Where are all of the Teachers?

jillabobilla · December 2011

I am majoring in Elementary Ed. right now. It's taking me a while to graduate because I switched from Mathematics Education, and of course I had a baby. Anyways, I'm trying to kind of figure out when the best time would be to start for baby #2. We are both really anxious, but aren't sure how it would work with teaching. I could either get pregnant now so that I could be home with both babies while finishing up my schooling, do my internships, and then by the time I am ready to graduate (in 2014/2015), both kids will be a little older to be put in daycare [save some money on daycare expenses], plus I can BF more easily. I'm just worried it will be too much to handle to do my internships while having two kids, plus I wouldn't be able to get a teaching job until I was 28 [not sure how that looks to schools hiring].

OR, I could wait to get pregnant until after I graduate and land a teaching job so I have no distractions so I can finally finish. However, if I did this, I would be pregnant either my very 1st or 2nd year teaching, so I don't know how the school/principal will look at that, and how my chances of getting re-hired would be. Plus, the kids would have a larger age difference, which I'm not sure how we feel about that.

Tell me your thoughts on this. Anything is appreciated!

megann831 · December 2011

I think you should go for it now. Schools aren't going to know, or ask, how old you are. You'll need childcare when you're teaching, so as long as you can afford it, it doesn't really matter if you got childcare while teaching either. Teaching is very hard to get into, once you have a job you don't really want to jepordize it w/ a pregnancy or trying to figure out how to juggle an infant and working.

As soon as you graduate I'd look into getting someone to help out, like a SAHM or something, so you can sub and have childcare as needed. This way you'll get your name out there.

CER+MEL · December 2011

Since you already have a child and are making that work with your school routine, I think you might as well go for it now. A first or second year of teaching can be very demanding without a pregnancy and/or new baby to factor in. The only benefit to waiting that I see would be the added income--a good benefit, but maybe not enough to wait for. Nobody will care how old you are when you start teaching as long as your training/experience is good and recent. And 28 isn't that old anyway!

CrazyToast · December 2011

I think you should go for it - since, as someone posted about the other day, teaching jobs are sometimes hard to come by. I think you should do what works best for your family. I work with many ladies who have had 2 or 3 kids since I started teaching with them. I've been teaching 10 years, and I have never seen anything negative from coworkers about teachers having babies (now the parents, that's something else...).

lchitt · December 2011

life is short, so for it when you are ready! You will know if it is right for you or not. I would recommend taking out short term disabilty. You will use your sick days but will still collect a check while you are out. It is about 30 dollars a month through USAble but when you are out 6 weeks you will be paid! I got my regular salary and recieved a 2200 check in mail today for my leave. If you have Csection you get more bc leave is 8 weeks. I would recommend this because if you use all your sick days you have built up you may be charged for these the rest of the year through your check. (my friend has this happening right now). You do not have to exhaust your days to claimshort term disabilty but its good to have that extra if you are on a budget.

Want a personalized experience?

Where are all of the Teachers?

Re: Where are all of the Teachers?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards