teacher

secretary

kitchen assistant

paraprofessional

elementary school teacher

Omaha Public Schools

The district has gone into the dirt. The district does not discipline students which allows the students to walk all over teachers. Teachers are only allowed to do so much before having to send them to their administrators where it seems like nothing done about their actions. If a student does something bad enough then they will be kicked out of that school and sent to another OPS school where their behavior is the same just at a new school. This entire district has their values backwards. It is all about letting the diverse population pass classes no matter what, over the students actually gaining the knowledge from the content being taught. That is clearly evident based off the grading system they have in place. Instead of letter grades there are numbers given. 1-4. 4 being the best and 1 being no evidence of content gained. This allows the students to pretty much do nothing until test time and if they are able to barley pass the test then they pass the class. This makes any type of formative assessment completely useless. I am a new teacher and my student teaching experience in a different district was a lot more efficient. I feel bad for any student teacher that has to do their teaching in OPS because it is not fair to them to enter such a poor district. This district makes me want to change careers. It is not the students fault either, the students are given no structure what so ever so of course they are not going to change any behavior habits. Teachers in all of these schools can only do so much to try and help these students but the district seems to push all of the problems onto the teachers to fix. The salary is decent and is just about the only benefit to working here at OPS. For it being the biggest district in all of NE, it feels like the most disappointing district in NE as well. District needs leaders that actually want to see a change in the students not only in the classroom but in life in general. It is a place to get your foot in the door and get your feet wet for your teaching career, but not a place I personally want to be long term. I am a first year and have already applied to other districts around the area. Taking a pay cut to go to another district would be a no brainer. Mental Health>Salary.

Omaha Public Schools has provided me an opportunity to teach as a substitute every school day.  OPS has also given me summer school teaching assignments all 3 summers since getting my teaching certificate.

I am a substitute in high demand and often get requested several times for each day.  I have gotten several long-term assignments as classroom teachers as well as resource teachers.

I am currently teaching a long-term assignment as a reading resource teacher.  I love these assignments since they provide me the opportunity to learn so much about providing every student an opportunity to learn and advance.

The surrounding teachers are always supportive and helpful.  I currently have a mentor who is helping me help the classroom teachers identify their students who will most benefit from extra reading instruction from me.  This mentor is also helping me to plan strategies and lesson plans to help all the students reach their reading level goals.

OPS has learned that I am very flexible.  I get along well with all peer teachers.  I do well in every kind of school setting.  I have worked mostly in Title 1 schools where the students come from homes in poverty.  I also teach where many students are emerging English language learners.   I have taken 2 sessions of Spanish classes offered by the district.  I also study Spanish at home every day.  This helps me when I have a child in a classroom who has little English.  It makes a big difference even though I am not yet fluent in Spanish.

There is still high competition for full time teaching jobs in Omaha.  I have not yet been offered a full time contract.  My only complaint about this substitute teaching assignment is that I receive no benefits.  Otherwise I love it because I get to teach every day and learn something new on every assignment.

A typical work day: Each day would be different and you need to know how to be flexible. The main job for me was helping students to stay on task with their school work and staying focused. 

What I learned: DO NOT go into a position at OPS with rose-colored glasses on. The department you are in may be the best ever, or your worst nightmare. They're all different. 

Management: In my case, management was terrible. There was no onboarding. It was unorganized. They didn't seem to care about me as a person. Once I realized that, I just kept my head down and stayed away from the higher-ups as best I could. They couldn't have cared less how I felt, or what I had to say. 

Workplace culture: My department was beyond cliquish. I would get in trouble for doing things they did. When I brought that to their attention, I would be gaslit. I once got in trouble for doing my actual job. When I brought the situation to their attention, they were like, Oh. With no apology attached. If one person decides they don't like you, then who they're friends with decides they don't like you and you get randomly glared at throughout your day.  Even if they never had any interaction with you. A few people in the department took time out to get to know me, and made their own decision about me. I was very thankful for that. 

The hardest part of my job: Trying to do my actual job while dealing with microaggressions from some of my co-workers within my department. 

The most enjoyable part of the job: By far, helping the students succeed. Also, when I finally found people that I could talk to and relate with. People who genuinely wanted to know me as a person. People that I could approach with questions. 

Overall, I love the school I worked at. I do not like the department I was in. I became very depressed, doubted myself, and had to go to therapy. 

Teaching is a rewarding job, but it can be challenging and exhausting. The administration and colleagues can have a huge impact on whether or not you succeed in this job; I am fortunate enough to have a very supportive principal, assistant principal, and grade level team. However, I know of some fellow teachers who didn't have the same experience. 

The students and the parents are a mixed bag. Sometimes you'll have students who genuinely want to learn and sometimes you'll have students who lack self-confidence and have given up because they don't think they're "smart" enough. In this job, be prepared to play all the roles: caregiver, therapist, nurse, coach, cheerleader, mediator, actor, planner, and so on. This job requires you to make hundreds, maybe even thousands, of decisions every day, and that can lead to decision fatigue, "teacher tired," and even burnout. 

But you can ask any teacher what they love most about their jobs and their answers will be the same: it's the kids. You build relationships with these kids and you want them all to succeed, both the well-behaved kids and the challenging ones. 

Personally, I poured my heart and soul into this job, and I struggled to set boundaries, so I am now burnt out. Teaching makes me feel exhausted, and it isn't a job that I feel like I can do long-term because the students need so much support, and I don't feel like I can give them the love and attention they deserve and still be able to come home to give my family and friends the love and attention they deserve. If you want to teach, my advice to you is to be extremely organized, make sure to manage your time well, and set firm boundaries for yourself (i.e. leave work at work). If you are able to do all that, you will thrive as a teacher!

I've always enjoyed teaching and until I decided not to renew my contract, there were still many parts about the job I enjoyed. Right now many buildings are dealing with a loss of staff. Some buildings are learning how to best manage through that and some still need room to grow. The students are working through the results of interrupted schooling, so expect to work with administration and other teachers on behavioral management with students and their families.  I was thankful I've had a great team of coworkers and some great administrators that I worked with. Also expect if you work in teaching or administration to take on extra duties. OPS has improved on providing compensation for loss of plan time, but it means if you need that plan time, you will need to be smart in finding ways to get your work finished. If you can learn to manage your time well and separate your work day stress from your life, I still think there are great things going on in OPS. If, however, you are concerned for your health if you currently deal with issues related to stress management, you may want to look elsewhere. 

My typical day was to supervise students, teach, re-teach, manage, and create spreatsheets to help grading and testing. When I had some time on my hands, I always looked for more things to help students with. Other times I cleaned and helped the teacher with things she needed done.
I have learned that each child is different and learnes differently. I learned to be more open minded to individuals and their believes.
I have managed between 28 and 40 children at lunch and recess. At times I supervised a class of 28 students while the teacher had a meeting.
I had great co-workers. I tried to make everyone feel welcomed at our school. When anyone needed help with something I tried my best to be there.
The hardest part about my job was not knowing what state of mind the children came to school with. You never knew what happened at home to effect their behavior at school.
The thing I enjoyed most about my job, was the children. When they succeeded in something or when the students just ran up to me to give me a hug and tell me how well they did on a test. I think seeing people succeed in something is amazing. Even when some of my co-workers got a license in something or teachers getting their Masters.

A day at work seems to be good, but it is not a very rewarding job. The management does not place much importance to the job, it seems the substitutes are ignored in most of the schools. The rewards are earned by completing the work day and completing payroll. 

The hardest part of the job, is to remind yourself that one is not the "substitute teacher", as is the case in other public school districts in other states, but the paraprofessional. A substitute paraprofessional is expected to perform anything and everything to keep the school day as pleasant, and peaceful as possible, while giving each student a learning experience and the opportunity to complete schoolwork with understanding.

The most enjoyable part of the job is having the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students.  Being a positive role model for children is achieved by letting them know they are very important members of the community who have the potential to learn, grow to , and to become valued citizens of the United States.

A typical day at work consist of supervising the girls locker room, supervising and teaching three 90 minutes classes throughout the day, keeping track of behavior, counseling some students, keeping track of documentation, and coaching Volleyball after school hours. 
 
I have learned managing a class size of up to 60 students you must show your leadership role and make sure the kids know you are the authoritative figure.  I work hand in hand with my co-workers on a daily basis and we depend on each other to have successful classes where all students are engaged and involved.  There are times we work independently as well, but always have good communication with one another,

The hardest part of the job is being able to get through to all students.  Some kids come to school wanting to succeed and be different from their rough home lives, but then there are some that you can't get through to at all and they don't want to listen to anything you have to say.

The most enjoyable part of my job is reaching those students and getting to learn more about them and what gets them motivated.  I enjoy being able to take on a leadership role to guide students to learn.

For the five years I was at ops learned so much from team leaders and staff we worked together as team collaborating and with projects and with making decisions.  A typical day work would be like getting to know my student,  making learning fun to come up creative learning ideas for the students to learn. The most enjoyable of the day too see students happy enjoying being at school with there peers. The hardest part the of the job was dealing with behavior issues in the class room became very out of control. It was hard for some students to learn. There were lot of disruption in the class room all the time. Happend to call security to take a student out of the class room for behavioral issues and disrupting other students from learning has became a big issue.  The most enjoyable part was job enjoyed working with my students and getting to know them. I enjoyed with some other staff leaders who were very supportive.  I am longer with ops I have been gone been since 2023, I miss the most students and the staff members. 

Each school has its own "culture". I've worked at two elementary schools. The first one wasn't necessarily better than the first; the precise role I worked was just slightly different. The second school was literally at 125% capacity. Kids who have horrid behavioral problems, but are considered "gen ed" (i.e. general education - average enough IQ & not in the special needs classes), are often not given any disciplinary action or even sent home for the day after their outbursts, but allowed to go back to the classrooms they are terrorizing and continue their disruptive and disrespectful behavior. The majority of the kids I ever worked with were terrific! But each classroom has a chair-thrower. No hyperbole. Neither the kids, nor the adults should have to be in that environment for 7 hours a day (or 7 minutes). So, I quit over the pay and the emotional exhaustion. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 5 salaries reported	$50,302 per year
Secretary 15 salaries reported	$16.69 per hour
Kitchen assistant 30 salaries reported	$15.49 per hour
Paraprofessional 6 salaries reported	$17.33 per hour
Elementary school teacher 4 salaries reported	$59,467 per year

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