Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

the way u describe,i feel the pace is quite alright. worksheet are quite standard afterall.
test qns also not that frequent and usually can use ten year series or past year papers isnt it. years ago in skool, ive seen teacher marking papers whenever they could during class lessons when they give us some qns to try on. marking papers are pretty standard also. if hes efficient enough, he should be able to finish everything he has on hand in skool by 630 and then go home, rather than bringing his work back home

Precisely. It is just your friend who is unable to utilize his time properly. poor time management dude.

From the many years that I know him as classmate, I don't think he is. He told me afternoons are usually occupied with endless meetings with his bosses and peers, if not with students or parents. He's not stupid either, 1st Cass Honours (BEng) working as an engineering manager in US MNC before he joins teaching.

Well I am outsider, wouldn't want to comment further. There are many information available and talk to ex-teachers, they will not hide because they already resigned.

://sgforums.com/forums/3317/topics/399609

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i'm a local uni grad with second upper honours. around 1 year of work experience so far. been considering making the switch to teaching, either gp or social studies/history/english.

i think i'd enjoy the teaching part (as with most aspiring teachers), but reading through forums and various blog posts online, the non-teaching aspect of the job seems like a huge bummer.

out of these i'm most concerned with the burnout/being overworked than anything else.

so my question is, how bad is it, really?

i don't mind staying late occasionally during busy periods but if the norm is to work from 7am to 8pm everyday then i'd think twice.

do teachers really have to burn EVERY saturday (even half day) for cca? from my secondary school days i remember the teacher wasn't around every saturday when we had cca meetings/activities.

are school holidays always burnt and how much protected time is truly protected?

the lack of 'prospects' in terms of money and corporate ladder climbing isn't that huge an issue for me. i'm not the most ambitious or competitive person...i'm just looking for a job where i can find some form of satisfaction/enjoyment and where i get sufficient time outside of work to have a life pursuing my personal interests.

Anyone else care to chime in on this topic?

It honestly depends on the person. Firstly, you have to remove this idea that teaching is somehow a 'career'. It is not. Teaching is a passion. There is no reward, you do this because you WANT to, there should be no other reason. Those who burn out usually have different expectations, they want to teach because they want some material reward, it doesnt work like that. Teaching is the reward in itself. If you dont find that appealing, then dont try at all. If you want to be rewarded, dont join MOE, there are many private tuition centers that pay good money.

Secondly, teaching is difficult. You may get dumped into a lousy school where you may have to deal with divorced parents, children from poor homes, most of the time, you will be doing some sort of damage control instead of teaching. If this is not what you want, you can try aiming for JC level teaching. However, from what I know, only those with good academic credentials, ie FCH or second upper, are allowed to teach in JC. Not only that, your degree has to be related. If not, you will start from secondary school and work your way up.

At the end of the day, try not to break your bond. If you really cannot tahan, get some pills. Work your way until you finish your bond. I've met alot of teachers that break their bond. Its a bloody stupid move. But in such high stress situations, not many people can think straight.

I am an ex MOE teacher thinking of returning to teaching.Recently I was offered a lecturing job at ITE.However,I am contemplating of taking up flexi-adjunct teaching instead of the lecturer job.If you were me,which would you choose?In a dilemma right now......

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am an ex MOE teacher thinking of returning to teaching.Recently I was offered a lecturing job at ITE.However,I am contemplating of taking up flexi-adjunct teaching instead of the lecturer job.If you were me,which would you choose?In a dilemma right now......

The issue with being an adjunct lecturer is that the total pay is much lower even though the hourly rate seems high. You will also be at the mercy of the timetable planner - the worst possibility is to work 5 days a week with semi-long breaks between classes on each day.

Yes I definitely agree with the writer. It's a passion, nothing else. Teaching is only 40% of the job, the rest is events organizer that starts with meetings and meetings, "damage control" like what the writer mentioned, dealing with unreasonable parents, etc. If you are going after money, it's the wrong place, especially if you are young and ambitious. Somehow and for some reasons, there are more children with family problems these days, may be due to our high stress society? This is even evident in the elite schools where some students are very bright and scored high in PSLE, got admitted but they cannot perform when they are in secondary schools due to parents divorce, fight, debt problems, etc. This was shared by someone I know. So teachers have to come in to solve the problem....to ensure those bright kids do well in schools and don't fall through the cracks.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It honestly depends on the person. Firstly, you have to remove this idea that teaching is somehow a 'career'. It is not. Teaching is a passion. There is no reward, you do this because you WANT to, there should be no other reason. Those who burn out usually have different expectations, they want to teach because they want some material reward, it doesnt work like that. Teaching is the reward in itself. If you dont find that appealing, then dont try at all. If you want to be rewarded, dont join MOE, there are many private tuition centers that pay good money.

Secondly, teaching is difficult. You may get dumped into a lousy school where you may have to deal with divorced parents, children from poor homes, most of the time, you will be doing some sort of damage control instead of teaching. If this is not what you want, you can try aiming for JC level teaching. However, from what I know, only those with good academic credentials, ie FCH or second upper, are allowed to teach in JC. Not only that, your degree has to be related. If not, you will start from secondary school and work your way up.

At the end of the day, try not to break your bond. If you really cannot tahan, get some pills. Work your way until you finish your bond. I've met alot of teachers that break their bond. Its a bloody stupid move. But in such high stress situations, not many people can think straight.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes I definitely agree with the writer. It's a passion, nothing else. Teaching is only 40% of the job, the rest is events organizer that starts with meetings and meetings, "damage control" like what the writer mentioned, dealing with unreasonable parents, etc. If you are going after money, it's the wrong place, especially if you are young and ambitious. Somehow and for some reasons, there are more children with family problems these days, may be due to our high stress society? This is even evident in the elite schools where some students are very bright and scored high in PSLE, got admitted but they cannot perform when they are in secondary schools due to parents divorce, fight, debt problems, etc. This was shared by someone I know. So teachers have to come in to solve the problem....to ensure those bright kids do well in schools and don't fall through the cracks.

i'm young but not ambitious in the corporate sense. i enjoy teaching (or at least think I would based on cca and experience giving tuition). but i'm worried about burning weekends/holidays and bringing work home and working till late. occasionally is fine, but if it's a standard occurrence then I'd think twice.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am an ex MOE teacher thinking of returning to teaching.Recently I was offered a lecturing job at ITE.However,I am contemplating of taking up flexi-adjunct teaching instead of the lecturer job.If you were me,which would you choose?In a dilemma right now......

If you are an experienced MOE teacher before, you will likely find the pay offered by ITE below your last drawn salary.

ITE generally pays 3-4k for lecturer (those with <10 yrs relevant exp) and 4-5k for senior lecturer (those above 10 yrs relevant exp). However the food thing with teaching in ITE compared to normal MOE school teacher is workload is less stressful, working hours OK dun really need to bring work home and very little need to customer service with pesky parents.

Also the type of people who teach at ITE vs secondary/JC/poly is quite different, you must be able to get along with your colleagues otherwise work life can be quite miserable.

My advise is you have to ask yourself if you are prepared to make sacrifices for something that you believed in. If you go in with the correct mindset and mentally ready to adjust your lifestyle for a cause that you are passionate about, you will be fine. Otherwise life may be miserable and add one more headcount to those who break bond or resign immediately after serving the bond. There are some in every batch of fresh NIE graduates. I have seen 2 in 3 resigned from one batch once. Those who resign will lament that they "lost" 4 good years of working experience because teachers' experience are in general not considered for "additional" starting pay in the private sector.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i'm young but not ambitious in the corporate sense. i enjoy teaching (or at least think I would based on cca and experience giving tuition). but i'm worried about burning weekends/holidays and bringing work home and working till late. occasionally is fine, but if it's a standard occurrence then I'd think twice.