RANT: Teachers, why are you so whiny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers would gain more respect if they could stop reminding everyone how hard they work and just admit that their job has perks. Nobody would be offended if you admit that you don’t actually spend all summer rewriting your lesson plans. Most people would completely check out of their job all summer if they could. Nobody will think less of you for it. We WANT you rested up and refreshed for your next group of students! In fact, when I see how freaking motivated and gung-ho teachers are at the beginning of the school year, it makes me think more companies should try to give employees extended time off. It would be great for productivity.

This is pretty much where I come out. Yes, they work hard and the pay is not spectacular. But this was not a secret when you decided on the career path. And you have some wonderful perks. Frankly, none of my teacher friends (and I have many) spend summers working on lesson plans or spend nights grading papers. Not one. But, they are on FB today praying for an early start to Spring Break due to weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too think teachers are paid well for 2/3 work.

I'm 100% willing to pay teachers more, but I would want 8 hour days of school and more school days in the summer. I think it's insane that DD goes from 8-2pm...

It's school, not daycare. How many hours does your child really need to be in school? A longer day is really unnecessary and developmentally inappropriate.

Doesn't have to be. Maybe we could bring back all of the things we don't have like longer recesses. And the "school is not daycare" argument gets really, really old. We all know school is the child care plan for most working parents of school age, and until the government figures out something else, that's just reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers would gain more respect if they could stop reminding everyone how hard they work and just admit that their job has perks. Nobody would be offended if you admit that you don’t actually spend all summer rewriting your lesson plans. Most people would completely check out of their job all summer if they could. Nobody will think less of you for it. We WANT you rested up and refreshed for your next group of students! In fact, when I see how freaking motivated and gung-ho teachers are at the beginning of the school year, it makes me think more companies should try to give employees extended time off. It would be great for productivity.

This is pretty much where I come out. Yes, they work hard and the pay is not spectacular. But this was not a secret when you decided on the career path. And you have some wonderful perks. Frankly, none of my teacher friends (and I have many) spend summers working on lesson plans or spend nights grading papers. Not one. But, they are on FB today praying for an early start to Spring Break due to weather.

Two teacher household here. Elementary. I will admit that no work (for school) is done by us over the summer. Most teachers I know are done once they check out at the end of June until we go back in August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers would gain more respect if they could stop reminding everyone how hard they work and just admit that their job has perks. Nobody would be offended if you admit that you don’t actually spend all summer rewriting your lesson plans. Most people would completely check out of their job all summer if they could. Nobody will think less of you for it. We WANT you rested up and refreshed for your next group of students! In fact, when I see how freaking motivated and gung-ho teachers are at the beginning of the school year, it makes me think more companies should try to give employees extended time off. It would be great for productivity.

This is pretty much where I come out. Yes, they work hard and the pay is not spectacular. But this was not a secret when you decided on the career path. And you have some wonderful perks. Frankly, none of my teacher friends (and I have many) spend summers working on lesson plans or spend nights grading papers. Not one. But, they are on FB today praying for an early start to Spring Break due to weather.

Two teacher household here. Elementary. I will admit that no work (for school) is done by us over the summer. Most teachers I know are done once they check out at the end of June until we go back in August.

+1000

I know a lot of teachers and maybe 2 or 3 plan over the summer. But even then they aren't planning for more than a week or two.

[Anonymous]

I cannot stand working with a group of teachers who don't like teaching, their kids, life, planning, and enjoy being miserable wretches. Their kids even come to me as they love being in my class and don't want to leave. I enjoy teaching, live a fiscally responsible life, invest in my own kids and a life for them, and pour my all into working with my youngsters and my family. I enjoy summers and actually am a creature of habit and from a Northern climate so I really don't understand these weird mild weather off days. But, I agree, a lot of teachers say and behave horribly towards kids. But, we are not one lump sum. There are many different kinds of teachers. If I were you, I would be as involved as I can in my kids classroom and be supportive. The only thing I wish I had was more time to do the same and be involved in my kids school. I am so involved in my school or teaching, I miss a lot at my kids school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too think teachers are paid well for 2/3 work.

I'm 100% willing to pay teachers more, but I would want 8 hour days of school and more school days in the summer. I think it's insane that DD goes from 8-2pm...

It's school, not daycare. How many hours does your child really need to be in school? A longer day is really unnecessary and developmentally inappropriate.

Pp here. I would like more recess, longer lunches and more free time. School actually is daycare. After education, its purpose is to allow parents to work and be productive members of society. If dd could go until 3:30 or 4pm even I could arrange my schedule to meet her and walk home together. Instead I have to cobble together before and after care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If not the most intellectually challenging, teaching is absolutely a hard / mentally (and physically) exhausting job. I can totally see why teachers get burned out. However...most jobs have parts that kind of suck. It's called 'work' for a reason. And if you are so miserable as a teacher that you find yourself constantly feeling very 'woe is me' and complaining ALL the time (and yes, like PPs said...find yourself repeatedly listing off EVERY task you've been paid to do over the past week; seriously teachers, WHY do so many of you do this??), it's time to make a decision. Either buck up and embrace the fact that your job comes with a lot of unique (HUGE) schedule perks, and get some perspective...or decide you hate it enough to make a change, and give up the early release / summers and school breaks off. You can't have it both ways.

People should stop asking this. Teachers do this because everyone else is constantly questioning why they are demanding higher pay, and why they are saying their job is so hard when they have summers off/school ends at 3/play with kids all day, etc etc etc.

[Anonymous]

I'm writing ABOVE your post so that my response isn't hidden beneath your novella.

So you go on and on - in 9 paragraphs - and WE'RE whiny?

the irony! Did you pass high school English?

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, it's not that I dislike you. I don't. I have 3 school-aged kids and I work as a para in an elementary school, so I am around teachers and work closely with them all day. Most of my friends are teachers. I just get so tired of the whining. I am speaking from my own experiences with elementary teachers in a good school district. I realize other teachers' situations can be much different

The pay thing. I'm gonna say it. Someone has to. Teachers, I think your pay is fair. I'm sorry, but I do. First of all, your degree was not that hard. It's not rocket science. And you only work about 180 days a year. You get summers, spring break, winter break, as well as many other days off. I know you all claim to work all summer on lesson planning. I'm sure that's true for the most dedicated teachers, as it's true that most dedicated employees do some work off the clock. But the teachers I know walk out of school at the end of the year vowing to not even think about their job until the last two weeks of summer. I heard one teacher suggest to her team that they meet once over the summer to plan. They all said forget it, and that it's above their pay grade to waste a summer day thinking about work. For my job, I have to time in/out and leave at exactly 4:15 every day. ALL of the teachers are already gone by then! They usually arrive after us as well. And no, they are not taking papers home to grade. Those days are gone. Kids self grade most of their work. Often it is actually just a completion grade and nobody even grades it. Teachers have parent and HS volunteers who come in to help with copies, project prep, grading, etc. They also get an hour of plan time each day and other times when kids are at recess, reading quietly, or working independently at stations. I spend my entire day in classrooms and I can tell you that these teachers spend about two hours per day actually teaching. Again, just my personal experience and all of this will vary from one school to the next.

Side note: The other paras that I work with complain about our pay as well. I actually think our pay is pretty fair. I get about $15/hour. It seems about right for the amount of work I do and the hours I work. Before kids, I had a job in my field utilizing my degree. It didn't actually pay much more than I'm making now and was MUCH harder work. Much more intense, tons of travel, stressful. Granted, I would be making good money by now if I hadn't left to raise my kids. But still.

Teachers, I get soooo tired of hearing you complain about parents. One minute you are whining that you get so many parent emails and the next minute you are claiming parents are just not involved and don't care. I wonder if you could survive one day in the corporate world, dealing with emails from clients instead of parents. Maybe we need to have a Take A Teacher To Work day so that you can see what your students' parents do all day instead of fretting about whether or not they should email you regarding their kid's 4th grade math test.

When a student has an issue, you automatically blame the parents. you say he must get away with that at home. That's not usually the case. Whatever issue you are having is likely the same issue the parents are having at home. Let's work together instead of pointing fingers. We can't program our kids any better than you can. If we do say that we have not seen that behavior at home, we are not lying or claiming that you are lying. We are saying that we really had no idea and we are grateful that you brought it to our attention. A sudden change in behavior is cause for concern. Now let's work together to figure out why it's happening at school.

You also complain about parent teacher conferences and having to talk with each parent for 20 whole minutes twice a year! Did you not realize this would be a part of your job when you chose this career? In the corporate world, you would be spending a lot more time than that meeting with clients. Or how about being in the med field, talking with patients and families about serious health concerns? Please do us a favor and make the most of those 20 minutes. We made arrangements to be there. Parents take time off work and find babysitters so that they can speak with you. Don't just tell us the info we can get online and then try to push us out after 5 minutes.

And finally, it really makes me cringe every year around the holidays when teachers start the Just Buy Us Gift Cards campaign. you complain about all the candles, lotions, stationery, etc and you just want gift cards. Well, here's the thing. Most of us let our child pick out your gift. The point is for them to do something nice for you and show their appreciation. They get excited about this. Kids think it's boring to give gift cards and they think you will find it boring as well. It makes them feel good to see you unwrap a pretty candle. If you don't like it, donate or re-gift it. No other profession leaves work with a carload of gifts for a 2-3 week holiday break so just BE GRATEFUL for what you get. I realize you don't know what to do with all those candles, but guess what. I also have no idea what to do with the pipe cleaner cat a student made me for Christmas. But I love it anyway because it's thoughtful. I won't request that he give me a gift card instead next year.

One last thing, I get so tired of you guys gushing about how awesome you are. My fb feed is full of teachers posting about how amazing and hard-working teachers are. Please stop embarrassing yourselves by posting these self-congratulatory memes. I know you want to tell everyone how grueling and difficult your job is. Think about the people who read your posts - doctors, nurses, military. Lots of people do good and important work without pointing it out every day.

Rant over. I really do love you, teachers. I just wish you could spend more time focusing on all the positive aspects of your job. Thanks for all you do for our kids. Just stop complaining about it.

[Anonymous]

I know a few who are constantly complaining on Facebook...so they can guilt others into buying their MLM stuff (Lularoe, Isagenix, Rodan and Fields, etc.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too think teachers are paid well for 2/3 work.

I'm 100% willing to pay teachers more, but I would want 8 hour days of school and more school days in the summer. I think it's insane that DD goes from 8-2pm...

It's school, not daycare. How many hours does your child really need to be in school? A longer day is really unnecessary and developmentally inappropriate.

Pp here. I would like more recess, longer lunches and more free time. School actually is daycare. After education, its purpose is to allow parents to work and be productive members of society. If dd could go until 3:30 or 4pm even I could arrange my schedule to meet her and walk home together. Instead I have to cobble together before and after care.

My child goes to before and after care and I teach elementary school. My job is to educate children, not babysit them. There is a reason why before and after care exists. Sorry that doesn’t work for you to have your ideal schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm writing ABOVE your post so that my response isn't hidden beneath your novella.

So you go on and on - in 9 paragraphs - and WE'RE whiny?

the irony! Did you pass high school English?

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, it's not that I dislike you. I don't. I have 3 school-aged kids and I work as a para in an elementary school, so I am around teachers and work closely with them all day. Most of my friends are teachers. I just get so tired of the whining. I am speaking from my own experiences with elementary teachers in a good school district. I realize other teachers' situations can be much different

The pay thing. I'm gonna say it. Someone has to. Teachers, I think your pay is fair. I'm sorry, but I do. First of all, your degree was not that hard. It's not rocket science. And you only work about 180 days a year. You get summers, spring break, winter break, as well as many other days off. I know you all claim to work all summer on lesson planning. I'm sure that's true for the most dedicated teachers, as it's true that most dedicated employees do some work off the clock. But the teachers I know walk out of school at the end of the year vowing to not even think about their job until the last two weeks of summer. I heard one teacher suggest to her team that they meet once over the summer to plan. They all said forget it, and that it's above their pay grade to waste a summer day thinking about work. For my job, I have to time in/out and leave at exactly 4:15 every day. ALL of the teachers are already gone by then! They usually arrive after us as well. And no, they are not taking papers home to grade. Those days are gone. Kids self grade most of their work. Often it is actually just a completion grade and nobody even grades it. Teachers have parent and HS volunteers who come in to help with copies, project prep, grading, etc. They also get an hour of plan time each day and other times when kids are at recess, reading quietly, or working independently at stations. I spend my entire day in classrooms and I can tell you that these teachers spend about two hours per day actually teaching. Again, just my personal experience and all of this will vary from one school to the next.

Side note: The other paras that I work with complain about our pay as well. I actually think our pay is pretty fair. I get about $15/hour. It seems about right for the amount of work I do and the hours I work. Before kids, I had a job in my field utilizing my degree. It didn't actually pay much more than I'm making now and was MUCH harder work. Much more intense, tons of travel, stressful. Granted, I would be making good money by now if I hadn't left to raise my kids. But still.

Teachers, I get soooo tired of hearing you complain about parents. One minute you are whining that you get so many parent emails and the next minute you are claiming parents are just not involved and don't care. I wonder if you could survive one day in the corporate world, dealing with emails from clients instead of parents. Maybe we need to have a Take A Teacher To Work day so that you can see what your students' parents do all day instead of fretting about whether or not they should email you regarding their kid's 4th grade math test.

When a student has an issue, you automatically blame the parents. you say he must get away with that at home. That's not usually the case. Whatever issue you are having is likely the same issue the parents are having at home. Let's work together instead of pointing fingers. We can't program our kids any better than you can. If we do say that we have not seen that behavior at home, we are not lying or claiming that you are lying. We are saying that we really had no idea and we are grateful that you brought it to our attention. A sudden change in behavior is cause for concern. Now let's work together to figure out why it's happening at school.

You also complain about parent teacher conferences and having to talk with each parent for 20 whole minutes twice a year! Did you not realize this would be a part of your job when you chose this career? In the corporate world, you would be spending a lot more time than that meeting with clients. Or how about being in the med field, talking with patients and families about serious health concerns? Please do us a favor and make the most of those 20 minutes. We made arrangements to be there. Parents take time off work and find babysitters so that they can speak with you. Don't just tell us the info we can get online and then try to push us out after 5 minutes.

And finally, it really makes me cringe every year around the holidays when teachers start the Just Buy Us Gift Cards campaign. you complain about all the candles, lotions, stationery, etc and you just want gift cards. Well, here's the thing. Most of us let our child pick out your gift. The point is for them to do something nice for you and show their appreciation. They get excited about this. Kids think it's boring to give gift cards and they think you will find it boring as well. It makes them feel good to see you unwrap a pretty candle. If you don't like it, donate or re-gift it. No other profession leaves work with a carload of gifts for a 2-3 week holiday break so just BE GRATEFUL for what you get. I realize you don't know what to do with all those candles, but guess what. I also have no idea what to do with the pipe cleaner cat a student made me for Christmas. But I love it anyway because it's thoughtful. I won't request that he give me a gift card instead next year.

One last thing, I get so tired of you guys gushing about how awesome you are. My fb feed is full of teachers posting about how amazing and hard-working teachers are. Please stop embarrassing yourselves by posting these self-congratulatory memes. I know you want to tell everyone how grueling and difficult your job is. Think about the people who read your posts - doctors, nurses, military. Lots of people do good and important work without pointing it out every day.

Rant over. I really do love you, teachers. I just wish you could spend more time focusing on all the positive aspects of your job. Thanks for all you do for our kids. Just stop complaining about it.

I'm not sure you know what a novella is.

[Anonymous]

OP, you sure have a lot of time on your hands. I couldn’t even get past your 10th sentence. How about you use some of that time to volunteer in my classroom? Your head would be spinning after about 5 mimutes.

I’d love to write more, but I have to sit on the couch and eat bon bons. Oh, and work on report cards. Oh, and EFF YOU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm writing ABOVE your post so that my response isn't hidden beneath your novella.

So you go on and on - in 9 paragraphs - and WE'RE whiny?

the irony! Did you pass high school English?

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, it's not that I dislike you. I don't. I have 3 school-aged kids and I work as a para in an elementary school, so I am around teachers and work closely with them all day. Most of my friends are teachers. I just get so tired of the whining. I am speaking from my own experiences with elementary teachers in a good school district. I realize other teachers' situations can be much different

The pay thing. I'm gonna say it. Someone has to. Teachers, I think your pay is fair. I'm sorry, but I do. First of all, your degree was not that hard. It's not rocket science. And you only work about 180 days a year. You get summers, spring break, winter break, as well as many other days off. I know you all claim to work all summer on lesson planning. I'm sure that's true for the most dedicated teachers, as it's true that most dedicated employees do some work off the clock. But the teachers I know walk out of school at the end of the year vowing to not even think about their job until the last two weeks of summer. I heard one teacher suggest to her team that they meet once over the summer to plan. They all said forget it, and that it's above their pay grade to waste a summer day thinking about work. For my job, I have to time in/out and leave at exactly 4:15 every day. ALL of the teachers are already gone by then! They usually arrive after us as well. And no, they are not taking papers home to grade. Those days are gone. Kids self grade most of their work. Often it is actually just a completion grade and nobody even grades it. Teachers have parent and HS volunteers who come in to help with copies, project prep, grading, etc. They also get an hour of plan time each day and other times when kids are at recess, reading quietly, or working independently at stations. I spend my entire day in classrooms and I can tell you that these teachers spend about two hours per day actually teaching. Again, just my personal experience and all of this will vary from one school to the next.

Side note: The other paras that I work with complain about our pay as well. I actually think our pay is pretty fair. I get about $15/hour. It seems about right for the amount of work I do and the hours I work. Before kids, I had a job in my field utilizing my degree. It didn't actually pay much more than I'm making now and was MUCH harder work. Much more intense, tons of travel, stressful. Granted, I would be making good money by now if I hadn't left to raise my kids. But still.

Teachers, I get soooo tired of hearing you complain about parents. One minute you are whining that you get so many parent emails and the next minute you are claiming parents are just not involved and don't care. I wonder if you could survive one day in the corporate world, dealing with emails from clients instead of parents. Maybe we need to have a Take A Teacher To Work day so that you can see what your students' parents do all day instead of fretting about whether or not they should email you regarding their kid's 4th grade math test.

When a student has an issue, you automatically blame the parents. you say he must get away with that at home. That's not usually the case. Whatever issue you are having is likely the same issue the parents are having at home. Let's work together instead of pointing fingers. We can't program our kids any better than you can. If we do say that we have not seen that behavior at home, we are not lying or claiming that you are lying. We are saying that we really had no idea and we are grateful that you brought it to our attention. A sudden change in behavior is cause for concern. Now let's work together to figure out why it's happening at school.

You also complain about parent teacher conferences and having to talk with each parent for 20 whole minutes twice a year! Did you not realize this would be a part of your job when you chose this career? In the corporate world, you would be spending a lot more time than that meeting with clients. Or how about being in the med field, talking with patients and families about serious health concerns? Please do us a favor and make the most of those 20 minutes. We made arrangements to be there. Parents take time off work and find babysitters so that they can speak with you. Don't just tell us the info we can get online and then try to push us out after 5 minutes.

And finally, it really makes me cringe every year around the holidays when teachers start the Just Buy Us Gift Cards campaign. you complain about all the candles, lotions, stationery, etc and you just want gift cards. Well, here's the thing. Most of us let our child pick out your gift. The point is for them to do something nice for you and show their appreciation. They get excited about this. Kids think it's boring to give gift cards and they think you will find it boring as well. It makes them feel good to see you unwrap a pretty candle. If you don't like it, donate or re-gift it. No other profession leaves work with a carload of gifts for a 2-3 week holiday break so just BE GRATEFUL for what you get. I realize you don't know what to do with all those candles, but guess what. I also have no idea what to do with the pipe cleaner cat a student made me for Christmas. But I love it anyway because it's thoughtful. I won't request that he give me a gift card instead next year.

One last thing, I get so tired of you guys gushing about how awesome you are. My fb feed is full of teachers posting about how amazing and hard-working teachers are. Please stop embarrassing yourselves by posting these self-congratulatory memes. I know you want to tell everyone how grueling and difficult your job is. Think about the people who read your posts - doctors, nurses, military. Lots of people do good and important work without pointing it out every day.

Rant over. I really do love you, teachers. I just wish you could spend more time focusing on all the positive aspects of your job. Thanks for all you do for our kids. Just stop complaining about it.

I'm not sure you know what a novella is.

You want to get into this with me?

“Ella” acts as a diminutive. Therefore, OP’s post resembles a small novel.

Now, is it really a novella? No, my comment falls under exaggeration, but you failed to see that.

Do you need more assistance with some basic ELA concepts? not to worry - I won’t whine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too think teachers are paid well for 2/3 work.

I'm 100% willing to pay teachers more, but I would want 8 hour days of school and more school days in the summer. I think it's insane that DD goes from 8-2pm...

It's school, not daycare. How many hours does your child really need to be in school? A longer day is really unnecessary and developmentally inappropriate.

Pp here. I would like more recess, longer lunches and more free time. School actually is daycare. After education, its purpose is to allow parents to work and be productive members of society. If dd could go until 3:30 or 4pm even I could arrange my schedule to meet her and walk home together. Instead I have to cobble together before and after care.

This is such an incredibly entitled point of view. Sure, let's use teachers as babysitters so that you can avoid paying for before and after care. Newsflash--that's what working parents do, including teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like more recess, longer lunches and more free time. School actually is daycare. After education, its purpose is to allow parents to work and be productive members of society. If dd could go until 3:30 or 4pm even I could arrange my schedule to meet her and walk home together. Instead I have to cobble together before and after care.

Maybe if you weren’t such a shrew, you’d have a partner to help you with your difficult schedule.