Tremendously supportive administration, great kids, unfortunate economic situation.
Pros
Very supportive administration at the school where I teach. Want to start a club or organization? Have an idea for how to improve the school? Want to start a committee? If you are on board with contributing to the school in a positive way, the administrators will do whatever they can to help you. For instance, I wanted to write a grant proposal, but did not have any extra time prior to the submission deadline. The administrators gave me sub coverage for 6 hours over two days, so that I could write the proposal. Totally awesome. Almost all of my colleagues take great pride in their work and value their contribution to the community. There is a great sense of teamwork and collaboration. It starts among the teaching staff, but is fully supported by a devoted administration team. The kids are great. While there is not a whole lot of ethnic diversity, there is a great deal of economic diversity. You can see the social divides sometimes, but the kids are pretty inclusive of each other. I'm very fortunate to be able to teach AP classes. My AP students are a joy to teach. I'm also very fortunate to have some very energetic students involved in two clubs that I sponsor. These students basically give me an opportunity to share my personal hobbies and interests at work: an absolute pleasure. Teaching is a fun job if you feel supported by your administration, if you like young people and if you like your subject area.
Cons
Not enough financial resources (or they were just mismanaged). Going into the field of education, I was aware that I would be earning a smaller salary than an engineer or software developer. However, working for a public school system offers the benefit of dependable (in theory) pay raises every year, as negotiated through the union. Not getting pay raises for two years in a row, plus a hike in medical insurance costs, took a big bite out of morale. It's too hard to raise a family on a teacher's salary, especially when you can't get a raise to keep up with inflation. Another issue is technology support. The current IT department is spread far too thin. It takes forever to get something fixed.
