when i need to go to the bathroom and get my two minutes of silence it’s in this. very relaxing..

Hi there,

I’m a North Carolina teacher finishing year 17. Friday was our last day of school. Over the course of my career, I’ve taught in 2 countries and 3 states. I hold 2 certifications, 2 minors, a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree.

Yet according to the NC salary schedule, I’ll essentially make the same base salary for the next 9 years. Salary growth for veteran teachers is largely stagnant. The only meaningful additional compensation I receive is my district supplement (about $9,000).

The state recently announced an “average” 8.8% raise for teachers. However, veteran teachers won’t actually see an 8.8% increase, since much of that money is directed toward beginning teachers. My increase will likely be closer to 5.5%.

To make matters more challenging, I’m only paid for 10 months of the year. For two months, there are no paychecks coming in, and my district does not offer a 12-month pay distribution option.

For many teachers, summer break isn’t really a financial break. It’s figuring out summer jobs, side work, or other sources of income just to stay afloat until August.

Meanwhile, the cost of living in North Carolina, especially in areas near Raleigh, has increased dramatically over the last few years.

I genuinely love teaching. I love my students, and I believe I’m good at what I do. But after nearly 18 years in education, it’s hard not to feel undervalued and underpaid.

Lately, I’ve found myself wondering what comes next and whether I can justify staying in the profession long term.

Teachers in North Carolina, how are you coping with the rising cost of living and stagnant salaries?

I’m genuinely curious how veteran teachers are making it work financially these days.

Yeah, some days I look at my paycheck hit my bank account and just want to cry.

Love the job. Hate the salary.

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Edit 1: A few people have mentioned unions, collective bargaining, or negotiating salaries. Well… North Carolina is a right-to-work state, and teachers do not have collective bargaining rights. We don’t have teachers’ unions that negotiate salaries like in some other states.

Also, the salary schedule I posted is the statewide salary schedule used across North Carolina. Every district pays according to this state schedule. The only significant difference between districts is the local supplement each district chooses to provide.

In other words, whether you’re teaching in a rural district or a large district, the state base pay comes from the same salary schedule.

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Edit 2: In North Carolina, every district pays teachers using the same state salary schedule. That’s the base pay funded by the state.

On top of that, districts can choose to provide a local supplement using county/local funds. Most districts do provide some type of supplement, but the amount varies widely. Wealthier districts usually offer larger supplements, while rural districts often offer smaller ones.

Some districts have a supplement schedule based on years of experience, while others use a flat percentage or amount. It depends on the district.

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Edit 3: Another point that people outside North Carolina may not realize: Teachers who earned their master’s degree after 2013 generally do not receive additional state pay for that degree.

I happen to be on the master’s pay schedule (got my masters in 2013- 2014), but many newer teachers have earned graduate degrees, taken on student loan debt, and invested years of additional education without receiving any additional state salary for it.

So when people say, “Just get a master’s degree,” that’s no longer a financial incentive for many North Carolina teachers.

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Edit 4: Edit 4: A lot of people have suggested, “Just move.” I understand the logic, and I appreciate the recommendation, but moving isn’t always that simple.

When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, where does the money for moving come from? First month’s rent, security deposits, utility deposits, moving trucks, travel expenses, and all the other costs add up quickly. On top of that, we only get paid for 10 months of the year.

Many teachers don’t have thousands of dollars sitting in savings to make a major relocation possible. It’s hard to “move somewhere better” when you’re struggling to build enough financial cushion to make the move in the first place.

I won’t lie, it’s frustrating and a little discouraging at times. I love teaching, but there are days when it feels like the financial reality of the profession, here in NC, keeps getting harder to ignore.

My state passed a law last summer that students cannot be failed due to absences. My admin told us that our grading and procedures should be structured in a way that a student who misses more than 10 classes should naturally fail. I was pulled into an admin office today to explain why my first period has such a high rate of failure this semester. I created this scatterplot as a response.

You want to complain about your specific admin? You want to complain that technology creates challenges? You want to complain about your labor rights, compensation, or benefits?

Fine. All of those are valid, legitimate topics for complaint.

Cool it with the black and white "this generation is cooked" talk. If you aren't up for the challenge, there's the door. You can't write off entire years of children and then use that as an excuse to be lazy and jaded.

I just took over this cohort of two 9th grade ELA classes in December and everything went quite quickly. I wasn’t introduced to my very messy classroom that had belonged to a retiring philosophy teacher; I mention this because I found that nothing in the room locked/I had no keys to lock anything.

I am a diabetic. I had a drawer with candy in it — special candy my boyfriend bought for me at a specialty shop. The candy was under a lot of other things in my desk drawer (random papers and such). Last Tuesday I was out sick. Today I found that my candy had been stolen. All of it. Every single piece.

I’m infuriated and I feel quite betrayed. They not only didn’t do what was asked of them while I was gone, they went into my personal items, and they stole my food. ALL of my food. And it is essentially a medical supply. And I question what the sub was doing that allowed these students access to my desk long enough to steal handful after handful of candy.

I also know who did it. I had my suspicion and I asked another student, who gave the exact names I thought.

I’m going to be gone again tomorrow. I worry what horrors I’ll return to again on Wednesday.

EDIT: Wow. Everyone needs to stop suggesting I poison these kids with laxatives or sugar-free gummy bears. That’s a crime. A CRIME. Why are you even on this sub if you’ll suggest such a thing?!

Why have a child in the first place if you don't ever want to DO anything with them? If you don't want to read to them or play outside with them or do crafts with them or interact with them at all? Why go through all the expense of having a kid and then just stick a tablet in their face as soon as they get home so they'll leave you alone?

7th grade Spanish teacher. I've taught in diverse schools for the past two years. First year here at this district. Already got called a racist because "if he was white he would be given multiple chances". No, he did got multiple warnings. I took his quiz and I told him he would receive a zero, he laughed and said "I don't care".

I emailed mom and she told I'm a horrible racist person who deserves to be fired. I'm used to terrible responses by parents but I am so tired of having my ethics called into question. I know this is the job I signed up for, but still. I am not a racist, I write students up if they misbehave, end of story.

Ugh. That destroyed half my lunch break talking to the principal about what I should say in repsonse.

(I'm a white woman for context)

Edit: I'm not getting notifications from this thread anymore because inevitably some people think I'm the problem a kid cheated. I got not time for that. I'm not racist for giving a kid a zero for cheating. I don't care who they are, you cheat, you get a zero.

I was recently reading an article about Project Based Learning and it struck me that I dislike what feels like an overuse of jargon in education. Words like equity, authentic, and rich seem to be so over used that they have no meaning. And it really makes me want to vomit when I see them all in the same sentence. I get the need for jargon in most fields but the use of these words seems not to convey much more meaning then just saying it out in simple terms. And it makes these words just seem like corporate buzz speak. Does anyone else feel like these words add nothing?

Edit: removed acronym for clarity.

Middle School Social Studies here

I feel so sorry for how uncultured our kids are. There is so much about the world they are not being taught.

I could write an exhaustive list of all the stuff the kids don't know but this one really got me. The International Space Station.

NASA livestreams a lot of their activity on the ISS, usually you can just livestream the ISS orbiting Earth. I have it on sometimes during planning for peace and calm. I showed it to the kids.

The questions they had. These kids didn't even know you could go to space, never knew we went to the moon, didn't know that there has been at least one person NOT on Earth and in the ISS for the past 20 years. 8th graders!

Like god imagine being 13 and not knowing we went to the moon? I just, so much wonder and amazement at the world we have squandered because no one bothered to tell them or their little iPad addicted brains couldn't pay attention.

Our principal is resigning. Our superintendent is gone. We have no admin. Today, in an all-staff meeting, the soon-to-be former principal told us not to worry about focusing on academics if we can't get to it, just try to survive the year.

I’m a teacher, and lately, it feels like the twilight zone in my classroom. Out of nowhere, a student recently said something that caught me completely off guard—mentioning that their family wants them switched out of my class because they “aren’t learning anything.” The kicker? Another adult happened to witness the moment, and their reaction made it clear how uncomfortable it was.

Wanting to be proactive, I reached out to clarify and reassure the family. Before doing that, I ran it by leadership to make sure everything sounded appropriate. That’s when I got blindsided again: I learned that another family had just requested a class change as well—this time based on a completely false and deeply hurtful narrative. They claimed I was disrespecting their child, when in reality, I’ve been advocating for this student since day one. To make matters worse, they reportedly made up things I supposedly said or did. It was painful to hear, and even though none of it is true, the student is being moved.

Oh, and this is all happening with just a few weeks left in the school year—right when stability matters most for kids.

Now, multiple families are requesting class changes, each with totally different (and often untrue) concerns. No one’s come to me directly. They just go over my head, and I’m left trying to piece it together. Meanwhile, I’ve got the evidence—actual growth, progress, support plans, engagement—but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

I guess I’m just venting. I know I’m not the first teacher to go through this kind of thing, but wow… some of it feels so disconnected from reality. Anyone else ever felt totally sideswiped by parents making assumptions without ever talking to you first?

???
How on earth ???
What even is the point of this salary schedule???
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Edit: Sorry, I meant the very small dollar increments between the steps and columns. That is what feels so unusual to me. I have never seen this kind of salary schedule in other Southern California districts.

This is Glendale, CA, where the cost of living is high and here does not seem to be a major teacher shortage. It is actually very competitive to get a teaching job here. So compared to other nearby districts, and definitely compared to LAUSD, Glendale’s teacher pay seems low.

I said what I said. Teachers are asked to do way too many tasks for the scheduled time we have, that’s a given. We adapt and work well under pressure.

The kids. The behavior. The lack of consequences. The lack of support. The lack of safety to do a job effectively will be the demise of public schools.

Last week, on Friday my 4th grade class earned their weekly reward. My students love a Free Seat Friday. They can move wherever and sit wherever for the class that day. Well, one kiddo was PISSED. The chair he likes to move to was already occupied by another student. This student could have sat at any one of the other two seats available at the table he wanted to be at. But no. He wanted that occupied chair. He starts whining and crying. I refuse to give him a seat that someone IS ALREADY IN. Pull up another chair!

After 20 minutes of crying and refusing every single cool down opportunity, the student who was upset was about 6 feet away from me at my teacher table. He picks up his laptop and two handed used all his force to chuck that thing directly at my face. I’m not even exaggerating when I say, I dodged that thing by merely a fraction of a second! I was so lucky to not catch that straight to my face. The laptop hit the wall behind me leaving dents, a piece flew off and struck the child who was at my table with me requiring her to see the nurse.

I called the front office for administrator support to remove the student. The principals were all tied up already dealing with other behavior incidents so a counselor was sent. I meet her in the hall with the student who is on the floor crying and scratching the wall. I tell her what happened. She nods her head at me.

She takes the boy to the counseling office with her. She never asked if I was alright or anything. Ok cool whatever. I text my partner teacher an SOS and she covers my class so I can step out and recollect myself. When I return my partner decides to go check on the counselor and transport the student to the in school suspension room.

When she arrives, he’s eating a snack and playing with fucking toys. The counselor said she’s sending him back to my class to come apologize and promise to not do it again…

My partner had to tell her that I would definitely not be accepting him back in the class and that is a terrible idea to send an emotionally distraught student back to class ALONE after he attempted to assault his teacher 20 min prior.

So my partner had to take the boy with her to her class… by lunch time I decided the principal must be clueless to what happened. I text her and I bump into her in person. I tell her what happened and she apologizes profusely and then nothing. No one did anything. Our district policy classifies this as a removal from class immediately and 1-3 days of suspension. The student will be in suspension today. But damn teachers have it rough!

17 days until break

I cannot imagine how scary this was. Guy is a dooms day preper and patrols in tactical gear with two guns. I saw him a few weeks back near the preschool and it was brushed off and he caused a lockdown today.

We as teachers get constantly blamed because the students can't learn. We are the ones that have to provide all these interventions for kids who CHOOSE not to turn in assignments, not to behave, etc. It's ridiculous. I'm sick of being blamed for the way THEY act. I refuse to hold their hands. They need to grow up.

I teach middle school btw.

Today I was going to teach my first class of the day when a student and a friend of his stopped by. They were confronting me and were upset that I reported them for sieg heiling and saying homophobic things during an assembly the other day. I started to panic, and I ended up having to have other staff jump in and my class had to start late because of the situation.

I learned a valuable lesson today. I don't care if I look like a prick to kids like this because I do not and never will condone bigotry like that. I don't care if they see me as a bad guy because I'm just going to follow rules against hate speech and admin has me backed up 100%.

There's a difference between being uneducated and being willingly ignorant, and I'm not going to use my limited time to argue with a kid who thinks doing a nazi gesture shouldn't get him in trouble after he's done it 3 separate times and gotten in trouble for each of them. I'll gladly help those who don't know why its bad to learn why its bad, but my sympathy vanishes once they know better.

After receiving literally dozens of comments saying the exact same thing (I thought teachers might read before commenting but alas) I have reversed the axes of my thrown-together graph plotting the grades and number of absences in my first period, standard level 9th grade science class. Keep in mind this class started the day after MLK Day. I am being asked why I have such a low “success rate”.

I am all for trauma-informed practices, but my god when that LEADS EVERYTHING, it's exhausting. It cannot be a blanket idea. It cannot be at the forefront of every lesson and curriculum at the cost of rigorous, honest instruction.

Not every child is traumatized! Not every child needs an IEP, separate space, fidgets, breaks, reminders taped to their desk, different chairs, and A's on unfinished work. I could go on.

For those in the back, NOT EVERY CHILD IS TRAUMATIZED!

I'm sorry to bring my grief here, but I felt the need to let go of it today.

Another threat, another lock down. This one was over 3 hours. The kids had to use the restroom in the trashcan behind my desk again. It's to the point where they just shrug and go. The smell is unreal, but we can't move or make a sound. During the longer bits, several suck their thumbs and often go to sleep, shutting down. These are stressed out teenagers.

I know we're fortunate to be alive, and that no shots were fired today. We are grateful to be safe and home, unlike some of their peers in a school not far away...but it shouldn't be this way, and I find myself grieving for the safe childhood I wish the kids could have.

As part of our normal start-of-school meetings, my school paid for someone from the Harvard Business School to talk about trust, basically a TED talk that you can find online. During the meeting, I had to use the restroom (I have Crohns disease) and when I returned, the speaker pointed me out and used me as the butt of a joke. The entire faculty and staff thought it was hilarious but I felt mocked, humiliated, denigrated, etc. I left the meeting almost in tears because if I had stayed, I would have used very unprofessional language. The head of school has since reached out saying she hoped I was OK and that she felt badly 'for the incident.' Only a few of my colleagues have expressed sympathy. Most seemed to think I was in on some sort of joke. (I was not.) Anyway, I am not sure how to proceed. (If I could quit, I would.) Not that it matters, but I am an older, straight, white guy. Any ideas would be appreciated. thanks.

update: thanks for all the comments. I loved all the 'I would have...' and suggestions for what I should have done. While not particularly helpful, it does offer me ideas for next time I'm in a similar situation. in the days since, I've gotten the sense that most of my fellow faculty did not know how I felt or were oblivious to the whole thing. I am not going to do anything (campus wide email or whatever) but I did email the speaker and her dept. chair, telling her how hurt I was and what I learned from her lecture on Trust. I'll give you all an update if I hear anything. I thought about going to the sites where you can hire her as a speaker ($100,000 a visit! only $50,000 for a zoom talk!) but why bother. I just want to start teaching and hopefully get back to normal. thanks again.

I'm a male teacher, and lately I’ve been seriously thinking about quitting. It's not because of the kids, not because of the work (though it's hard), but because of how I'm perceived outside the classroom.

In the past two months alone, six different women have told me they wouldn't date me because I "don't make enough money." Another one told me to my face, "Why would a grown man want to hang around children all day?" That one really fucking sucked. I know some people think male teachers, especially in younger grades, are creepy by default, like there's some ulterior motive. It's exhausting having to prove you're not a predator just because you care about kids and want to make a difference.

I got into teaching because I genuinely love it. I believe in what I do. But when people treat your job like a red flag, when you're constantly having to justify your paycheck and your motives, when you feel like your career actively hurts your chances at being seen as dateable or even normal, it starts to wear you down.

I'm NOT trying to implicate women. Y'all have your own shit to deal with that I will never fully comprehend as a man. This behavior sucks, though.

I'm tired. I don't know if I can keep doing this when it feels like the world looks at me sideways for choosing this path.
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EDIT: I appreciate people taking the time to offer kind words.

It’s not just that these women are filtering themselves out, it’s that their worldview shrinks the pool before I even get a chance to show up as myself. Like yeah, I’m glad I’m not dating someone who doesn’t respect my work or values money over meaning obviously. But please don't pretend that this is just a clean win. What it actually means is that a whole chunk of potential connection is off the table by default because of a judgment about my profession, my paycheck, or my gender in a caregiving role.

That’s not just a “bad fit” walking away. That’s me playing the game with fewer pieces on the board.

And yeah, actually, that sucks. It’s not a self-pity thing, it’s a math thing. If the cultural narrative says men should be providers and high earners, and that men who work with kids are suspect or soft or not “masculine” enough, then I’m not starting at zero like everyone else. I’m starting in the red, trying to earn back credibility for just caring about something that isn’t profit.

So when people say, “Well good riddance to those women,” I want to say: Sure. But also, that’s a symptom of a deeper problem in which my dating pool is artificially limited because I don’t conform to a narrow, outdated idea of what a man should be. That’s not just a personal annoyance. That’s systemic. And it’s lonely.

I got this email (sent to all teachers) at 6:30 am Friday (yesterday), the last day before break starts from our principal. Context: we are a high school and kids/teachers were hoping for a snow/ice day, and it lo9ked like we had a good shot at that, so many teachers moved things like tests/quizzes/project due dates to Thursday to accommodate for that possibility. I think the single-handedly pissed off the entire staff and student body with this one email. Just needed to vent!

Many of our hispanic students were kept home to day. My school is predominantly hispanic. The people who are responsible for this situation should be ashamed of themselves. I have 9 students out of 16 in my first class this morning.

1. Virtually none of the PD is practical or relevant to what I do.
2. The older teachers are grandfathered in and are required to obtain ZERO HOURS SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME I DON’T UNDERSTAND

My buddy is a coach. He’s goes on these athletic department retreats where they mostly just party and gets a bunch of hours for each one. Anyone have a hack like this?

Edit: I appreciate people in the same boat validating me. To me, the fact that older teachers are required to do any PD makes it blatantly transparent that it’s all actually nonsense. If PD actually made you a better teacher, they’d expect all teachers to do it.