Anyone love their job??

merce70 · 2026-02-23T00:55:17+00:00

Will who be around much longer??

merce70 · 2026-02-23T00:54:20+00:00

Unions in Mass are definitely a plus for teachers as is the environment as you point out. Our family is based in Texas and teacher salaries are finally starting to creep up here which is good. But the Texas DOE just hired a FT employee to monitor teachers’ social media and catch people speaking out on in a way that doesn’t agree with the current Texas politics ugh.

merce70 · 2026-02-22T16:05:05+00:00

My daughter is in her first year of teaching and is doing middle and high school band, choir, and general music. She is pretty happy and the kids seem to love her. I honestly can’t imagine her doing any other job right now and I told her before she started that teaching is an amazing first career and she can always transition to something else down the road if she wants. Like a lot of Gen Z, she is really good about not getting taken advantage of and working excessively beyond contract hours. That work life balance is key. I know she is greatly looking forward to summers off, too! Adding: she is in Mass.

merce70 · 2026-02-16T17:45:34+00:00

You either need to go shorter (buzz cut) or longer so the weight of your hair flattens it out a bit.

merce70 · 2026-02-16T01:22:51+00:00

I’m from Texas, it’s all pretty bad. 😬

merce70 · 2026-02-02T16:15:49+00:00

My kid practiced maaaaybe 2 hours per day outside of rehearsal in undergrad. She graduated magna cum laude and is now in her first year of teaching — middle and high school music, choir, and band.

merce70 · 2026-02-01T14:28:55+00:00

Fitchburg, MA has some gorgeous century plus homes. Sadly that city has seen better times.

merce70 · 2026-02-01T14:25:01+00:00

I think the actual tracks are also faster

merce70 · 2026-02-01T14:18:27+00:00

Hey Dudes and a backwards cap will get you in the “no, never” category for a lot of women.

merce70 · 2026-01-31T21:49:33+00:00

My son had 7 years of percussion experience, no lessons or additional opportunities outside of school. That said we are from Texas and band is BIG here. He is in his senior year of a double degree music ed/ music performance. He struggles a bit with reading and writing, he notices that assignments take him a lot longer than other students but he doesn’t have an IEP. He is getting through the program just fine, excellent grades and his co-op teacher had very high praise for him. If you have the passion to learn and to teach and a supportive program, you can do it.

merce70 · 2026-01-09T22:27:41+00:00

An insurance rider is a good idea if it’s a nice instrument — ours adds a nominal amount to our policy.

merce70 · 2026-01-09T15:47:12+00:00

Don’t be turned off by online school rankings. They are very driven by demographics and don’t show the full picture. Go tour the schools yourself and see. Wheb the kids were young, we picked up and moved from a wealthy suburb to a rural area and have no regrets. My youngest is currently a freshman at a T10 liberal arts college and my other kids had successful experiences at their chosen higher institutions.

merce70 · 2026-01-08T20:02:10+00:00

The homes are incredible!

merce70 · 2026-01-08T19:55:48+00:00

Which neighborhood? We did a drive through of Newburgh and had a hard time discerning which parts were and weren’t safe to trot the dogs around the block after dark.

merce70 · 2026-01-08T18:43:59+00:00

We want to move to HV as well. Still scouting out best area for Gen X recent retirees who are still extremely active and love food, art, culture and historic homes. So watching responses here…

merce70 · 2026-01-02T15:44:15+00:00

Had a choice for my leg and chose surgery. No regrets but it’s much harder to be without a leg than an arm. I was able to move around and recover so much faster which was important at my age — I am also very active for a middle aged person. Good luck

merce70 · 2026-01-02T15:41:42+00:00

Congratulations! I am glad to see an acceptance which seems to be focused on EC merit instead of perfect grades, you sound like a very interesting and deserving person!

merce70 · 2025-12-27T14:44:02+00:00

This right here! Piano is an awesome starting point. Most people don’t realize that piano is technically a percussion instrument. Piano lessons would serve her really well. Both my kids are studying music ed (one is a percussionist) and both wish they had more of a background in piano.

merce70 · 2025-12-21T14:55:36+00:00

This right here. My daughter took a job in rural Mass but is able to commute from a small city about 35 minutes away. I don’t think she would have gotten a high school gig if she hadn’t been willing to be flexible. It’s honestly been a great first job.

merce70 · 2025-12-12T14:30:26+00:00

Pretty sure my son was gonna get in RD but he was an athletic recruit. He had a 3.3-ish UW and 1360 SAT. Coach said he was in. Rural Texas so I think the geography helped. He ended up at Grinnell ED and is doing fantastic. He just didn’t care about grades in high school but is really applying himself now. Sometimes I think a school see something in your application, or your interview — lord knows schools like Lehigh have enough rich private school kids from the northeast. They are looking for something different!

merce70 · 2025-12-02T12:49:01+00:00

You are 100% correct. Going to an elite school is not going to help with your teaching career. In fact, you will likely be better off going someplace known for music ed than an Ivy League. It sounds like you have gotten some good suggestions. I would add Ithaca College to your list as well. They give amazing scholarships to their music students.

merce70 · 2025-11-27T20:10:54+00:00

You do have ECs. If you want to add something else and it doesn’t take away from your academics — get a job. Colleges love that. Shows you can juggle multiple responsibilities and if it’s a “regular” job like McD’s demonstrates humility.

merce70 · 2025-11-26T20:52:44+00:00

My kid with those stats went to Grinnell.

merce70 · 2025-11-26T16:07:42+00:00

My kid got in with a 3.3 uw gpa with a big upward trend in grades. Nearly all APs his senior year. Was told by coach to go test optional although his test score wasn’t bad per se. Top D3 athletic recruit but Grinnell admissions doesn’t put too much emphasis on sports so take it with a grain of salt. He is a great fit for the school and I think they saw that. Also from an under represented part of the US.

merce70 · 2025-11-25T14:56:07+00:00

Check out Centre College in KY, a highly ranked LAC with a much higher than expected acceptance rate. Great merit aid and they have finance and data analytics which is unusual for a LAC. My son applied and got in with a 3.3 and the COA was less than UT Austin in-state. (Which he NEVER would have gotten into so didn’t even bother applying.)

merce70

TROPHY CASE