with any disciplinary issues, and check/answer email.
*Bring papers home to grade and work at home for 2 additional hours. 
What I learned:
*I have a very strong work ethic!
*I LOVE working with people in a team environment. I loved my students and their families.
*I am happy to go above and beyond professionally but within reason. 
*I have learned how to advocate for myself in a professional manner.
*As a team leader, I recognized my impressive organizational skills and effective leadership styles. 
Management:
*Competent, strong leadership- I can't say enough positive things!
Workplace Culture:
*Among colleagues, the culture was tight knit, hard-working, and worked well as a team.
*Within the "system" morale was low, along with our salaries.
Hardest Part:
*Teaching and managing about 140 per day with only 50 minutes to complete my professional responsibilities. Simply impossible. To put it perspective: When I started teaching in 1997, I had roughly 70 students daily and 2 hours of planning time. When I left in 2016, I taught 140 students daily with less than 1 hour of planning. 
*Keeping a healthy work/life balance once I had children was impossible, especially since I taught a subject with very high accountability and an abundance of standardized testing.
Most Enjoyable:
*My students, my colleagues and my administration.

Currently, I work for the public school system as a special education math teacher.  This review is a reflection of the school system itself, not the school where I am currently employed.  

The majority of the students are a pleasure to teach.  It has its challenges, as all careers.  The time off for the holidays and summer allows a parent to spend the extra time desired with the family.  The school where I am currently teaching has some of the best administrative leadership.  The teachers at this school are all talented and exceptional professionals.  The faculty and administration has the children's best interest in mind. 

The amount of administrative work exceeds what is possible in a work day.  We have 45 minutes of planning time to work on grades, curriculum, lesson planning, additional paper work from administration and the county, etc. The remaining time is consumed by duties, meetings, and teaching.  Therefore, staying multiple hours after school, coming in early before school, working at home late into the evening, and often working hours over the weekend is often necessary to avoid falling overwhelmingly behind. 

The salary does not equate to the amount of work required to keep up.  Summers are wonderful to have off, but you must either find a summer job or have enough money taken out of each paycheck throughout the school year to pay the summer bills. As a single mother or father, the salary is financially stressful.  

I feel a teacher's salary is insulting for the amount of work required and the amount of hours worked off the clock.  The amount of time worked off the clock would more than likely equate to the two months of the year unpaid.  I am currently searching for a career that is both financially and intellectually rewarding.

Onboarding was rough- because of a lack of communication, I had no training before starting. For the first 20 days I was at one location. I set up my classroom and learned quickly how unwelcoming it was. Discovered I had an opportunity to change my location due to a mandatory staff change. I relocated across the county, and made it to a great performing school. So if you are cut from your original assignment, they do follow the contract obligation and relocate you through the "pool" process when the district must rebalance staff. So I ended up in a "pool" position, but it turned out to be better than my original assignment. Unfortunately, my position there was "temporary" and at the end of the school year I am faced with changing locations again. Elementary workday starts at 7am, every teacher must supervise students from 7:10-end of day. Most days you have a duty free lunch, but when short staffed, teachers were required to take on more duty to supervise children in the cafeteria. Sub failures occurred often, but this may be the norm in districts now. Culture varies from site to site. The hardest part was trying to learn all the technology this district uses without real guidance/training. The tech support was sparse, and the hardware very old and unreliable, but curriculum was delivered digitally. I printed my own student materials at the school, but it was very time consuming. Some sites have more parent help than others. 

My teaching philosophies were largely at odds with those of the State of Florida, and thus, Hillsborough County. When FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test) came into being, the entire focus of education was excelling on the test, so much so that many teachers actually taught the test. All spontaneity was taken out of education. There was no time for the fun science units, the creative dramatics, the plays supplementing a reading selection - the things children would remember in later years. Quite a few years before I retired, the administration of Hillsborough County schools took all English textbooks out of the classroom. Following that was the removal of handwriting and spelling from the report cards. I felt then and still feel that this was detrimental to the education of our students. It also explains why so many parents are seeking tutors in the field of writing for their children.
      The most enjoyable part of my job was the interaction with wonderful colleagues and many of the students with whom I worked.
I love teaching and seeing that "light bulb" go on when a concept is finally grasped. I enjoy instilling the love of learning, especially reading, which is why I enjoy private, in-home tutoring in language arts to teaching in the classroom. My fondest desire, aside from excelling in the area of language arts, is to influence students to be lifelong learners. My belief is that learning should stop when one draw his or her last breath.

I completed my final internship for my counseling master's degree 2018 -2019 school year. I provided individual, group and case management meetings with students, staff, and parents in multiple schools while mainly stationed at Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center. I also had a small caseload in Hospital Homebound and in neighboring middle schools. 

Working as a school social worker or psychological services provider really pushes you to network and make contacts in all the schools you visit. You have to be very proactive and make the connections yourself. Many times you get extra favors done for you if you're close with certain administration. It could mean the difference between them letting into the school or not for your task at hand. 

Hospital Homebound clients were difficult in that I did a lot of at-home curriculum checkins. Alot of the homebound students I saw had behavioral challenges and school refusal. It's a difficult population regardless but my supervisor was able to make the visits safe. Most of the schools I visited seemed like solid public schools with very active staff. They really care about their kids and build relationships with many of them. It's not a fluffy, super nice culture by any means, but if you have a sense of humor, good boundaries, a bit of thick skin, and care about kids, you'll fit right in. 

I don't know much about pay and benefits because I was an unpaid intern. I would recommend Hillsborough county schools to future colleagues!

What is the best part of working at the company?
I worked on a team of teachers as a lead, and the other teachers sat and did nothing to help the students or myself. Other teachers were just plain rude or made me feel as if I were a problem; would isolate me. I would work doing all their jobs, and leadership would support them and not me until I left. I would not wish to return or to work with any of those individuals again. The students were great, however. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being made to handle the entire caseload without support from the team; leadership not supporting myself and would support those who did nothing to serve the students or who isolated me. I would come home and cry daily. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There is no collaboration and if you do your job well, you’re made to be the problem by teachers who lack drive and initiative; I am concerned for the well being of the students by how these people treat those around them. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I would set up the classroom, run the classroom without help or support, and would be treated without respect from fellow teachers and leadership. Students were the best part of the day, but the lack of support and collaboration made it unbearable.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 23 salaries reported	$51,300 per year
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Educator 7 salaries reported	$45,143 per year
High school teacher 5 salaries reported	$54,700 per year

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