teacher

paraprofessional

elementary school teacher

custodian

assistant

Volusia County Schools

My work place is a generally pleasant place to be. I enjoy the collaboration between colleagues this year. My current school leadership is wonderful. They are doing the best they can, just like the rest of the teachers. I work with students who have varying exceptionalities in a multi-grade level room. My caseload varies as the school year continues. Generally, my classroom has 10-15 students plus a paraprofessional. The greatest challenges with the boys and girls come with their individual academic schedules; some of the children are full-day self-contained, while others have parts of the school day in general education settings for content areas. Competing with scheduling for challenge ranking is behavior management. We do the best we can and accomplish very much. My students demonstrate growth each year. Our behavior specialist does not follow her shared schedule and behavior plans take half the school year, at best, to complete. The overall level of paperwork and "back-shop" duties is ever increasing, but does not always directly assist with the general essential functions of teaching the students. Paraprofessionals are severely underpaid for what they are required to do. It is hard to hire and retain someone of quality for $9 per hour. I am on my 3rd paraprofessional in the last 2 years. Pay is the reason they typically leave and while I celebrate their next higher paying position of employment, I feel sad time and time again that the children don't have a well-compensated high quality paraprofessional to work with them over the 2-3 years that we are together. I have a masters degree, have taught 8 years, I contend with a lot of difficult behaviors and have some parent support at best, but often very little parent involvement with the education process, YET, I don't quite make $40,000 per year. Our benefits are being cut, our hours and demands are increasing along with our class sizes. I love working with children and seeing them succeed. When a child mainstreams back to the general education setting successfully, I feel some level of satisfaction that has caused me to stay. I work a second part-time job to bring a little extra income for my family. My children who I gave birth to deserve better--I deserve better pay and work conditions. I'm glad to do a job when provided with the tools and resources necessary to complete it and with commensurate pay.

Worksheets are never ending for students. District is strong with 'teaching to the tests.' Teachers seem to have no interest in creative lesson planning and implementing new ideas and innovation that promotes 21st century skills. The culture is toxic starting from top to bottom. From my experience everyone you work with is miserable and just there counting the days down. Lots of Dog and Pony show going on in prep. for when district walkthroughs happen. The district needs to take a hard look at the surrounding counties that are doing much better 'grade' wise. School admin have so much pressure on them that they can't seem to make any school based decisions on their own. It's a one size fits all model for the entire county k-12. I've worked in 4 other counties and this is by far the worst. They spend all the money at the district level on salaries, but the classrooms are falling apart and in ill repair. They are equipped with hodgepodge furniture and outdated technology. Your child will be in a portable at least once in their career here. And the portables have no bathroom facility, running water, or fountains. It's an embarrassment and an injustice to the children they are serving. If only these families could live 20 miles from here. They could be in state-of-the-art schools and facilities in Seminole County getting properly prepared for what really matters in education now-a-days. No district is perfect, but I promise you Volusia Schools is like hopping in a time machine and going back to 1984.  

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with dedicated professionals who find ways to help children. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
VCS has terrible infrastructure and internal supports for teachers and children. Mandates restrict educators and take away enormous amounts of time from the children. Educators are buried in unorganized and repetitive data tracking and paperwork. Children are not priority. VCS burdens educators with constant evaluates and restrictions, while demanding more and more time and energy. The pay for qualified, experienced, extensively educated teachers is THE SAME as a brand new employee to VCS. Too many schools have unhealthy classrooms in poor, run-down condition, not kept clean. Administration does NOT understand the basics of what state benchmarks are used by educators, yet evaluate our performance with a one-time a year 45 min classroom recording. Admin is not visible in classrooms, hallways or inquire about what is needed. Highly rated teachers are pawns moved around grade levels, or displaced to other schools, with little regard or care. Bottom line…teaching for VCS is not worthwhile for mental health. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Poor supports and overly demanding work load. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Exhausting from start to finish, working on average 11 hr days. Chaos.

What is the best part of working at the company?
As a substitute teacher, the staff encourage me a lot, and the principal show me how much they appreciated me which make me feel good and happy to come to work four days a week for Middle school students. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part was the fights, the screaming, and the disrespect some students had toward the teachers. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment was a happy place for me and the culture was great, everyone got along fine, 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I would come in sign in, make myself a cup of coffee, take my keys along with the attended sheet, go to the class where I am supposed to be, Write my name on the whiteboard and write down how it pronoun, read the lesson plan that the absent teacher left for me, write the lesson plan on the board or give out the lesson sheet to each student and say good morning to each student,   Write on the board what is expected of them. Good behavior and completed assignment. Write on the board the percent of good behavior as they leave for the next class.

Ask a lot of questions.  At the time I had been a school social worker in another state for 13 years .  I was certified as a school social worker this means I had to take extra courses to be certified at my master level.  I was always expected to provide therapy to students.  Here I was told I was not to do therapy.  I was evaluated as a teacher. I had to pass the Common Knowledge test within a year ( this requirement changed after I resigned) ... some will enjoy this job because of the hours ... my passion was to provide therapy for students so they were educationally successful.

Every year I worked there, we always had to hear how there was a possibility of being outsourced and privatized due to fiscal deficits. It never happened, but working there ten years one see's the decadence and waste. They buy equipment that only gets used a handfull of times then gets sent to auction. GOOD equipment gets sent to auction for needing minor repairs. New hand trucks and wheel barrows get thrown out for a flat tire. New Laptops and tablets thrown out because they were the wrong model or considered obsolete because a newer model was available. New furniture thrown out cause it doesnt match the carpeting.

Very limited opportunity for advancement. Someone with drive and passion will eventually end up jaded working there and seeing the chronic incompetence. Whether someone is in admin, teaching or support staff, all salaries are substandard. That's why they desperately hiring for teachers, and much of the support staff. The competent hard workers get rewarded with the work the slugs cant or wont do. Avoid this place, you can do much better. 

Typical Teacher work day.I get to school early everyday to prepare myself for success.  I start up my lab and do a mental checklist of all that is needed for the day.  As the day goes on I reflect on my successes and my failures and plan to improve on the areas that may need it.  We have very little interaction from "management"  as we are in our own setting (classroom) and control our own environment yet they are there if needed. I am in a remote part of the building and not to close to other co-workers, although I work well with others and enjoy interaction and consorting on projects.  The hardest part of my job would be finding funds to operate my class as it can get really expensive.  I have had much success this year writing six grants and receiving five of them.The most enjoyable part of my day is when I see that students enjoy and appreciate all the hard work that I do for them to have a nurturing, safe, and educational environment.  This may not happen on a daily basis but does more often than not.

My typical day in the classroom is spent implementing the AVID method to middle-schoolers. At the beginning of the session, I begin scoring the students' forms by insuring that they've completed certain sections. Then the class breaks up into tutorial groups based on subject area. I am usually assigned to an Algebra group. I act as a facilitator in this group, assisting students in presenting their problems on the board. I take notes for the presenter while the students ask high-level questions in order to assist the presenter in solving their problem. Near the end of the session, I instruct students to write a reflections on the session. Finally, I grade the forms according to several different criteria. Perhaps the hardest part of the job is classroom management and keeping students engaged and on-task throughout the session. The most enjoyable part of the job is the interaction with students and watching them become more outgoing, responsible young adults.

DO NOT BELIEVE HOW MUCH THEY ARE PAYING YOU AS A GUARDIAN. We had to go through 2 months of training without pay to get the position. You only got back paid if you completed the training. If you made it all the way to the last day and failed out, you were not paid for the previous time you worked. It is not $20 an hour. You are on salary at 32k before taxes. When I asked about why we were not getting paid what was advertised. They said that is with your benefits. But we pay out the noise for all our benefits. just for my health care alone was over $500 a month. not including my family. They will not be able to keep guardians employed if they continue to lie about how much they are actually paying you. And you wont even know how much they short you on pay until after your 2 months of training is complete and you receive your first paycheck. also, they tell you there is opportunities to work OT and summer school. there's only 10 spots for summer school with 40 plus guardians employed. And it is only 38 hours per week, on salary. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Coworkers are typically good people, working with the kids is great, it’s unfortunate they load teachers down so much that they’re unable to actually help the students. School hours/schedule is a good benefit. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Added responsibilities to the job constantly, poor admin support, ESE teachers get the hardest kids and are given very little resources to teach them. Para professionals in high need classrooms are a privilege not a given. Admin breaks laws and bends protocol to fit their needs and teachers are forced to look the other way.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Among coworkers it is pretty supportive. Admin has a tendency to weaponize teachers against other teachers. Very middle school but with adults. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Nonstop chaos all day, minimal support.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 452 salaries reported	$50,785 per year
Paraprofessional 296 salaries reported	$16.07 per hour
Elementary school teacher 115 salaries reported	$50,700 per year
Custodian 88 salaries reported	$16.81 per hour
Assistant 68 salaries reported	$16.75 per hour

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