Teachers - How Hard is Your Job, Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a teacher and thought many, many times "i need a secretary". If you think about other professionals like doctors and lawyers, they all have people that assist them (nurses and para-legals), so they can do the thing they are educated to do. If I just had someone that would've graded papers (like multi-choice test) and entered them into the grade-book, or made copies or scheduled phone appts with parents. If teachers were paid by the hour like lawyers, no way would they be doing that kind of work.

I apologize for quibbling, PP, but it's a very common misconception that nurses are doctors' assistants. Nursing is its own professional field.

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/09/joy_behar_miss_america_nursesunite_moving_beyond_just_a_nurse.html

[Anonymous]

My friend took a week off from teaching to get breast implants (cosmetic, aka boob job). It was paid for by her health insurance as part of their contract. Had a sub that did her lesson plans.

A lot of these posts remind me of the Pinteresty "I bake my own bread" moms who then complain about how exhausted and overwhelmed they are.

I think teachers do a good job but man, the martyr complex is out of control

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend took a week off from teaching to get breast implants (cosmetic, aka boob job). It was paid for by her health insurance as part of their contract. Had a sub that did her lesson plans.

A lot of these posts remind me of the Pinteresty "I bake my own bread" moms who then complain about how exhausted and overwhelmed they are.

I think teachers do a good job but man, the martyr complex is out of control

I'm not sure I understand your point. Teaching isn't hard because sometimes people take medical leave?

As a teacher and a parent of a medically fragile kid, I can tell you that I have reason to talk insurance with other people whose kids share my kid's diagnosis, and that I've never had an insurance policy that's as good as what the feds have, or better than most of my friends working in other professional fields.

[Anonymous]

The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend took a week off from teaching to get breast implants (cosmetic, aka boob job). It was paid for by her health insurance as part of their contract. Had a sub that did her lesson plans.

A lot of these posts remind me of the Pinteresty "I bake my own bread" moms who then complain about how exhausted and overwhelmed they are.

I think teachers do a good job but man, the martyr complex is out of control

I'm not sure I understand your point. Teaching isn't hard because sometimes people take medical leave?

As a teacher and a parent of a medically fragile kid, I can tell you that I have reason to talk insurance with other people whose kids share my kid's diagnosis, and that I've never had an insurance policy that's as good as what the feds have, or better than most of my friends working in other professional fields.

I believe the point was that it doesn't jive with the "I work 12 hour days and can't get a break ever" dedication we have seen. Just another view

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

I wonder if that's the reason people are saying they can't get the job done during the day and have to spend weekends and nights doing it.
No offense intended, truly, but you could see how a poor student who struggled in college would have time management issues, lack organizational skills, or simply be a bit slower in doing tasks.
I'm the PP with the ex boyfriend who was a teacher and this thread is interesting to me as a mother with children about to be school age. My experience with him and his peers is vastly different than what is being represented here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

I wonder if that's the reason people are saying they can't get the job done during the day and have to spend weekends and nights doing it.
No offense intended, truly, but you could see how a poor student who struggled in college would have time management issues, lack organizational skills, or simply be a bit slower in doing tasks.
I'm the PP with the ex boyfriend who was a teacher and this thread is interesting to me as a mother with children about to be school age. My experience with him and his peers is vastly different than what is being represented here

I have an engineering degree from a top state school, a graduate degree from an Ivy League university, graduated #2 in my high school class, and I'm still doing things at home nights and weekends. Come on.

I have 130 kids on my roster. If I spend 1 minute per child grading a quiz, that's 2 hours on a single assignment. I have more than one assignment each week, and we haven't even touched the planning.

I get 5 hours of prep time per week, but 3 of those hours are meetings. So assuming I grade my one quiz at school, the only way I get to go home on time is if I don't plan anything, don't copy anything, don't remediate anyone, don't speak to counsellors or admin or other teachers about a child I'm worried about, etc.

I don't doubt that there are slow, idiot teachers. I've worked with one or two over the years. The reality is that the "busy work" (copying, grading, emailing parents, discipline referrals, required trainings) takes up so much of the day that if you want to do a halfway decent job, you have to do work outside of the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

?

I think that perhaps you used the wrong conjunctions in this sentence? What you meant to write is: "The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day, which is a demanding job that requires a high level of thinking."

[Anonymous]

I taught for 5 years and it was the most difficult, grueling, exhausting job I've ever had. I put in average weeks of 55 hours, and some closer to 75. I was not abnormal in my school. I left teaching because it was impossible to have a personal life or a family and also teach, and I would never ever go back. Aside from being difficult, it was also demeaning and emotionally draining.

However, the pay and benefits were fantastic. Especially the benefits.

Now I'm a parent, and I don't know if it's just my school, but I don't see anyone putting in those kinds of hours. The parking lot at my school was still half full at 4pm, and a handful of cars were there still at 9pm. Not so at my kid's school. No chance of finding any teachers there more than 15 minutes after dismissal. Maybe because I was in a low-income school and this is not one, I don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

I wonder if that's the reason people are saying they can't get the job done during the day and have to spend weekends and nights doing it.
No offense intended, truly, but you could see how a poor student who struggled in college would have time management issues, lack organizational skills, or simply be a bit slower in doing tasks.
I'm the PP with the ex boyfriend who was a teacher and this thread is interesting to me as a mother with children about to be school age. My experience with him and his peers is vastly different than what is being represented here

I have an engineering degree from a top state school, a graduate degree from an Ivy League university, graduated #2 in my high school class, and I'm still doing things at home nights and weekends. Come on.

I have 130 kids on my roster. If I spend 1 minute per child grading a quiz, that's 2 hours on a single assignment. I have more than one assignment each week, and we haven't even touched the planning.

I get 5 hours of prep time per week, but 3 of those hours are meetings. So assuming I grade my one quiz at school, the only way I get to go home on time is if I don't plan anything, don't copy anything, don't remediate anyone, don't speak to counsellors or admin or other teachers about a child I'm worried about, etc.

I don't doubt that there are slow, idiot teachers. I've worked with one or two over the years. The reality is that the "busy work" (copying, grading, emailing parents, discipline referrals, required trainings) takes up so much of the day that if you want to do a halfway decent job, you have to do work outside of the school day.

I'm sure you understand though that MOST professionals take work home, work on weekends, work through lunch, etc. It stands true that to be good at ANY professional job you are not just working a standard day.
I can think of a hundred jobs where people stand on their feet all day and can't pee on a whim. Geez

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure you understand though that MOST professionals take work home, work on weekends, work through lunch, etc. It stands true that to be good at ANY professional job you are not just working a standard day.
I can think of a hundred jobs where people stand on their feet all day and can't pee on a whim. Geez

Do you have one of those jobs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure you understand though that MOST professionals take work home, work on weekends, work through lunch, etc. It stands true that to be good at ANY professional job you are not just working a standard day.
I can think of a hundred jobs where people stand on their feet all day and can't pee on a whim. Geez

Do you have one of those jobs?

Yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure you understand though that MOST professionals take work home, work on weekends, work through lunch, etc. It stands true that to be good at ANY professional job you are not just working a standard day.
I can think of a hundred jobs where people stand on their feet all day and can't pee on a whim. Geez

Do you have one of those jobs?

Yep

Do people respect people who have this job, or is it a job where everybody thinks that they know how to do it better than you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

I wonder if that's the reason people are saying they can't get the job done during the day and have to spend weekends and nights doing it.
No offense intended, truly, but you could see how a poor student who struggled in college would have time management issues, lack organizational skills, or simply be a bit slower in doing tasks.
I'm the PP with the ex boyfriend who was a teacher and this thread is interesting to me as a mother with children about to be school age. My experience with him and his peers is vastly different than what is being represented here

I have an engineering degree from a top state school, a graduate degree from an Ivy League university, graduated #2 in my high school class, and I'm still doing things at home nights and weekends. Come on.

I have 130 kids on my roster. If I spend 1 minute per child grading a quiz, that's 2 hours on a single assignment. I have more than one assignment each week, and we haven't even touched the planning.

I get 5 hours of prep time per week, but 3 of those hours are meetings. So assuming I grade my one quiz at school, the only way I get to go home on time is if I don't plan anything, don't copy anything, don't remediate anyone, don't speak to counsellors or admin or other teachers about a child I'm worried about, etc.

I don't doubt that there are slow, idiot teachers. I've worked with one or two over the years. The reality is that the "busy work" (copying, grading, emailing parents, discipline referrals, required trainings) takes up so much of the day that if you want to do a halfway decent job, you have to do work outside of the school day.

I'm sure you understand though that MOST professionals take work home, work on weekends, work through lunch, etc. It stands true that to be good at ANY professional job you are not just working a standard day.
I can think of a hundred jobs where people stand on their feet all day and can't pee on a whim. Geez

No, most people do not have this much work ...actually no one I know does. Get over yourself ...you have no clue what being a teacher is about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the bar is relatively low to become a teacher. One can graduate from Podunk University and major in "Education" which is considered one of the easiest majors around. On top of that, college GPA really doesn't matter. Theoretically, you could have plenty of teachers who graduated with a degree in Education from a place like Bowie State College with a gpa of 2.8. I know there are teachers with masters degrees but typically the degree will be from GMU or JMU in Education or Education Administration which are not viewed as too demanding compared to law, medicine engineering etc.

People will not take the teaching "profession" seriously until the qualification/compensation is raised. The perception is that what is hard about the job is dealing with kids all day not that the job itself is demanding or requires high level of thinking.

I wonder if that's the reason people are saying they can't get the job done during the day and have to spend weekends and nights doing it.
No offense intended, truly, but you could see how a poor student who struggled in college would have time management issues, lack organizational skills, or simply be a bit slower in doing tasks.
I'm the PP with the ex boyfriend who was a teacher and this thread is interesting to me as a mother with children about to be school age. My experience with him and his peers is vastly different than what is being represented here

I have an engineering degree from a top state school, a graduate degree from an Ivy League university, graduated #2 in my high school class, and I'm still doing things at home nights and weekends. Come on.

I have 130 kids on my roster. If I spend 1 minute per child grading a quiz, that's 2 hours on a single assignment. I have more than one assignment each week, and we haven't even touched the planning.

I get 5 hours of prep time per week, but 3 of those hours are meetings. So assuming I grade my one quiz at school, the only way I get to go home on time is if I don't plan anything, don't copy anything, don't remediate anyone, don't speak to counsellors or admin or other teachers about a child I'm worried about, etc.

I don't doubt that there are slow, idiot teachers. I've worked with one or two over the years. The reality is that the "busy work" (copying, grading, emailing parents, discipline referrals, required trainings) takes up so much of the day that if you want to do a halfway decent job, you have to do work outside of the school day.

I'm sure you understand though that MOST professionals take work home, work on weekends, work through lunch, etc. It stands true that to be good at ANY professional job you are not just working a standard day.
I can think of a hundred jobs where people stand on their feet all day and can't pee on a whim. Geez

Sure, I understand that SOME professionals work over 40 hours a week (though a vast majority of my friends network has secured 40 hour jobs!) I had a job before teaching, and I regularly worked 50 hours. (I also got paid twice as much, but that's neither here nor there). I'm not complaining about working overtime, believe it or not. I enjoy what I do (well, not the grading, but the rest of it), and willingly spend 50-60 hours a week on work stuff.

I was responding to the comment that "I wonder if that's the reason people are saying they can't get the job done during the day and have to spend weekends and nights doing it. No offense intended, truly, but you could see how a poor student who struggled in college would have time management issues, lack organizational skills, or simply be a bit slower in doing tasks."

Teachers aren't slow learners with time management issues. If anything, we are phenomenal at time management. Just ask any veteran teacher how to squeeze making a class set of copies, a trip to the bathroom, and nuking cold coffee into a 4 minute passing period.