Locally, our teachers are paid from property taxes and from an atavistic, almost feudal system of renting land out to farmers. My next door neighbor taught for 35 years. Her pension from that is a walloping $59 a month. Her pay was so low that her social security benefit is the absolute minimum payable.

(OTOH, the bright side of that is no municipality in Nebraska is in danger of bankruptcy due to pension payouts.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2018 07:39PM by ceasesmith.

Ha ha,,words from the uninformed...I taught kindergarteners for many years..Physical Education at that..Should my pay be based on the fact that you think all I did was play with them?.Walk a mile in a teacher's shoes...any teacher before you attack. It is one of the most difficult tasks. Every grade level has their pluses and minuses. High school students can be verbally instructed and, usually, are attentive. Small kiddies need more than verbal instruction and are much more needy in general, including nose wiping, shoe tying and plenty of hugs, as well as discipline. Try watching over 20+ kids scattered on a field and keep track of all of them to make sure they return home in the same condition as their parents sent them to school. Try dealing with undiagnosed ADHD and autism, because many parents at that age refuse to recognize a problem.

Yes, I'm sure glad I did it when I could. I have a small pension FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. You could have been a teacher, or maybe not. Teachers need to be patient and very aware of each child's needs.

Done

After 18 years, my husband decided to essentially quit practicing laws in order to do what he truly loves: teaching. He says in some ways, teaching high school is harder than practicing laws because the students are like clients you have to deal with every day. 10 hrs days are the norm for him. Some of his students accused him of teaching for the money and he informed them that he used to made more per hour practicing laws than what he makes per day teaching.

I love, love, love teaching. I loved the students. I loved learning (from students, new curriculum, etc). I loved it when students excelled or when you saw the "light bulb" moment and everything for them clicked. I remember teaching a sixth grade math class and having a student who was "so proud" that on one particularly tough equation, he got the answer quicker and easier than the teacher And I was proud of him, too! He was an amazing thinker and a great kid...as they all were!

I hated the admin and the policies in our district. I hated the way students were treated by other teachers, special ed "professionals," principals and staff. (Just a note about how students were treated...only a few staff were "bad," but the ones who were caused lots of issues) I hated the way parents were treated. I hated the entirety of the testing process and "teaching to the test." The curriculum was awful. I hated that my daughter's friend was sexually assaulted on the playground in THIRD GRADE (at a "GOOD" school) and nobody from the school told her parents. I could go on and on...but all of the reasons apart from the ones listed in my opening paragraph are the reasons I decided to NOT teach and to take my own kids out of the school system.

Teaching is hard, no matter what grade or subject you teach. It's hard because of the "hard" kids....the ones that the right teacher can break through to. It's hard because you see so many kids from so many sad situations. It's hard because sometimes keeping control of a classroom is daunting if you're not feeling on top of things that day. It's hard because of the way your heart strings get tugged.

I love, love, love teaching. I loved the students. I loved learning (from students, new curriculum, etc). I loved it when students excelled or when you saw the "light bulb" moment and everything for them clicked. I remember teaching a sixth grade math class and having a student who was "so proud" that on one particularly tough equation, he got the answer quicker and easier than the teacher And I was proud of him, too! He was an amazing thinker and a great kid...as they all were!

I hated the admin and the policies in our district. I hated the way students were treated by other teachers, special ed "professionals," principals and staff. (Just a note about how students were treated...only a few staff were "bad," but the ones who were caused lots of issues) I hated the way parents were treated. I hated the entirety of the testing process and "teaching to the test." The curriculum was awful. I hated that my daughter's friend was sexually assaulted on the playground in THIRD GRADE (at a "GOOD" school) and nobody from the school told her parents. I could go on and on...but all of the reasons apart from the ones listed in my opening paragraph are the reasons I decided to NOT teach and to take my own kids out of the school system.

Teaching is hard, no matter what grade or subject you teach. It's hard because of the "hard" kids....the ones that the right teacher can break through to. It's hard because you see so many kids from so many sad situations. It's hard because sometimes keeping control of a classroom is daunting if you're not feeling on top of things that day. It's hard because of the way your heart strings get tugged.

@JessicaV1979 wrote:

I did a SunTrust credit card shop recently. I didn’t even have to activate the card, but it has an $8500 limit and no interest for 18 months. So for now I am using that if I need to lay out a large amount of money that I might not get back for a while.

That's exactly the best way to handle MysteryShopping. I'm all over no interest cards.

A new lawyer might be in order.

@MsJudi wrote:

teacher before you attack. It is one of the most difficult tasks. Every grade level has their pluses and minuses. High school students can be verbally instructed and, usually, are attentive. Small kiddies need more than verbal

High school students try to commit suicide and then tell their health care professionals you are the only person in the world they trust....

Or come in on Monday and tell you that you're the reason they didn't commit suicide.

This is part of why I hesitate to try a second MSC. I only use BestMark, and have had no problems. Paid in about 2-3 weeks via PayPal.

@MsJudi wrote:

Ha ha,,words from the uninformed...I taught kindergarteners for many years..Physical Education at that..Should my pay be based on the fact that you think all I did was play with them?.Walk a mile in a teacher's shoes...any teacher before you attack.

Don't misquote me in order to attack a point of view that is different than yours, or make an uninformed assumption about my past professions. My kidlet makes a huge chunk of change for teaching 5 year olds things that their parent(s) *should* have taught them before enrolling in school. My state doesn't require a 5 year old to even be in school -- many of the children in that class of 18 students are there simply because the adult needs a break from their poorly parented child.

Pay great teachers what they're worth. And pay those who are not so great what they are worth as well -- regardless of their seniority. I don't know any great teachers who think otherwise. It's the poorer quality ones who push for standardized, seniority-based pay.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Gotta agree with you on the seniority thing.

Few are as inspiring (or inspired) as Jaime Escalante.

Yep. Also Marva Collins. Inspiring.

Is this like a normal shop, but bigger? I would be afraid of the company finding fault with my report, and not paying me. Have you ever faced that?

That is horrible about being attacked at work. Praying for you.

mlz,
If you use the forum posts to find out what MSCs are reliable in payment, you will find that you can reply on nearly all to pay when they say they will. And, you can find the payment terms for most in that special area of the forum, created just for those who need to check that out. You are missing a LOT of $$$ and interesting work by using only one MSC.

I appreciate the tip, walesmaven! I also like that BestMark doesn't require I enter my SS#. It's ok I don't need the income badly. I love my "regular" job and can always pick up more work. Sadly I am in very high demand. Not enough peeps going into my field.

@Niner wrote:

The $13 week seems hard to imagine. Maybe get a roomate? Food pantries? Work at home as a scheduler if the disability stops work outside of the home?

I freely admit $13 a week is even below what the government sets for a "minimum" food budget.

I also admit I couldn't possibly do it without MSing. Half my meals come from shops! I can order a burger, fry, drink that's 100% reimbursed, take a bite and a sip, and bring the rest home for later.

And $13 goes far at Dollar General/Family Dollar/Dollar Tree! Our grocery store had 10# white potatoes for $1.99, and I bought 30 pounds.

I have applied for every scheduler job that's come up.

Clara has passed on now, but I found her recipes both frugal and delicious: [www.youtube.com]

If someone wanted to be a mail buddy with you for those occasional USPS shops, what would be good things to send?

This is why I LOOOOOOVE doing visits for GFK and DJC. NO ONE pays faster than those 2. NO ONE! They pay within a week. That is why I will do anything for them because I know I will get my money ASAP

What is DJC?

@ceasesmith wrote:

What is DJC?

[www.sassieshop.com]

BUT - be forewarned. MOST visits never hit the Job Board. They know who their best shoppers are and they offer visits to them first because this way they know the visit is being done by someone they can trust. Only when visits are not taken are they released to all. And the thing I love about them is visits aren't day specific. They will give you a visit and then give you 5-7 days to do it. You can do it any day you want. So they might give you a visit to be done between the 15-21 of the month. You can do it any day you want as long as you do it between 15-21 of the month. Jeff is the best!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/2018 05:41AM by SoCalDude.

@SoCalDude wrote:

This is why I LOOOOOOVE doing visits for GFK and DJC. NO ONE pays faster than those 2. NO ONE! They pay within a week. That is why I will do anything for them because I know I will get my money ASAP

I got paid less than an hour after I submitted my report.
I've been waiting a few days this time. I feel like sending out a search party for those guys.

Thank you. I am signed up with them. Alas, no shops within 200 miles of me.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Thank you. I am signed up with them. Alas, no shops within 200 miles of me.

There might be. But as I said - most visits never hit the board unless the shoppers they know will do it and a good job can't. You might never get a shop for DJC unless you reach out to them and ask if you can do one. Once you do they will know what kind of shopper you are and if you can be trusted.

I do mystery shop for $100 dinners, etc., but I could never afford them otherwise! I'm middle class and if I earned money, it's all taxable. So I do the reimbursement stuff so my family gets to have experiences we would not be able to afford, certainly on a regular basis.
Different shoppers have different objectives.