Teachers - How Hard is Your Job, Really?

[Anonymous]

Some teachers work harder than others. My DD's 2nd grade teacher taught my DS when he was in 3rd grade. She literally did the exact same projects for DD's class, and used the same curriculum except used the 2nd grade level books. I did not feel she put in tons of effort. She retired two years after teaching DD.

DD's current teacher, however, will look things up with DD when she asks questions about things not being taught, designs interesting extra credit, etc. She taught the entire class N'Sync's Bye, Bye, Bye dance and related it to a math lesson. She busts her ass.

[Anonymous]

My DD's school starts at 9 and ends just before 4. One teacher is always there when I drop off between 7-7:30 am, and I have run into several teachers at pickup 5-5:30. Just strictly on hours, I think they are putting in at least, if not more than, a full day at the school. This is without getting into all the other things that make the job hard (parents, SOLs, the inherent challenge of trying to teach a couple dozen kids). In now way does it strike me as an easy job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a former elementary teacher - retired now.

While I absolutely LOVED teaching, it is not an occupation for everyone....

Most good teachers spend at least 5-6 hours a day on their feet.
They are lucky if they have a chance to use the bathroom - I suffered from numerous urinary tract infections when I first started teaching. My doctor called it “teacher’s bladder.”
On the rare occasion that I was sick, I still had to prepare substitute plans if I expected the students to learn anything in my absence and not just be kept “busy."
Teachers have to be mentally alert all day. No down time - even during recess.
While they do have some breaks during the day (specials) - they spend this time in meetings or planning or prepping.
There was work to do EVERY evening. If I left school early (4:30), it was a given that I would be working at home that night.
I spent at least 6 hours every Sunday prepping for the week. Then, during the week, I would spend another 1-2 hours revising based on student learning.
Most of the summer was not time off - there were workshops, planning meetings, and training - much of which was not compensated (monetarily).

I am not complaining - I did LOVE teaching. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to become a teacher - it is simply not something that just anyone can do.

I'm curious about this - at our school teachers are off at lunch and recess. Paraprofessionals supervise during that 50 minute block. Also, who is calling meetings while the kids are at specials? Aren't the other teachers in class during that time, since not all teachers have specials at the same time?

First of all, teachers eat while kids are at lunch and recess and many of the teams meet together at that time. Teachers can be called into EMT/IEP meetings during specials. Many times, that is when I go. Or I am doing photocopying for me and or for my team (we take turns). Or I am answering emails from parents. Or I have to use that time to find the principal to respond to something that has happened and she wants a face to face versus email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was raised on the idea that teachers work incredibly hard for not much money, and deserve every benefit that flows their way. Now that my kids are in public school, however, I'm having trouble reconciling that with my actual experience with my kids' teachers. School starts at 9:20 and the parking lot seems to clear out at around 4:30. Kids are away from the teachers for lunch and recess, plus specials. With 2.0, the curriculum planning needs seem to have lessened, as every teacher is doing the same thing across the grades.

This *looks* like a MUCH shorter day than most of the rest of us with full time jobs are pulling. So, I want to be on the side of teachers. I'm a big union supporter, and a card-carrying Democrat. But, honestly, my engagement with the public education system is not convincing me.

LOLLLLLLL LOLLLLLL Wow! If you REALLY want to know what teaching entails there are plenty of documentaries and even day in the life videos on YouTube. You might be surprised that the majority of a teacher's work is happening outside of the classroom. If only it was as easy as having to go in from a few hours to teacher. Yeah, don't you think people would be flooding the field and staying for 30 years if that was the case? Do a bit of research on why people are leaving teaching in droves then decide if they really do have it so easy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I hope teachers respond, but as a non-teacher I'll offer a couple of thoughts...

1. Just because the parking lot is empty doesn't mean they are off playing golf. Most teachers I know do a ton of work at home. I enjoy my telework days, so I don't begrudge a teacher getting work done outside the classroom when they don't have to be there.

2. I don't know about you, but I spend most of my day sitting in a cube. Yes, I talk on the phone, go to meetings, sometimes I lead meetings or larger gatherings, but basically it just me quietly at my desk, doing my thing.
In contrast a teacher is "on" in a way that is far more intense than most other white-collar jobs I can think of. So many kids! So many needs! Multi-tasking out the wah-zoo!

Thanks, teachers. I appreciate what you do.

+1

[Anonymous]

OP, to answer your question - being a lazy teacher is pretty easy but depending on your school, you might not keep your job.

Being a good teacher is very, very hard.

My school officially starts at 9:15 but kids start arriving at 8:55 and teachers need to report by 8:15. We begin dismissal around 3:15 but the last bus doesn't arrive till 3:30 usually. We may leave by 3:45, so that's a 7 and a half hour work day, including 1/2 hour for lunch. During my work day in addition to a 30 minute duty free lunch, I also get a 45 minute "preparation period". I am a specialist -- ESL. I teach several different grade levels of students for either 30 or 45 minutes; each class is a separate preparation and has separate work, etc. I am evaluated in part based on how much my students improve in reading and writing. I could follow our official curriculum; however if I did that my students would not improve very much, because the curriculum isn't geared to their actual learning needs!

My day looks like this:

8:15 Sign in and planning/prep time (STAFF MEETINGS)
8:45 bus duty (stay outside until all buses have arrived-- usually by 9:10)
9:15 - 10:00 class one
10:00-10:45 class two
10:45- 11:15 class three
11:15- 11:45 LUNCH DUTY
11:45- 12:15 MY LUNCH
12:15-12:45 class four
12:45-1:30 MY PLANNING/PREP
1:30- 2:00 class five
2:00 - 2:30 class six
2:30-3:15 class seven
3:15-3:40 bus duty
3:40-3:45 tidy classroom, put stuff away, do paperwork (or stay late on my own time if I need to which I always do)


Classroom teachers have a similar schedule. They usually get 30 minutes of specials and recess which equals my one 45 minute planning period. They don't usually have to do bus duty, but they have to stand in the hallways for hall duty, generally. Classroom teachers' planning time is usually spent either at IEP meetings, or planning with their teammates at the same grade level, or meeting with the principal to "discuss data".

There isn't a lot of downtime, and as a teacher you are responsible for everything your students do -- walking in the halls, at recess, at lunch..... you need to be on top of it at all times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a former elementary teacher - retired now.

While I absolutely LOVED teaching, it is not an occupation for everyone....

Most good teachers spend at least 5-6 hours a day on their feet.
They are lucky if they have a chance to use the bathroom - I suffered from numerous urinary tract infections when I first started teaching. My doctor called it “teacher’s bladder.”
On the rare occasion that I was sick, I still had to prepare substitute plans if I expected the students to learn anything in my absence and not just be kept “busy."
Teachers have to be mentally alert all day. No down time - even during recess.
While they do have some breaks during the day (specials) - they spend this time in meetings or planning or prepping.
There was work to do EVERY evening. If I left school early (4:30), it was a given that I would be working at home that night.
I spent at least 6 hours every Sunday prepping for the week. Then, during the week, I would spend another 1-2 hours revising based on student learning.
Most of the summer was not time off - there were workshops, planning meetings, and training - much of which was not compensated (monetarily).

I am not complaining - I did LOVE teaching. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to become a teacher - it is simply not something that just anyone can do.

I'm curious about this - at our school teachers are off at lunch and recess. Paraprofessionals supervise during that 50 minute block. Also, who is calling meetings while the kids are at specials? Aren't the other teachers in class during that time, since not all teachers have specials at the same time?

They are off meaning they are using the bathroom, running copies, setting up for the afternoon classes, and shoveling food down IF and only if they are not having an impromptu meeting with colleagues about the upcoming field trip or the theme for the hallway bulletin board, or whatever else needs to be discussed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a former elementary teacher - retired now.

While I absolutely LOVED teaching, it is not an occupation for everyone....

Most good teachers spend at least 5-6 hours a day on their feet.
They are lucky if they have a chance to use the bathroom - I suffered from numerous urinary tract infections when I first started teaching. My doctor called it “teacher’s bladder.”
On the rare occasion that I was sick, I still had to prepare substitute plans if I expected the students to learn anything in my absence and not just be kept “busy."
Teachers have to be mentally alert all day. No down time - even during recess.
While they do have some breaks during the day (specials) - they spend this time in meetings or planning or prepping.
There was work to do EVERY evening. If I left school early (4:30), it was a given that I would be working at home that night.
I spent at least 6 hours every Sunday prepping for the week. Then, during the week, I would spend another 1-2 hours revising based on student learning.
Most of the summer was not time off - there were workshops, planning meetings, and training - much of which was not compensated (monetarily).

I am not complaining - I did LOVE teaching. I knew what I was getting into when I decided to become a teacher - it is simply not something that just anyone can do.

I'm curious about this - at our school teachers are off at lunch and recess. Paraprofessionals supervise during that 50 minute block. Also, who is calling meetings while the kids are at specials? Aren't the other teachers in class during that time, since not all teachers have specials at the same time?

Every school is different on how they handle recess. At the schools at which I taught, recess was the teacher’s responsibility. We did have a duty-free lunch. As elementary teachers, we had to walk the students through the lunch line, then could leave for lunch (which gave us generally 20 - 25 minutes to eat). The meetings we attend during the student’s specials are generally grade-level team meetings. All of the teachers at a given grade level have their specials scheduled during the same time period, at least twice a week, to accomplish this. Other meetings we have during that time are meetings with specialists/resource teachers that co-teach with us or help us during that time. Other days during the students’ specials time we were free to plan or prep for the upcoming lessons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some teachers work harder than others. My DD's 2nd grade teacher taught my DS when he was in 3rd grade. She literally did the exact same projects for DD's class, and used the same curriculum except used the 2nd grade level books. I did not feel she put in tons of effort. She retired two years after teaching DD.

DD's current teacher, however, will look things up with DD when she asks questions about things not being taught, designs interesting extra credit, etc. She taught the entire class N'Sync's Bye, Bye, Bye dance and related it to a math lesson. She busts her ass.

This is true. There are some teachers who are not as good as others and who some may consider “lazy.” Fortunately, those teachers are few and far between as they usually get “evaluated out of the profession.” Some slip through, though.
As a former teacher, each year was different for me. I would teach some of the same units, but the projects and lessons would be very different from year to year. I cannot imagine doing the same thing year after year after year. That wouldn’t be good for the kids and it would drive me over the edge.

[Anonymous]

I come from a family with a lot of professionals in other fields. No one seems to think that my siblings and cousins are only working if they're in front of clients. They seem to understand that the surgeon works full time, even though she's not in the operating theater 40 hours a week, or that my lawyer brother is still working during the weeks when he's planning a trial rather than participating in one. Or that my engineer brother's job includes time to read the manual and attend the training related to the new piece of hardware his company just acquired. But somehow the same people seem to think that because I'm in front of a classroom 20 hours a week, I'm "working" 20 hours a week.

Looking over the past week, here's how my time broke down. I teach HS special ed

Time spent teaching: 20 hours (3 80 minute classes, 5 days a week, I'm not in MCPS so I didn't get Yom Kippur off this time)

Time spent supervising kids that isn't "teaching": 3 hours (2 30 minute "homeroom" sessions, during which the kids watched videos and took surveys from the counselors, 1 60 minute assembly. 2 30 minute club periods where I serve as faculty advisory. If I taught elementary school this time would be much longer).

Time spent working with kids outside of class: 7.5 hours (I'm available to students before school (15 minutes), at lunch (30 minutes), and afterschool (45 minutes a day) some things we did during this time included planning club meetings, training peer tutors, reviewing the day's schedule or the day's homework assignments, or providing tutoring or homework help, administering tests with extra time, etc . . .

Back to school night: 3 hours

Met with Assistant Principal to plan workshop: 2 hours

IEP meeting: 2 hours

Attended training on new software: 4 hours

Attended event outside of school hours: 4 hours (most schools require to chaperone a certain number of events such as games, dances, etc . . . In this case it was a school picnic).

Staff meeting: 30 minutes

That's a total of 46 hours, although I'm sure I forgot stuff. It's also before I added a single assignment to the online calendar, answered a single parent email, wrote, modified, or graded an assignment or assessment, planned a lesson, analyzed a piece of data, or wrote an IEP goal. I do almost all those things from home, so they wouldn't figure into the hours you'd see my car in the parking lot, if I didn't happen to commute by metro. I'm generally on campus 7:30 - 4:30 M - F, although this week I stayed until 9 one day for BTS night, went to other locations for 4 hours on both Sat. and Sun for the training and the picnic.

[Anonymous]

Taking a little break now to look at DCUM... I've been at the computer all day planning next week's lessons. I have to plan 4th grade reading lessons (1/2 hour long pull-out -- I'm a special ed teacher); 3rd grade whole group reading lessons (we are using a new curriculum based on a week-long professional seminar I attended at Columbia Teachers College this summer); two 3rd grade guided reading group lessons, at different reading levels; 4th grade writing pull-out lessons; separate 3rd grade reading pull-out lessons for students who are reading significantly below reading level; 3rd grade math lessons; and 5th grade reading pull-out lessons. Oh yes, and then I have to email regarding two IEP meetings I have to schedule, plan for taking data for students on my caseload; and figure out what I'm going to do with my mentor this week.

Because I enjoy what I do, it's bearable. Being a lawyer at a big law firm, which is what I was in my prior life, was unbearably boring.
However, I don't know how much longer I can work this hard.

[Anonymous]

I worked with someone who used to be an Asst Dist Attorney for a fairly large county. He said teaching was way more difficult and hard. The reason he said was, there were no ebbs and flows in your work load. Most non-teachers have busy times where things ramp up, you work longer hours, then once that is over, you have periods where it is slower and you have time to answer emails, file papers, take a longer lunch. Not so in teaching. Every day is like you are on 10 for work load, and it never stops--not at 4:30. not weekends, not breaks.

Really, "it never stops"? How about those 10-11 weeks from mid-June to late-August?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I worked with someone who used to be an Asst Dist Attorney for a fairly large county. He said teaching was way more difficult and hard. The reason he said was, there were no ebbs and flows in your work load. Most non-teachers have busy times where things ramp up, you work longer hours, then once that is over, you have periods where it is slower and you have time to answer emails, file papers, take a longer lunch. Not so in teaching. Every day is like you are on 10 for work load, and it never stops--not at 4:30. not weekends, not breaks.

Really, "it never stops"? How about those 10-11 weeks from mid-June to late-August?

Not pp here.
Some of those weeks are used as a break, for me anyway. Family vacations, cleaning house, yard work, etc.
Much of that time is spent either in training (summer workshops - some mandatory, some not), planning with teammates (we do this a couple days each summer), planning for the year, or taking classes. Teachers have to attend professional development or do other things in order to renew their certification (in VA, this is every 5 years).
Some teachers teach summer school. Others have a summer job to supplement their pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I worked with someone who used to be an Asst Dist Attorney for a fairly large county. He said teaching was way more difficult and hard. The reason he said was, there were no ebbs and flows in your work load. Most non-teachers have busy times where things ramp up, you work longer hours, then once that is over, you have periods where it is slower and you have time to answer emails, file papers, take a longer lunch. Not so in teaching. Every day is like you are on 10 for work load, and it never stops--not at 4:30. not weekends, not breaks.

Really, "it never stops"? How about those 10-11 weeks from mid-June to late-August?

NP. I work like hell during the other months then completely shut down for the summer when I'm not paid. If you have an issue with that then join me! There's a teacher shortage. Then again, I like my job and am not complaining or looking for sympathy. I choose this profession and am generally happy.

[Anonymous]

I'll be the voice of dissent here.
A boyfriend that I lived with for 2 years was a teacher.
He never ever brought work home unless he "goofed off" during a planning period, he had 2, in addition to lunch.
He did all his grading during those times, he said lunch hour was more for socializating and he wasn't interested.
It was his 5th year teaching the same grade, and he had perfected his curriculum the first couple years and continues to follow that with some tweaking.
He was home by 4 pm every day.
It was eye opening to say the least!