Teacher workdays/school planning are ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is not school tomorrow. You can plan for next week tomorrow. It is holiday for a students only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

Your contract is for 40 hours. You work 40 hours for 39 weeks, 1,560 hours. If you worked 48 weeks per year (assuming the normal 20 days of PTO) you work 32.6 hours per week. You are a part time worker. Part time vs full time reflects the hours you’re paid for not the hours you work.

Your decision to work “always” 60 hours reflects choice or inefficiency, and doesn’t take into account all the days within the 39 work weeks during which you’re not teaching (this year if you’re in FCPS, thats over 20 days. Four weeks of work) either for unscheduled PTO for “weather” or planning and work days specifically set aside.

Being a part time worker isn’t a lesser caste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

I live in Fairfax and work in a neighboring county. I don't see how that matters? (I suppose it makes childcare even harder for me since I follow two school system schedules...)

And look at the expected responses. No understanding. No acknowledgment. Just insults. I was called inefficient by someone who can't see the 160 essays sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was told I'm still part-time because a poster wants to hold me to contract definitions. (I wonder if that same poster would be upset if I refused to write a letter of recommendation because it can't be done within those contract hours...)

So this is DCUM at its finest. A teacher clearly and calmly explains, followed by the vicious attacks. Because that's what we do here to teachers. It's a sport played by people who don't know the first thing about the job. That's why it can't be taken seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

I live in Fairfax and work in a neighboring county. I don't see how that matters? (I suppose it makes childcare even harder for me since I follow two school system schedules...)

And look at the expected responses. No understanding. No acknowledgment. Just insults. I was called inefficient by someone who can't see the 160 essays sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was told I'm still part-time because a poster wants to hold me to contract definitions. (I wonder if that same poster would be upset if I refused to write a letter of recommendation because it can't be done within those contract hours...)

So this is DCUM at its finest. A teacher clearly and calmly explains, followed by the vicious attacks. Because that's what we do here to teachers. It's a sport played by people who don't know the first thing about the job. That's why it can't be taken seriously.

It’s “vicious” to tell you there isn’t school tomorrow in the county system whose forum you’re posting in?

It’s “insulting” to tell you that no matter how long it takes you to grade 160 essays, part time/full time definitions aren’t determined that way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

I live in Fairfax and work in a neighboring county. I don't see how that matters? (I suppose it makes childcare even harder for me since I follow two school system schedules...)

And look at the expected responses. No understanding. No acknowledgment. Just insults. I was called inefficient by someone who can't see the 160 essays sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was told I'm still part-time because a poster wants to hold me to contract definitions. (I wonder if that same poster would be upset if I refused to write a letter of recommendation because it can't be done within those contract hours...)

So this is DCUM at its finest. A teacher clearly and calmly explains, followed by the vicious attacks. Because that's what we do here to teachers. It's a sport played by people who don't know the first thing about the job. That's why it can't be taken seriously.

It’s just crazy how last week it was 153 essays and you claimed to work in FCPS.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/780/1315597.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

I live in Fairfax and work in a neighboring county. I don't see how that matters? (I suppose it makes childcare even harder for me since I follow two school system schedules...)

And look at the expected responses. No understanding. No acknowledgment. Just insults. I was called inefficient by someone who can't see the 160 essays sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was told I'm still part-time because a poster wants to hold me to contract definitions. (I wonder if that same poster would be upset if I refused to write a letter of recommendation because it can't be done within those contract hours...)

So this is DCUM at its finest. A teacher clearly and calmly explains, followed by the vicious attacks. Because that's what we do here to teachers. It's a sport played by people who don't know the first thing about the job. That's why it can't be taken seriously.

It’s just crazy how last week it was 153 essays and you claimed to work in FCPS.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/780/1315597.page

I can settle this for you: I didn't write that post.

There are MANY high school teachers who post on this site and we all have 140... 150... 160 students. Many of us spend nights/weekends grading essays.

This isn't a ME issue. There are many of us who work this hard, and many of us defend our profession on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

I live in Fairfax and work in a neighboring county. I don't see how that matters? (I suppose it makes childcare even harder for me since I follow two school system schedules...)

And look at the expected responses. No understanding. No acknowledgment. Just insults. I was called inefficient by someone who can't see the 160 essays sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was told I'm still part-time because a poster wants to hold me to contract definitions. (I wonder if that same poster would be upset if I refused to write a letter of recommendation because it can't be done within those contract hours...)

So this is DCUM at its finest. A teacher clearly and calmly explains, followed by the vicious attacks. Because that's what we do here to teachers. It's a sport played by people who don't know the first thing about the job. That's why it can't be taken seriously.

It’s just crazy how last week it was 153 essays and you claimed to work in FCPS.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/780/1315597.page

I can settle this for you: I didn't write that post.

There are MANY high school teachers who post on this site and we all have 140... 150... 160 students. Many of us spend nights/weekends grading essays.

This isn't a ME issue. There are many of us who work this hard, and many of us defend our profession on this site.

DP. Respectfully, why do you bother engaging here? In my profession people review our job performance/talk about us online with our actual names attached. And people just make things up or present a very skewed view based on their warped mental state. I learned a long time ago not to look at it and to definitely not to respond even if the information is false. This forum is a bunch of people who are frustrated with a terrible school year calendar, and unfortunately teachers are the face of the school system to most parents. You would truly be better off staying away from here and just let parents do their venting. It's not like anything changes as a result of what people type on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

You are paid based off a set of contracted hours for 195 days which occur over a 10 month period. Yes, you are salaried, and yes you have had the option in prior years to be paid 10 months or 12 months out of the year. You are not however working the same number of days per year as a full time employee in most other professions given both the 2 months off for summer + 30 holidays this year (not including 14 sick with 6 as regular leave days) which accounts for some of the pay differential unless you are on the 260 day scale.

A starting salary of 61k with a BS.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

If other professional jobs have 260 days worked (including 10 federal holidays so a 260 day calendar), then we can scale a starting engineering salary of 72k by 75%(195/260) and we get 54k. Meaning that starting teacher pay is inline with starting engineering pay for an equivlent number of days worked and in fact higher.

Now if we look at FCPS teacher pay for260 days its actually lines up nearly to starting engineering pay at 74.4k.
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-260-day.pdf

Teaching is a generously compensated part-time job. Teachers who want to feel like they are “equal“ in some way to other professionals, rarely think that they should work the same hours and time as those other professions.

Part time jobs are classified as being 20 hours or less a week. We are contracted 40 hours and often work more than that like many other salaries people. Claiming this is part time idiotic.

By whoM? I understood part-time to mean fewer than 40 and certainly teachers work fewer than 40 hours over the 52 weeks of the year particularly given the 39 non-work days during the school year.

Teacher here, wrapping up hour 11 today. I work 60 hour weeks consistently. Never fewer, often more:

195 days pay = 39 weeks of work
39 x 60 = 2,340 hours of work a year

Let's compare that to full time pay for a 50-week / year job:

39 weeks of work at 60 hours = 2,340 hours
50 weeks of work at 40 hours = 2,000 hours

Now, this is as bit simplistic. Maybe that employee also works more hours. And that's fine. The numbers change.

My point remains. I'm not part-time. I'm way over full-time. Way over.

And, to ward off the inevitable mean-spirited attacks: I'm not complaining. I choose to do this. But there's a lot of misinformation on this thread that needs to be corrected.

Back to work. I have tomorrow's lessons to plan.

There is no school tomorrow.

Crazy how this “FCPS Teacher” doesn’t know that already.

I live in Fairfax and work in a neighboring county. I don't see how that matters? (I suppose it makes childcare even harder for me since I follow two school system schedules...)

And look at the expected responses. No understanding. No acknowledgment. Just insults. I was called inefficient by someone who can't see the 160 essays sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was told I'm still part-time because a poster wants to hold me to contract definitions. (I wonder if that same poster would be upset if I refused to write a letter of recommendation because it can't be done within those contract hours...)

So this is DCUM at its finest. A teacher clearly and calmly explains, followed by the vicious attacks. Because that's what we do here to teachers. It's a sport played by people who don't know the first thing about the job. That's why it can't be taken seriously.

It’s “vicious” to tell you there isn’t school tomorrow in the county system whose forum you’re posting in?

It’s “insulting” to tell you that no matter how long it takes you to grade 160 essays, part time/full time definitions aren’t determined that way?

DP

I don’t believe you have a job. You’ve been posting on this thread all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of education/training do sanitation workers need? Minimal training. What education/training do teachers need? A lot. I student taught for an entire school year and still didn’t feel totally prepared for my own class. We are paid more because we pay for the education/training to teach.

You don’t go to more school than social workers, RNs, family case workers, etc. but those jobs don’t whine like you do. You also get paid a lot less than plumbers who don’t pay as much for their schooling as you so. Every job above is as or more vital than teaching but none of them write DCUM screeds demanding a sticker for waking up early.

The only whining on this thread is coming from entitled, wealthy parents like you. NOT teachers.

Send your snowflakes to private, homeschool, hire a tutor, or kindly STFU.

Are you this vulgar because you had to wake up early?

Vulgar? Clutch your pearls harder over language while you disparage an entire group of hardworking professionals who have a major influence over your children.

The good ones do. The bad ones we wait out, while paying others to do their job, and using as object lessons about discipline and laziness.

But then again the good ones don’t believe waking up early is a heroic feat. That is truly a sign of mediocrity.

The bad and mediocre ones influence your kids, too, doofus.

Maybe you need more sleep so your brain can function properly?

Bad and mediocre teachers who resort to name calling, for example? Yes, as I said above, they are a great lesson to our children in what a lack of discipline in a profession can do, and in how to work around mediocre people to minimize their impact.

I’m not a teacher, dum dum. Just a fellow parent who is sick of your BS.

Now go spend time with your kids instead of whining about it!

If you teach your children vulgarity and to call names when they lose an argument, it may be in their best interest that you’re not spending time with them.

Sick burn, bruh

[Anonymous]

It's true that this school year has been ridiculous...my child's teachers are frustrated because they never have a whole week to cover material. It's also true that teachers need time to plan, etc. Why can't these overpaid administrators and central office people figure it out? Maybe we should fire them all and let AI have a crack at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's true that this school year has been ridiculous...my child's teachers are frustrated because they never have a whole week to cover material. It's also true that teachers need time to plan, etc. Why can't these overpaid administrators and central office people figure it out? Maybe we should fire them all and let AI have a crack at it.

Teacher here. I could make a better calendar.