[The Bandit Fish]

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I agree that teaching somewhere other than the state of Illinois, or my hometown specifically, would probably be beneficial. Truth is, I'm two years away from really having to make that choice of what location I want to teach in. A lot could change too. I love my family dearly and being close to them would be a huge boost for my general happiness. That said, for all I know both of my families (parents divorced long ago) could move away from my hometown and then I have no reason to stay there.


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Well I'm a firm believer in seeing other scenery. I've moved over 1000 miles twice in the past three years. First was transferring from western NY (where I grew up) to NW Louisiana. After seven years working that job, I got fed up and decided it was time to actually do something with my life.

Now I'm in eastern NC and have just started going back to school, so I sort of know how you feel. Granted I'm not going to become a teacher, thats something I don't have the patience for, (teachers should be paid a minimum of four times what they are for the crap they have to deal with!), but I'll hopefully end up with degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. My head hurts just thinking about all the math. :/

I don't personally know how most schools pick teachers, but honestly if they're hiring people based upon being able to pay the person they hire less (which is what it seems like more than any sort of qualifications either candidate may have, from what you're describing), that frightens me.

I do know New York State pays teachers fairly well, and they now require you to have a Masters before you can even get the job. It used to be you had a few years to get the Masters and you couldn't get tenure until you finished your Masters. Just to give you an idea, starting pay around Rochester, NY is ~35k. In a lower paying district my mother was making ~60k/year after 21 years (she retired in 2000). I had teachers in highschool who were making 75k/year with 30 years. This was in the early-mid 90's too. If you can deal with Chicago weather you may want to look into NY state [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I wonder how many times I'll end up editing this post?

Ok as I said earlier, 10k is a drop in the bucket if thats all it will cost you to end up with more or better degrees.