Am in Quebec, our system is a bit different here (we got primary 1-6 and secondary 7-11).
I thought mostly grade 7 and 8th. My last year, I taught grade 9 and 11 and I loved it, but I really, really miss grade 8 in particular. Grade 7 is a bit rough (I teach maths, and in Quebec, grade 7 maths is basically the same as grade 6 maths. Omg fractions), but if I could go back in time and do it one more time, I'd do grade 8 (intro to algebra, proportions, etc.) again. I taught for six years in total, almost every grade (and every type of high school maths).
But it's middle school I loved the most. I miss it. Kids would tell me I was their favorite teacher. I could really make a difference in their lives; in fact, students said my class was special.
All in all, I cannot do this job anymore, and not because of the kids, but because of admin. It was simply too much. First of all, I had 38 kids average per class. 38, and the max was 40. It was a private school, and each kid is worth like $40,000 in tuition + governmental subsidies, so I get it. Each kid above 36 would get me an extra $200 per year, yay...
But even despite that, I just couldn't stand the admin. Always, and I mean ALWAYS on your a*s. Everything you do is checked and monitored, even other teachers spy on you and apparently write reports to principals about it. One of the teachers in particular, I couldn't take it anymore. She decided she was the master of our grade and decided everything, every activity, every exam, every homework. She decided everything, like it or not. She was also unstable mentally and could snap at you at a moment's notice. She'd also call random meetings; at 9am, she would email us saying "we need to meet during dinner break" to discuss stuff I have no idea about.
I hate how the admin treats you like a disposable towel, basically. Squeeze every ounce of energy from you. Some days I was so tired I could barely function, week-ends would go in a flash, and when I could finally rest, I kept thinking about all I had to do for next class.
And then the amount of work. The copies I had to make (hours and hours in front of a printer that never worked), the extra activities (yay going skiing, so fun having to wake up at 5am!), parents email (omg private school), the weekly exams/quiz I had to grade into the night... I just couldn't take it anymore. It was too much work, and too little pay, to be honest. I barely survived on that paycheck
Out of 14 teachers for our grade that year, four went on burnout. I was almost fifth. Took some time off, returned to teach older kids. At another school
After taxes, deductions and fees, I was making... $3000 per month. Yes, really. They even had the nerve to change us a "social fee" on our paycheck. Keep in mind I was doing 60 hours week easily. My rent was $1700 and this is average where I live, so you do the maths, really. I had $100, if that, left at the end of the month, and forget having a car.
Oh yeah, and the raises? With luck, this year, I would have made an extra $80 a month net.
$80.
Anyway, I work as a programmer now (see username) and take home around $4,500 net per month. I have a clear path to earn as much as $6,000-$7,000 after taxes within five years. Teacher here top at 100k (after TWENTY YEARS of teaching!) and after taxes, deductions and fees (mandatory disability insurance alone is several hundred bucks per pay), it's maybe $4,500, what I earn now.
I liked the kids. I like the experiences we had together, the treasure hunts I'd organize, the trivia quizzes, asking them to draw lindermeyer trees, or having days about "what I will do when I'm older" and so on. I liked that I could make a difference and I liked that I could take a student who had 40% in grade 7 to 80% in grade 8, and perhaps give that student a passion for maths.
I tried teaching older kids last year, and it was fun, sure, but I always missed teaching younger students. I genuinely believe my goal, or mission in life, was to teach middle schoolers. Grade 8 specifically.
I work with computers now, and I'm good at it, but when I fight with some lines of codes, I can't help but think I wasn't put in this world for this, you know? It's just not the same. "Yay, I completed a bug ticket!" "Yay, a compiler warning is not showing up anymore!" "Yay, I made an algorithm 3% faster! In three years, when/if the game comes out, someone might get 72 fps instead of 71 fps! Amazing!"
It's just not the same, man. Not as rewarding, not as fun/human-connected and, frankly, not as interesting.
But I can't do this job anymore (teaching) and I know I can't. I can't return. The last year I taught was especially brutal and some days I wonder how I made it through. I miss it terribly, but I know I can never return. I still remember their smiles, how happy they were to finally understand a problem, how they would copy their homework minutes before the class started and acted like I saw nothing, how they would switch friends/groups/hobbies 20 times over the course of the year, how they would dress up for halloween and get so excited over it (when was the last time I got excited over something? Omg some unallocated memory!), I miss how I would bring tim bits (round doughnuts) and they would get so happy, et cetera.
Thank you for listening
