Emphasizing STEM fields in schools is becoming a hot topic in the American education system. Even engineering, which has traditionally only been taught to students in high school and above, is experiencing a surge in all grades.

Being an effective teacher requires a unique blend of skill, experience, education, and collaboration. One of the challenges in translating these skills into an appropriate salary figure is that some of them are tricky to quantify.

One of the most perplexing elements of the teaching profession to outsiders and novices is the way teachers’ salaries and pay raises are determined. Unlike most jobs in the private sector, educators are typically paid according to salary scales that use quantifiable metrics like years of service and numbers of college credits to determine how much a teacher should earn.

Over the course of ten years of classroom teaching, I took off only one summer. And by “took off,” I mean no attending conferences, no teaching summer school, and no working other jobs. I used those four weeks for reading, writing, watching all the movies and TV I’d missed during the school year, working on my house, and spending time with my family. The two final weeks of my summer break were spent mostly lesson planning and prepping for the year to come.

If you’re an educator, you may have heard the term “service learning” and concluded that it’s a community service project which is taken on by a group of students, and spearheaded by a teacher. You’d be partially correct. While service learning is indeed grounded in activities which are intended to improve a community, the ‘learning’ element plays a key role too.

Passionate teachers are always looking for new ways to improve their skills. From district-wide professional development to collaborating with the teacher across the hall, there are many ways you can become a more effective educator in and outside of the classroom.