Why does no one acknowledge how overworked teachers are?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think this video is an important reminder for parents and administrators

https://fb.watch/hcxdi1BUVj/?mibextid=0LFGlp

Largely because people in the private sector work far more hours.

The "extra hours for free" and "unpaid overtime" comments make me roll my eyes. Do teachers realize that other professionals are classified as "exempt" and do not get paid overtime? "Overtime" is a concept for non-exempt employees.

Oh, and summers? MCPS pays teachers for spending time on workshops, etc. Is that not "overtime"?

Back to add, and union protection? Other professionals do not have this.

Sigh. Most teachers here are simply asking people to respect that they also work long hours. They aren’t all suggesting that YOU don’t also work long hours. Is it so hard to acknowledge that some teachers work nights? Weekends? What does it take away from you to acknowledge that? What do you gain by picking on teachers? I’d really like to know.

Also, not everything on this thread is about MCPS. My district doesn’t pay for my summer workshops. Sometimes I even have to pay. As for the union, get rid of it! Please! It doesn’t do much to protect me and clearly it doesn’t bargain better conditions.

Because even if they do work those hours (many don’t) they don’t work the 50 weeks a year which a lot working parents do. The teachers at my kids school work 39 weeks a year. If you annualized all the claimed overtime and weekends you are claiming they work, I doubt you will get 11 additional work weeks to out them in par with the 50 weekers .

Okay. Again: why discourage and insult the many of us who DO work hard? Why can’t you simply say, “welcome to the club of people who work many hours. We see you.”

I’ve posted here before. I work 60-hour weeks on average. It tops 70 or 75 when major assessments are submitted, which is about once a month. I get 7 weeks for summer, 3 of which are used doing minimally paid or unpaid workshops or curriculum-writing sessions. These are 40 hour weeks. I get one month for summer. As for the school year, I get a total of 12 days of leave (personal and sick). My work days are go-go-go-go-go. There’s no chance for an hour break to catch up if I am behind. I’m not complaining. I’m merely explaining, although I’m guessing your erroneous beliefs about teachers are pretty set in stone.

I’m not alone. 80% of my department has turned over in recent years. #1 reason for leaving is not pay. It’s workload. The National teacher shortage? Also based on workload.

Perhaps some teachers have it easy. I’m willing to bet there are people at your place of work who don’t work nearly as hard as you.

Again: what harm is it to you? Is there a limited amount of space in the “I work hard” club?

You are, very literally, doing too much. Figure out how to half-ass more and get to half-assing.

But if I do that, I’ll be torn apart on the “my child’s teacher doesn’t return work” thread.

And? Are you setting yourself on fire to keep DCUM warm?

This truly comes from a place of kindness. You have the flexibility to do less, and you should make that work for you. I have read all the posts in this thread, and I don’t know how that kind of type A balls to the wall gunning wouldn’t burn out anyone. Really zoom out and stop and think about your practices and figure out how you can cut back on your quality of work to improve your quality of life.

No, I won’t. I’m a parent, too, and I know what I want for my own children. I want them to have well-planned lessons, quick and meaningful feedback on assignments, etc. Our kids deserve it. Trust me: you want your child in my class. My students make great progress in 10 months, and they enjoy the process. I am proud of what I do. Teaching is an art and I do it well.

The day I back off and give less than my best is the day I quit. This is not a job in which one can perform the minimum. Yes, I will burn out and leave like the many amazing teachers I’ve watched leave in the past few years. They were amazing, too, but they would not lower their standards.

This nation will come to its senses at some point and provide teachers with time to work. By then, the good teachers will have burned out and left. Is that okay? No. Heck, my own kids will suffer. Unfortunately, that’s what it is going to take before we change the culture of teaching.

I think you overestimate the American people.

Listen I teach AP classes and my kids earn great scores. I work no more than 40 hours per week, and try to keep it to 35. Private school. Consider your options.

How many work hours a week do you get for planning and grading? How many AP students do you teach? Is your particular AP class writing-intensive? Do your students come into your class already prepared, or is there a lot of catch-up that you have to do to get these great scores?

Not all situations are equal. I’d like to think my students deserve me, too. I appreciate that the American public, according to the other poster, is happy with me phoning it in. I’m not.

NP but you choose to work 50 - 60 hours a week. That’s a choice. It’s not because you are a teacher. I’ve had friends do that and they stopped after a few years because they wanted to have a life outside the classroom. Most found ways to be more efficient and cut some work out that wasn’t improving student outcomes that much. Their test scores stayed the same.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I want a job where I’m overworked but am compensated for it. My friends who aren’t teachers work a lot but make over $150k per year. I make $75k. Maybe I’d make that much if I charged for my OT. The job cannot be done with one 45 minute prep period per day. Most days I get zero planning due to meetings and other BS.

Your friends who make 150k don’t get summers off and long breaks during the school year. They’re working a lot more than you.

They get 3-4 weeks paid vacation plus they take 1+ hour lunches every day. Most would admit that they do no more than 3-4 hrs of work each day.

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I want a job where I’m overworked but am compensated for it. My friends who aren’t teachers work a lot but make over $150k per year. I make $75k. Maybe I’d make that much if I charged for my OT. The job cannot be done with one 45 minute prep period per day. Most days I get zero planning due to meetings and other BS.

Your friends who make 150k don’t get summers off and long breaks during the school year. They’re working a lot more than you.

They get 3-4 weeks paid vacation plus they take 1+ hour lunches every day. Most would admit that they do no more than 3-4 hrs of work each day.

+1

Just go get a different job if you don't like your's, versus comparing jobs. Jobs are different. Go get one that suits you better.

[Anonymous]

I'm an attorney for a municipal entity, and while I am far from rolling in it, no one thinks they are keeping me in the profession by giving me free bagels and cream cheese once a month.


If you work for the federal government, then you are familiar with the fact that most government employees (regardless of whether they are federal, state, city, county, or other local jurisdiction), usually are limited in the types of financial compensation that can be grated, even when they are outstanding

I work for a municipal entity, as I said, so I do not "work for the Federal government." What I am suggesting is that if the concern is teachers leaving the profession, the upper limits of compensation provided for teachers be raised. Bagels are not going to do it.

[Anonymous]

Start a homeschooling service .

Charge each parent 15 k.

Teach 15 kids

Without all the wasted time and gender confusion of publics the kids would only need a 4 hour school day English, math, history, science

4 classes

[Anonymous]

^^ 9-1:30 . 50 min
50 min classes and lunch. Go home at 1:30 or parents can take turns doing field trips in the afternoons

[Anonymous]

I've worked for state government and in schools over the years; one thing I learned was that sometimes I had to put in my 40 hours a week or so and stop there. Either learn how to be more efficient or just do what I could.in those 40 hours. The only reward was the satisfaction of doing a good job or leaving for a better paying job elsewhere.

I was not going to be paid more, I was not going to get more help, and was going to be pushed to work myself to death if I let them because there was more work than we could accomplish if we worked 24 hours a day.

One of my female mentors also taught me not to get sucked into doing all the "special" things, like bringing in food for coworkers or staff parties or that type of thing that management thinks female workers (like teachers) should do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm an attorney for a municipal entity, and while I am far from rolling in it, no one thinks they are keeping me in the profession by giving me free bagels and cream cheese once a month.


If you work for the federal government, then you are familiar with the fact that most government employees (regardless of whether they are federal, state, city, county, or other local jurisdiction), usually are limited in the types of financial compensation that can be grated, even when they are outstanding

I work for a municipal entity, as I said, so I do not "work for the Federal government." What I am suggesting is that if the concern is teachers leaving the profession, the upper limits of compensation provided for teachers be raised. Bagels are not going to do it.

If cashiers start leaving because they think the job is too demanding and they deserve 6 figure salaries, do we pay them more? Not really because the job is not very specialized nor require much academic rigor. Many companies would rather just replace them with machines. If the workload for teachers is too much, we should try to lighten the load. Maybe invest more in effective teaching software. However, most teachers are paid appropriately for a B.A. degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want a job where I’m overworked but am compensated for it. My friends who aren’t teachers work a lot but make over $150k per year. I make $75k. Maybe I’d make that much if I charged for my OT. The job cannot be done with one 45 minute prep period per day. Most days I get zero planning due to meetings and other BS.

Your friends who make 150k don’t get summers off and long breaks during the school year. They’re working a lot more than you.

You realize many teachers work (revising curricula, mainly) and take classes during the summer, correct? My summer last year was 3 weeks long after I accounted for trainings, workshops, and curriculum meetings. Most was unpaid. And those long breaks? Many of my friends in other professions get them, as well. They also get more leave than I do (12 days total - sick and personal).

12 days total plus almost all of the other days that school is off. Yes, you will say that you are unpaid for those, but professionals look at their annual salary and leave. Teachers want to be hourly when asked to work extra or cite that they are unpaid for something, but then compare their annual salaries to people who work all year. You can't have it both ways (and I am a teacher.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the OP in this thread. Teaching at public school is an incredibly difficult profession. Especially at the elementary level. Not only are you expected to come up with lesson plans across multiple subjects without textbooks and with limited planning periods, but you also have to differentiate the lesson across multiple levels of students, figure out a ton of independent activities so you can work with small groups, and deal with IEPs etc. Compared to that our private school teachers have it so, so easy.

I have a cushy corporate job and while there is plenty of stress and politics and I do sometimes work 55-60 hour weeks, it still pales in comparison to being a teacher. I bow down, seriously.

This may have been the way things were in the past, but most ES teachers are not coming up with lesson plans, and the differentiation is in the packaged curriculum. In fact, many teachers resent the mandated lesson plans, since they have lost much of the creativity and professional autonomy they had before.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Teachers in the US have a lot more face-to-face time with students than teachers in the rest of the world. I taught overseas and always had at least two planning periods each day. One was during special areas classes like art, PE, etc and the other was during foreign language class. Plus I always had a duty free lunch of at least 45 minutes.

Quite true. I have one friend who taught in Central America and another in Europe. Both had more planning / unscheduled work time than hours in front of students. Both were shocked to hear how little time American teachers get.

Teachers in the USA get paid over 3-5 times what teachers in CA or Europe get.

You'd expect them to teach more and whine less.

Nope. Sorry. I’m the PP and I’m not buying this.

I don’t know what you do for a living, but I suspect you would question me if I asked you to deliver 30+ hours a week of presentations, do pre and post work 20+ hours a week, and still attend meetings, respond to emails, cover for your colleagues every day, and document every little thing that you do. You will also be held directly responsible for 150 others. If they fail, so did you.

I have closely followed this thread. You call it “whining.” I call it “something you just don’t care to hear.” That doesn’t change the reality of teaching.

What do you mean by this? Yes, people will criticize teachers who are not effective, but how many are actually held "directly responsible?" It is a psychological burden only, almost no one is getting fired.

[Anonymous]

Everyone is overworked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I’m a former teacher. My perspective is 1) teachers underestimate how overworked everyone else is. They think they’re uniquely working unpaid overtime when just about anyone in a salaried role is feeling the same pressure, especially if they want to be regarded as good as their job. Same as teachers. 2) A ton of this, teachers bring on themselves. Take decorating rooms. No one is making them do that. You choose to go blow $200 at Michaels and then spend a weekend taping kitschy crap to the walls.

+1

“Weekend taping kitschy crap to the walls” = weekend grading your child’s 7 page research paper
$200 at Michaels = $200 on student supplies, online resources my district won’t pay for, sanitizer, tissues, lunch for students without money…
Decorating room = making sure I don’t get downgraded on an observation for failing to provide a good learning environment
“Working unpaid overtime” = sure! But where are the teachers saying non-teachers don’t do this? Check this thread. Few voices have taken that argument, but plenty seem comfortable saying teachers whine and are lazy.

I suspect you don’t know much about teaching. I posted before saying that this thread is ridiculous. Tons of people posting about teaching, and it’s clear they understand very little about the job. Yes, teachers will get defensive. We often work long hours putting your children before our own, so perhaps you can at least refrain from typing the unkind thoughts in your head.

The number of 7 page research papers being assigned in U.S. schools is pretty low, unfortunately. But I take your point...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the OP in this thread. Teaching at public school is an incredibly difficult profession. Especially at the elementary level. Not only are you expected to come up with lesson plans across multiple subjects without textbooks and with limited planning periods, but you also have to differentiate the lesson across multiple levels of students, figure out a ton of independent activities so you can work with small groups, and deal with IEPs etc. Compared to that our private school teachers have it so, so easy.

I have a cushy corporate job and while there is plenty of stress and politics and I do sometimes work 55-60 hour weeks, it still pales in comparison to being a teacher. I bow down, seriously.

This may have been the way things were in the past, but most ES teachers are not coming up with lesson plans, and the differentiation is in the packaged curriculum. In fact, many teachers resent the mandated lesson plans, since they have lost much of the creativity and professional autonomy they had before.

Which district do you work for where all curriculum is provided?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ 9-1:30 . 50 min
50 min classes and lunch. Go home at 1:30 or parents can take turns doing field trips in the afternoons

That's an interesting idea but most states will not allow a teacher to legally call that kind of set up "homeschool". Homeschool needs to be directed by parents. if a teacher charges for tuition like that, she would need to be registered as a private school, and that's a very expensive thing to do.