teacher

assistant principal

food service associate

paraprofessional

elementary school teacher

Milwaukee Public Schools

As a special education teacher, I was both fortunate and unfortunate to have a small student population. I taught all subjects to a student population considered to need a most restrictive placement. Due to severe, school wide, absenteeism I generally had a rotating student population of five. My typical day consisted of data collection and observation, which served beneficial for uploading information for the teacher evaluation process. I also held a student caseload of ten students of whom I was responsible for authoring their individualized education plans (IEP). 

The greatest take away that I received was the delicate art of building relationships with students and peers. In a school whose students are subjected to the harsh realities of generational poverty, building trust often presents itself as a difficult feat. During my time at North Division High School, I was granted the opportunity to advise a group of students as a part of the Positive Behavioral Intervention support team. This group of student were the leaders of the school and collectively selected to be called the North Division Student Ambassadors. Their responsibility was to create a school culture that was student centered and rewarding for positive school behaviors. 

The school's management team was presented with a hard task, and therefore struggled, as many urban schools do, with supplying the teachers support and the students any forms of autonomy that should be provided for young adults. 

I was self-employed for the majority of my adult life. During that time I missed the comradeship of co-workers. I experienced, on a daily basis, what I consider to be a pocket within an organization to be kin to working with a group of your best friends. Within the English Language Arts department, who I was blessed to be an honorary member of, I was afforded support, encouragement, empowerment, love, tough love and to be a part of a group of teachers dedicated to teaching students academics and citizenship as it relates to being Black in America. 

The hardest part of the job was to see teacher's staunch apathy for subjugated students. 

The most enjoyable part of my job was the love I received form my special education students and student ambassadors. I also enjoyed watching my students glow with pride and they successfully established, in their words, "a Kald culture"--which can best be defined as a school culture that is less like a prison system and more of an environment that promotes multiple forms of learning.

Administrative Assistant: Duties included service to staff, parents, students, & vendors via in-person, phone, email, fax, & U.S. mail; set up student transportation; processed payroll & accounts payable; created & maintained student & staff records; purchased & distributed supplies; maintained inventory; created Microsoft excel & word documents; additional duties as needed

Secretary for elementary and high schools that included a multitude of assignments and projects such as: service to staff, parents, & students via in-person, phone, email, fax, & U.S. mail; created, requested, & maintained student records; compiled data for MPS central service disciplinary hearings; processed payroll, purchase
invoices, and bookkeeping; created Microsoft excel & word documents; additional duties as needed.

I learned a multitude of skills during my years of employment with the Milwaukee Public School system.  I found the necessary technical office skills a joy to learn and practice.  The short and long term relationships formed have opened the door for me to be  approachable, personable, caring, relational, communicable, empathetic, knowledgeable, flexible, reasonable, teachable, reliable, faithful, respectful, committed, and helpful.  Many qualities have been drawn from a need to respond to situations that arise during the course of a day.  An example of flexibility was creating and presenting documents and forms to my administrators that were used to eliminate procedural confusion, and brought clarity and simplicity to existing forms.  I learned to operate an office smoothly, efficiently, professionally, yet compassionately.   

The hardest part of the job was encouraging those involved to submit necessary information in a timely manner to complete projects when due.
 
The most enjoyable part of the job was having a variety of duties, along with providing personal service.  I enjoyed the privilege of the daily challenge.

I was a school nurse at multiple elementary schools throughout the district. I joined MPS after the Milwaukee residency requirement for employees was lifted. After coming from the rotating shift world of the hospital and long term care worlds, the school schedule was a dream come true! Working with children also made the job quite worthwhile and rewarding. However, it you think (like I did) that transitioning to school nursing in MPS would be a huge sigh of relief you will be in for quite a shock. There were some days when I would call former hospital co-workers and wonder why I ever left them. A typical day involved providing care to students with special health needs that require daily direct nursing service (students with diabetes, feeding tubes, urinary catheterization needs, etc), administering medications, updating immunization records, developing nursing contributions to IEPs and formulating required health plans and emergency care plans, and assessing acute illness in students. School nurses have a high degree of autonomy and independence as they are licensed healthcare professionals, but school staff and the district rarely treat them as professionals. In every school where I worked, staff would question my judgment and constantly request that I deviate from policy and the law to make others happy. Although school nurses reported to a supervisor who is an RN, some school-based administrators would give orders and direction as if they supervised the nurse. Working with the students and their families was truly a joy, but the deep institutional disrespect of school nurses at all levels of MPS made it impossible for me to stay.

The job pays ok benefits like health insurance and pension use to be a lot better. I started 20 years ago so I know the things they are slowly striping away from employees. It's a highly stressful job especially for special ed. teachers who are not guaranteed any prep time and are expected to do all their paperwork, IEPs, and planning on their own time. District does not train adequately on new initiatives and just half fast throws things at teachers expecting them.to go to additional trainings unpaid on their own time or left to still use their own time to figure it out with no guidance or support. Now the district want to take an hour daily if teachers time for meetings and p.d. When does any individually planning and work get done. We use to only have meetings once a month if that now it's once a week sometimes even in short weeks. We need prep and planning time to do our job. Yes I still work outside of my work day but this piles in more taking away another hour we could be doing what we need to be doing. District does not want to pay for additional training or p.d. outside the closet contracted work day and I the reason for wanting to take up more of our time so they don't have to pay us. Personally it's not about the pay it's about respecting us as professionals and providing us with at least some time to do our jobs. It's expected some will have to be done outside hours but don't take away more please. No wonder people are retiring earlier or resigning. It can be a toxic environment with lack or support, materials, and spending our own money for supplies as well.


I have a K5/ 1st split. On a typical Tuesday, we start with a story, head into whole group reading with a lesson and large group story. From there we move into work stations which include a teacher lead group, computers, writing, and  independent reading. This takes the whole morning. The children have recess and lunch, then we return to the room for Science and Math. At 1PM, the 1st graders go to Gym and I have some small group time with my K5 children. When the children return from Gym, there is usually about 30 minutes of free choice before preparing to leave.

Our staff is pretty cohesive. We have each others' backs and problem solve to find solutions that work for everyone. Even when administration is not supportive, we find ways to get our job done with the largest gains for the children. 

We have a core of younger teachers who have wonderful ideas and of course, great technology skills. These colleagues are a constant inspiration. They also bring a lot of fun in!

I believe that most of us would say that managing children with negative behaviors is the hardest part of our job. It is closely followed by increasing amounts of paperwork and on-line documentation.

The most enjoyable part of my day is working with the children. Reading groups are my absolute favorite, along with reading to them and sharing high-interest literature.

A daily typical work day is, I come in and first count the safe before getting started. Then I count out the registers and place them in the proper locations. I walk the store and write down my notes. I then meet with each staff and explain to them the tasks for the day. I review emails for important messages from my District Manager then follow through. I then view sales from the previous day from both store and pharmacy. I talk things over with my Store Manager to find out the plan then relate it to my fellow Assistant Managers. I have my own assignments given to me and priorities them then begin work. Co-workers are like family some of them because they've been working in some stores for awhile. They know their customers and have seen many managers come and go. They are easy to talk to and always looking for things to do after their own daily assignments. The managers are all team oriented and love for our store to be on top so that is always the goal. We have a great team. I guess the hardest part of the job is satisfying an angry customer also working a ton of hours per week that make it difficult to balance outside personal obligations. The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing that as management you have job security and it make you feel good when your customers leave satisfy and know one happy customer equals to new customers by word of mouth.

The expectations of a special education teacher in Milwaukee Public schools is more that one person can handle.  Provide service to parents, meet the needs of the children, and work with the team to develop annual IEPs.  Assess all the students (14 on my caseload with severe autism.) and keep data on grades, IEP goals, and behavior.  Plan differentiated lessons for varying levels of ability and have time to teach said lessons while still maintaining individuals needs including academics, behavior, social/emotional, and functional.  Set goals for myself and assess myself plus prepare reports on all areas of Danielson's Framework for evaluation.  
I could go on with the expectations.  There are definitely more.  It is very difficult for 1 person to have all the responsibility when I have very volatile and violent students I have to remove 3, 4, 5, 6... times a day for behavior.  Due to these students, I fear for my safety and the safety of the other students in my classroom.
The positive part of my job is when my students make connections and make gains on their IEP goals.  I love the moment when the students are proud to show me that they can do something they couldn't do before.  I also have met some of the most wonderful people who work tirelessly to meet the needs of their students.  It's amazing to have coworkers who are my friends.

Stay away from MPS. From the second I was hired, I knew I made a mistake. The hiring process is awful...the people at Central Office do the actual hiring and communication as opposed to the hiring principal. You won't hear from your principal until the day you start. There are very few friendly faces at Central Office and a lot of attitude. The schools all have metal detectors and feel like prisons. Staff are not competent. Likely you will have to ask to be let into bathrooms and be prepared to bring your own toilet paper and towels as there is no accountability for maintenance staff. The buildings are in poor condition and the district takes forever to fix issues. Teachers often have to use one of their planning periods to sub for others, so know that you may get one hour of planning a day. The class sizes are crazy and some have up to 40 kids. Make sure you do your research into the schools. There are a few great schools in the district...the rest are horrible. The only perk is the salary is a bit higher than charters and such. It's still not great for the higher cost of living around here  today. Also, for younger teachers, know that other districts won't want to hire you from here. One more eye opener is that there is no financial planning so teachers are let go after the school years starts due to numbers as opposed to Spring time. It's really crazy. Hopefully the new superintendent is competent and fires everyone that got their jobs from their friends. 

I was a paraprofessional aide at a south side Milwaukee Public School.  I began as a bilingual aide in the attendance office, and moved to the Special Education department.  When I worked in Special Education, my job included 2-3 days a week of off-site training.  I took students on the city bus to various locations in the city to learn jobs such as shopping cart retrieval and dry mopping and bagging groceries at a grocery store, and vacuuming hallways and folding laundry in a hotel.  On days in which I did not take students out into the community, I assisted the head teachers with photocopying jobs and tutoring individuals or groups of students.

When I worked at MPS I was enrolled at UW-Milwaukee in teacher education classes during the evenings.  I was able to move from the Special Education department to the Bilingual classrooms to satisfy part of my student teaching requirement for my teaching degree.  

I enjoyed working with students and staff at MPS.  Over 85% of the student body was labeled at-risk and lived below the poverty line.  When I left for Seville, Spain to complete my student teaching, students from MPS wrote me letters!  That was probably one of the most rewarding things about working there!

My individual experience has been gratifying becasue of mission oriented purpose of persevering to save the education of children at risk of eventually dropping out of high school due to poor self-esteem, turning to crime, or not having the educational foundation t succeed, despite mild learning disabilities. Working with faculty and students from an African American and Hispanic heritage has been among the best learning experiences of my life.  I cannot express my admiration for many of the administration and teachers that have devoted their entire lives to children.

It is not a school system for the faint-hearted, especially at the 50 schools with the poorest demographics.  Many children come to school with limited language skills and little home training or self discipline. Engaging difficult to reach children with few resources requires a very positive attitude and high level of dedication.  I admire teachers and believe this to be the most demanding postion I have ever had.
I am so fortunate to have had two great careers,

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 28 salaries reported	$56,850 per year
Assistant principal 8 salaries reported	$101,893 per year
Food service associate 5 salaries reported	$20.86 per hour
Paraprofessional 1 salary reported	$27,361 per year
Elementary school teacher 2 salaries reported	$54,386 per year

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