I’m a multimedia “teacher” at a high school in Ohio. I think I’m part of a union? I get letters from some “retired Ohio teacher’s association”, but I have no idea.
I’m a multimedia “teacher” at a high school in Ohio. I think I’m part of a union? I get letters from some “retired Ohio teacher’s association”, but I have no idea. I went to college for communications and sports media, not teaching. I had aspirations of being a camera person or a broadcaster, not an educator. I was a video editor for a production company down the street from the school when I was offered the job two days before the 2024-25 school year. So to summarize, I have no teaching experience and I have to figure out how to teach six classes for an entire school year. Okay. I was hired and was given a 2-Year Provisional License to legally teach the class, so long as I completed 28 credits of a graduate course at Kent State. Okay, I did 28 credits in a semester in college, this shouldn’t be too hard. Well, when you’re trying to figure how teach Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro while dealing with an abusive relationship, let me tell you, it’s difficult. After the snafu that was actually getting into one class, I got a B on lesson planning. Hooray. Here comes the fun part: I get the bill from Kent State, it’s $2,500. And the school isn’t helping me with these classes so they have an actual multimedia teacher on their staff. And on top of that, the school is underpaying me, $950 biweekly. I have no idea how much a teacher should actually get paid, but I know it’s certainly more than that! On top of all this, I am in so much debt right now. I can barely afford my apartment, and it’s only $450 a month! This doesn’t even cover the student loans, the overpriced car payment on the crappy Nissan I had to get at a used car lot when my Buick died last March, the water bill I haven’t been able to pay since January, the credit card I just maxed out trying to pay for everything because I have -$700 in my bank account… Aside from actually teaching, I also run a student sports photography club. I’m at pretty much every single home sporting event supervising kids taking photos. I was the videographer for both basketball teams this year, and I had to take my crappy Nissan to Athens and Dayton, two cities 3 and 4 hours across the state of Ohio. I also do PA Announcing for the soccer teams and baseball team. Point being, I don’t get home until late in the evening most days and I don’t have time to get a second job. Side note, I think I’m underpaid with the sporting events too; I only get $20 per sporting event. I don’t think $10 an hour is really helping me cut these bills off. A month ago the principal and assistant-principal came to me and told me that they would not be rehiring me after this school year. So on top of being in tens of thousands of dollars in debt, I now no longer have a job after next month. With the way the job market is, I’ll be lucky to be able to flip burgers at Wendy’s for $12 an hour. Not really looking for an answer or a “fix everything” button here, but man, my school is really pissing me off. Thanks for the two years of wasted time and money. Time to go move back in with my mom. submitted by /u/BubbaRayChudley [link] [comments]
