Pros
I taught in traditional schools for ten years before coming to FLVS, and I've taught at FLVS now for five years. In the traditional schools, I was not challenged. I was frustrated. I saw lazy, jaded, tenured teachers shoving worksheets in front of kids day in and day out. It was impossible to fire them, it was impossible to motivate them, it was an impossible situation--and it was so discouraging to watch. At FLVS good teachers are recognized and bad teachers are fired. It's just that simple. But I think that oftentimes career teachers balk at the idea of being fired for poor performance, because even though the real world is like that, education is generally not. If you're struggling at time management, student motivation, and all the other aspects of your job, FLVS has mentor teachers and other resources to help coach you up. If you still can't figure it out, this isn't the place for you. That's the same as any other job in the universe (except traditional school teaching, of course). Teaching here has been the most challenging and most rewarding time of my career. I appreciate that folks who can't serve their students appropriately are not kept on staff; it reinforces that those of us who are working hard and doing it right are recognized and rewarded. I don't work 80 hours a week or whatever. If you're working that many hours, you're doing it wrong. Seriously. There was a big learning curve when I first started, and I remember working a lot of hours that first summer, but once you get a system down and you get it figured out, it's not overwhelming anymore, it's just your job. I think that people who are so bitter and strung out by their job should go find a new one--go back to the school district where you live. But I have a feeling those were the same people sitting in the teachers' lounge complaining loudly for 30 minutes every lunch period about their assistant principal. Anyway, FLVS does have substitutes--I know because they've been in my classroom plenty of times over 5 years. There's nothing in your contract that says you can't go back to teaching in your district whenever you want. The facts are these: we get paid because we lead students to success--not because we show up, drink coffee, and throw scantrons in front of kids. It's challenging and it's rigorous and it's in almost every way different from traditional school teaching. And that's why I love it.
Cons
I would say a con of working at FLVS is that you feel the stress of budget decisions that are made each year in Tallahassee. Working in a school district, you know that whatever happens, once you have tenure, you have a job. With FLVS, our funding is completely based on the legislature.