substitute teaching in the burbs - PhillyBlog

villybust · #1 (**permalink**) 07-09-2008, 06:27 PM

My wife and I are moving to Bryn Mawr for my graduate school--we are currently located on the west coast. While I'll be schooling and working at Villanova, she hopes to do substitute teaching before she does her student teaching (secondary ed, english) in the spring semester. After that she will have her B.S. and will be licensed. I've read other posts about substitute teaching in Philly and how much of a pain it is. Is it difficult to get set up in the suburbs? Is there enough demand that she could stay busy just in the burbs or would she have to go to philly and pay the wage tax, etc., to keep busy? What is the pay difference?

Thanks for any info/advice.

RobGerhart.com · #2 (**permalink**) 07-09-2008, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by villybust

My wife and I are moving to Bryn Mawr for my graduate school--we are currently located on the west coast. While I'll be schooling and working at Villanova, she hopes to do substitute teaching before she does her student teaching (secondary ed, english) in the spring semester. After that she will have her B.S. and will be licensed. I've read other posts about substitute teaching in Philly and how much of a pain it is. Is it difficult to get set up in the suburbs? Is there enough demand that she could stay busy just in the burbs or would she have to go to philly and pay the wage tax, etc., to keep busy? What is the pay difference?

Thanks for any info/advice.

Your wife will need a degree and teaching cert to sub.

My fiance just got her degree and she is finding the teaching job market here in the burbs very competitive.

Best of luck to you.

ThePhillyFlyer · #3 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 09:58 AM

ThePhillyFlyer · #4 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobGerhart.com

Your wife will need a degree and teaching cert to sub.

My fiance just got her degree and she is finding the teaching job market here in the burbs very competitive.

Best of luck to you.

My wife is a teacher in the Archdiocese and she would concur with what you said regarding public schools. Throw in a few dashes of nepotism here and there (I'm not saying it's widespread but I know it exists) and I think you have SE PA teacher job hunting summed up. It's a tough market to get a teaching job...a lot of schools would like teachers to have master's degrees coming in or be in the process of getting one.

Puffin Jr · #5 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhillyFlyer

My wife is a teacher in the Archdiocese and she would concur with what you said regarding public schools. Throw in a few dashes of nepotism here and there (I'm not saying it's widespread but I know it exists) and I think you have SE PA teacher job hunting summed up. It's a tough market to get a teaching job...a lot of schools would like teachers to have master's degrees coming in or be in the process of getting one.

I more or less concur. Nepotism exists everywhere, I guess, so there is no way around that.

In my view, there are a few reasons it is so tough to get a teaching job in the public schools.

1. Large number of colleges in the area producing a high number of teachers
2. Top notch benefits (esp the pension)
3. Pretty darn good pay - in many public districts, you will be making almost 100k before you are 40 (assume you start at age 22 out of college, and your pay scale tops out in 15-20 years, and you get the masters plus credits needed to advance)

villybust · #6 (**permalink**) 07-11-2008, 01:20 PM

Wow, I'm glad I asked. Thanks for the heads-up. Looks like my wife will have to find other plans for work until she finishes her student teaching, and even then...