All these days off...

[Anonymous]

If teachers are working 70hrs/week grading, can someone explain to me why my child has no grades entered into SIS for English and History?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If teachers are working 70hrs/week grading, can someone explain to me why my child has no grades entered into SIS for English and History?

Perhaps your child’s teachers aren’t. You may be getting the experience that comes when teachers work their contracted hours, not the hours the job actually requires.

And that’s the entire problem. Teachers aren’t afforded time to do the work, so it doesn’t get done unless they give up home lives. And, increasingly, people aren’t as willing to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

When people hear “teacher,” they often picture a 7:30–3:30 school day. But for many educators, the real hours stretch far beyond the bell. A 70-hour work week isn’t an anomaly—it’s routine. Here's how those hours add up:

Grading Isn’t Just Checking Boxes
- Essays: 15–20 minutes per essay. A class of 30? That’s 7.5–10 hours for one assignment. Multiply that times 5 (5 classes) for English and humanities teachers. That's up to 50 hours of grading for one essay.
- Short Answer Tests: 5–10 minutes per test. Multiply that across multiple classes. Many secondary teachers have 140-160 students, so each test could take several hours to grade.
- Feedback: Thoughtful, personalized comments can take 5–10 hours per major assignment. This is where learning deepens—and where time disappears.

Lesson Design Is a Daily Marathon
- Creating engaging, differentiated, evidence-based lessons takes 2+ hours per day. That’s 10+ hours a week just on planning—before the teaching even begins.

Meetings That Matter (and Multiply)
- CT (Collaborative Team) Meetings: 1.5–4.5 hours weekly.
- IEP/504 Meetings: 1–2 hours monthly, often outside contract hours.
- These aren’t optional—they’re essential for supporting diverse learners.

The Hidden Time Thieves
- Answering parent emails
- Writing letters of recommendation
- Updating grades and learning platforms
- Supervising clubs, sports, or events
- Attending professional development
- Supporting students in crisis
- Rewriting plans after fire drills, assemblies, or snow days

Each task may seem small, but together they form a mountain. And teachers climb it daily—not for praise, but for their students.

The Takeaway
A 70-hour week isn’t a sign of inefficiency—it’s a reflection of how deeply teachers care and how manyntasks they’re juggling. They’re not just delivering content.

Yes, there are other professionals who also work an unreasonable number of hous per week. No one is denying that. No one is saying teachers have it worse than other professionals. However, no one has the right to effectively call teachers liars when they say they routinely work 70-hour weeks. Do all teachers work those type of hours? Not even close; some teachers barely work more than 40 hours per week. But many teachers do work 70 hours per week, and they deserve to be believed.

This does sound like an insane amount of work for a job that pays government level salaries.

But I don’t think it has always been like this. So what changed to make the hours so crazy?

Again, another topic that has been discussed endlessly on this forum. There are additional meetings, paperwork, data collection, trainings, duties, etc., that I’ve been added in the past 20 years.

I began teaching 20 years ago. Back before Schoology/Blackboard/Online Systems. And parents couldn't see our online gradebook - they saw grades at interim and end of quarter.

To give an assignment, I would write all of the assignments on the board or hand out a worksheet. Now it has to be assigned in Mathspace, cross-listed in Schoology (but make different due dates for odd/even classes!), and then an assignment created in SIS. For paper assignments, a blank version it has to be uploaded to Schoology with an answer key.

To check the assignment, we'd either check off it was done (and students would get a zero if they didn't do it) while putting the answer key on the overhead for 5 minutes. If I did that today, it would take students 15+ minutes because they come in unprepared and want to be spoon-fed.

Now, I get dozens of emails a week from students and parents asking "how do I raise my grade" because they have instant access to grades and can't connect cause and effext. I spend 30 minutes to an hour each week (outside of contract hours) just grading/updating late work.

That's just one snapshot of why the workload has increased. Parents and students expect more, which as a parent I understand, but planning time has only been diminished or decreased by other obligations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

It’s been explained multiple times, what don’t you understand?

Because some don’t want to understand and they don’t have any frame of reference anyway. The math has been all over DCUM. At this point, it’s no use.

Posters don’t understand that grading and planning can’t get done AT work because teachers are busy with students. It’s a different type of job, one that doesn’t provide the luxury of sitting at a desk getting work done. But if you’ve never experienced that, perhaps it’s hard to imagine.

And some of us have friends or family that are or were teachers and know that 70 hours a week is absurd hyperbole

Okay. I can’t believe I’m trying again:

150 essays at 15 minutes each: 37.5 SUSTAINED hours of grading (that means without breaks, like sleeping or checking DCUM). They need to get back in 10 days, so that’s an extra 3.75 hours of work for 10 days straight for that assignment ALONE. That doesn’t include other assignments, emails, meetings, “other duties as assigned,” data collection and analysis, tutoring… most of which has to be done off hours. Because the work day is spent with the students.

My kid is a Sophomore and hasn't written more than 7 essays their entire FCPS career. I think the hyperboles need to stop. Teachers do a lot but let's not get carried away they have a great work life balance.

I’ll remember my great work/life balance when I’m up at 4am tomorrow grading. I’ll remember it when I’m grading papers throughout the day on Saturday as my family goes to the beach to give me privacy. I’ll remember it when I am writing college recommendation letters Sunday so dozens of students don’t have to panic about upcoming deadlines.

It must be true because a DCUM poster told me so. She knows my job and my responsibilities more than I ever will.

I wish my job only required me to work 195 days a year. I’d even take a pay cut to have it be so. But alas I am expected to be there throughout the year and yes many a night I’m up until 1 to 2 am putting in “unpaid” extra hours, and sometimes even weekends, This is necessary so that I can eat, spend time with and and make dinner for my family.

When I was younger and paid much less, with 2 weeks vacation, plus 8 holidays off a year. I ran the numbers and realized that hour for hour I’d make much more money teaching, with summers off, shorter work days, and school breaks. Now throw in pensions, no work travel, heath care that was much cheaper comparatively and I was looking at a total boondoggle.

After thought and investigation I realized teaching wouldn’t be best for my introverted personality.

I laugh whenever I hear teachers grumble about the money. How much exactly to you expect to be paid for as you stated a 195 day a year contract job, especially when only 180 of those day are spent in the actual classroom teaching.

I would imagine that career switchers are the only ones who know what it's like being a professional in other jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

It’s been explained multiple times, what don’t you understand?

Because some don’t want to understand and they don’t have any frame of reference anyway. The math has been all over DCUM. At this point, it’s no use.

Posters don’t understand that grading and planning can’t get done AT work because teachers are busy with students. It’s a different type of job, one that doesn’t provide the luxury of sitting at a desk getting work done. But if you’ve never experienced that, perhaps it’s hard to imagine.

And some of us have friends or family that are or were teachers and know that 70 hours a week is absurd hyperbole

Okay. I can’t believe I’m trying again:

150 essays at 15 minutes each: 37.5 SUSTAINED hours of grading (that means without breaks, like sleeping or checking DCUM). They need to get back in 10 days, so that’s an extra 3.75 hours of work for 10 days straight for that assignment ALONE. That doesn’t include other assignments, emails, meetings, “other duties as assigned,” data collection and analysis, tutoring… most of which has to be done off hours. Because the work day is spent with the students.

My kid is a Sophomore and hasn't written more than 7 essays their entire FCPS career. I think the hyperboles need to stop. Teachers do a lot but let's not get carried away they have a great work life balance.

I’ll remember my great work/life balance when I’m up at 4am tomorrow grading. I’ll remember it when I’m grading papers throughout the day on Saturday as my family goes to the beach to give me privacy. I’ll remember it when I am writing college recommendation letters Sunday so dozens of students don’t have to panic about upcoming deadlines.

It must be true because a DCUM poster told me so. She knows my job and my responsibilities more than I ever will.

I wish my job only required me to work 195 days a year. I’d even take a pay cut to have it be so. But alas I am expected to be there throughout the year and yes many a night I’m up until 1 to 2 am putting in “unpaid” extra hours, and sometimes even weekends, This is necessary so that I can eat, spend time with and and make dinner for my family.

When I was younger and paid much less, with 2 weeks vacation, plus 8 holidays off a year. I ran the numbers and realized that hour for hour I’d make much more money teaching, with summers off, shorter work days, and school breaks. Now throw in pensions, no work travel, heath care that was much cheaper comparatively and I was looking at a total boondoggle.

After thought and investigation I realized teaching wouldn’t be best for my introverted personality.

I laugh whenever I hear teachers grumble about the money. How much exactly to you expect to be paid for as you stated a 195 day a year contract job, especially when only 180 of those day are spent in the actual classroom teaching.

I would imagine that career switchers are the only ones who know what it's like being a professional in other jobs.

DP. I’m a career changer. I work more in my 195 days as a teacher than I did as a 12 month employee at my former corporate job.

I worked 45 hours a week there. I’m over 65 a week now. The way I see it, I do 12 months of work in 10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

When people hear “teacher,” they often picture a 7:30–3:30 school day. But for many educators, the real hours stretch far beyond the bell. A 70-hour work week isn’t an anomaly—it’s routine. Here's how those hours add up:

Grading Isn’t Just Checking Boxes
- Essays: 15–20 minutes per essay. A class of 30? That’s 7.5–10 hours for one assignment. Multiply that times 5 (5 classes) for English and humanities teachers. That's up to 50 hours of grading for one essay.
- Short Answer Tests: 5–10 minutes per test. Multiply that across multiple classes. Many secondary teachers have 140-160 students, so each test could take several hours to grade.
- Feedback: Thoughtful, personalized comments can take 5–10 hours per major assignment. This is where learning deepens—and where time disappears.

Lesson Design Is a Daily Marathon
- Creating engaging, differentiated, evidence-based lessons takes 2+ hours per day. That’s 10+ hours a week just on planning—before the teaching even begins.

Meetings That Matter (and Multiply)
- CT (Collaborative Team) Meetings: 1.5–4.5 hours weekly.
- IEP/504 Meetings: 1–2 hours monthly, often outside contract hours.
- These aren’t optional—they’re essential for supporting diverse learners.

The Hidden Time Thieves
- Answering parent emails
- Writing letters of recommendation
- Updating grades and learning platforms
- Supervising clubs, sports, or events
- Attending professional development
- Supporting students in crisis
- Rewriting plans after fire drills, assemblies, or snow days

Each task may seem small, but together they form a mountain. And teachers climb it daily—not for praise, but for their students.

The Takeaway
A 70-hour week isn’t a sign of inefficiency—it’s a reflection of how deeply teachers care and how manyntasks they’re juggling. They’re not just delivering content.

Yes, there are other professionals who also work an unreasonable number of hous per week. No one is denying that. No one is saying teachers have it worse than other professionals. However, no one has the right to effectively call teachers liars when they say they routinely work 70-hour weeks. Do all teachers work those type of hours? Not even close; some teachers barely work more than 40 hours per week. But many teachers do work 70 hours per week, and they deserve to be believed.

This does sound like an insane amount of work for a job that pays government level salaries.

But I don’t think it has always been like this. So what changed to make the hours so crazy?

Again, another topic that has been discussed endlessly on this forum. There are additional meetings, paperwork, data collection, trainings, duties, etc., that I’ve been added in the past 20 years.

I began teaching 20 years ago. Back before Schoology/Blackboard/Online Systems. And parents couldn't see our online gradebook - they saw grades at interim and end of quarter.

To give an assignment, I would write all of the assignments on the board or hand out a worksheet. Now it has to be assigned in Mathspace, cross-listed in Schoology (but make different due dates for odd/even classes!), and then an assignment created in SIS. For paper assignments, a blank version it has to be uploaded to Schoology with an answer key.

To check the assignment, we'd either check off it was done (and students would get a zero if they didn't do it) while putting the answer key on the overhead for 5 minutes. If I did that today, it would take students 15+ minutes because they come in unprepared and want to be spoon-fed.

Now, I get dozens of emails a week from students and parents asking "how do I raise my grade" because they have instant access to grades and can't connect cause and effext. I spend 30 minutes to an hour each week (outside of contract hours) just grading/updating late work.

That's just one snapshot of why the workload has increased. Parents and students expect more, which as a parent I understand, but planning time has only been diminished or decreased by other obligations.

I hate that poorly designed apps are making life harder for people in so many domains. This is a good example of “enshitification”, and I wish there was something better for teachers, students, and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

When people hear “teacher,” they often picture a 7:30–3:30 school day. But for many educators, the real hours stretch far beyond the bell. A 70-hour work week isn’t an anomaly—it’s routine. Here's how those hours add up:

Grading Isn’t Just Checking Boxes
- Essays: 15–20 minutes per essay. A class of 30? That’s 7.5–10 hours for one assignment. Multiply that times 5 (5 classes) for English and humanities teachers. That's up to 50 hours of grading for one essay.
- Short Answer Tests: 5–10 minutes per test. Multiply that across multiple classes. Many secondary teachers have 140-160 students, so each test could take several hours to grade.
- Feedback: Thoughtful, personalized comments can take 5–10 hours per major assignment. This is where learning deepens—and where time disappears.

Lesson Design Is a Daily Marathon
- Creating engaging, differentiated, evidence-based lessons takes 2+ hours per day. That’s 10+ hours a week just on planning—before the teaching even begins.

Meetings That Matter (and Multiply)
- CT (Collaborative Team) Meetings: 1.5–4.5 hours weekly.
- IEP/504 Meetings: 1–2 hours monthly, often outside contract hours.
- These aren’t optional—they’re essential for supporting diverse learners.

The Hidden Time Thieves
- Answering parent emails
- Writing letters of recommendation
- Updating grades and learning platforms
- Supervising clubs, sports, or events
- Attending professional development
- Supporting students in crisis
- Rewriting plans after fire drills, assemblies, or snow days

Each task may seem small, but together they form a mountain. And teachers climb it daily—not for praise, but for their students.

The Takeaway
A 70-hour week isn’t a sign of inefficiency—it’s a reflection of how deeply teachers care and how manyntasks they’re juggling. They’re not just delivering content.

Yes, there are other professionals who also work an unreasonable number of hous per week. No one is denying that. No one is saying teachers have it worse than other professionals. However, no one has the right to effectively call teachers liars when they say they routinely work 70-hour weeks. Do all teachers work those type of hours? Not even close; some teachers barely work more than 40 hours per week. But many teachers do work 70 hours per week, and they deserve to be believed.

This does sound like an insane amount of work for a job that pays government level salaries.

But I don’t think it has always been like this. So what changed to make the hours so crazy?

Again, another topic that has been discussed endlessly on this forum. There are additional meetings, paperwork, data collection, trainings, duties, etc., that I’ve been added in the past 20 years.

I began teaching 20 years ago. Back before Schoology/Blackboard/Online Systems. And parents couldn't see our online gradebook - they saw grades at interim and end of quarter.

To give an assignment, I would write all of the assignments on the board or hand out a worksheet. Now it has to be assigned in Mathspace, cross-listed in Schoology (but make different due dates for odd/even classes!), and then an assignment created in SIS. For paper assignments, a blank version it has to be uploaded to Schoology with an answer key.

To check the assignment, we'd either check off it was done (and students would get a zero if they didn't do it) while putting the answer key on the overhead for 5 minutes. If I did that today, it would take students 15+ minutes because they come in unprepared and want to be spoon-fed.

Now, I get dozens of emails a week from students and parents asking "how do I raise my grade" because they have instant access to grades and can't connect cause and effext. I spend 30 minutes to an hour each week (outside of contract hours) just grading/updating late work.

That's just one snapshot of why the workload has increased. Parents and students expect more, which as a parent I understand, but planning time has only been diminished or decreased by other obligations.

I’ve been teaching the same amount of time. You need a better late policy. I update them when they are due and then again at the end of the unit. I tell them this at the beginning of the year and at BTSN. That’s the penalty of turning it in late, they sit on the zero until the end of the unit. You are spending way too much time updating late work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

It’s been explained multiple times, what don’t you understand?

Because some don’t want to understand and they don’t have any frame of reference anyway. The math has been all over DCUM. At this point, it’s no use.

Posters don’t understand that grading and planning can’t get done AT work because teachers are busy with students. It’s a different type of job, one that doesn’t provide the luxury of sitting at a desk getting work done. But if you’ve never experienced that, perhaps it’s hard to imagine.

And some of us have friends or family that are or were teachers and know that 70 hours a week is absurd hyperbole

Okay. I can’t believe I’m trying again:

150 essays at 15 minutes each: 37.5 SUSTAINED hours of grading (that means without breaks, like sleeping or checking DCUM). They need to get back in 10 days, so that’s an extra 3.75 hours of work for 10 days straight for that assignment ALONE. That doesn’t include other assignments, emails, meetings, “other duties as assigned,” data collection and analysis, tutoring… most of which has to be done off hours. Because the work day is spent with the students.

My kid is a Sophomore and hasn't written more than 7 essays their entire FCPS career. I think the hyperboles need to stop. Teachers do a lot but let's not get carried away they have a great work life balance.

I’ll remember my great work/life balance when I’m up at 4am tomorrow grading. I’ll remember it when I’m grading papers throughout the day on Saturday as my family goes to the beach to give me privacy. I’ll remember it when I am writing college recommendation letters Sunday so dozens of students don’t have to panic about upcoming deadlines.

It must be true because a DCUM poster told me so. She knows my job and my responsibilities more than I ever will.

I wish my job only required me to work 195 days a year. I’d even take a pay cut to have it be so. But alas I am expected to be there throughout the year and yes many a night I’m up until 1 to 2 am putting in “unpaid” extra hours, and sometimes even weekends, This is necessary so that I can eat, spend time with and and make dinner for my family.

When I was younger and paid much less, with 2 weeks vacation, plus 8 holidays off a year. I ran the numbers and realized that hour for hour I’d make much more money teaching, with summers off, shorter work days, and school breaks. Now throw in pensions, no work travel, heath care that was much cheaper comparatively and I was looking at a total boondoggle.

After thought and investigation I realized teaching wouldn’t be best for my introverted personality.

I laugh whenever I hear teachers grumble about the money. How much exactly to you expect to be paid for as you stated a 195 day a year contract job, especially when only 180 of those day are spent in the actual classroom teaching.

I would imagine that career switchers are the only ones who know what it's like being a professional in other jobs.

DP. I’m a career changer. I work more in my 195 days as a teacher than I did as a 12 month employee at my former corporate job.

I worked 45 hours a week there. I’m over 65 a week now. The way I see it, I do 12 months of work in 10.

LOL, also a career switcher. Oh the peace of my cubicle or office depending on the year. I can recall having endless time to chat with co-workers, disappear for lunch, etc. I had busy days but nothing, NOTHING, like teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

When people hear “teacher,” they often picture a 7:30–3:30 school day. But for many educators, the real hours stretch far beyond the bell. A 70-hour work week isn’t an anomaly—it’s routine. Here's how those hours add up:

Grading Isn’t Just Checking Boxes
- Essays: 15–20 minutes per essay. A class of 30? That’s 7.5–10 hours for one assignment. Multiply that times 5 (5 classes) for English and humanities teachers. That's up to 50 hours of grading for one essay.
- Short Answer Tests: 5–10 minutes per test. Multiply that across multiple classes. Many secondary teachers have 140-160 students, so each test could take several hours to grade.
- Feedback: Thoughtful, personalized comments can take 5–10 hours per major assignment. This is where learning deepens—and where time disappears.

Lesson Design Is a Daily Marathon
- Creating engaging, differentiated, evidence-based lessons takes 2+ hours per day. That’s 10+ hours a week just on planning—before the teaching even begins.

Meetings That Matter (and Multiply)
- CT (Collaborative Team) Meetings: 1.5–4.5 hours weekly.
- IEP/504 Meetings: 1–2 hours monthly, often outside contract hours.
- These aren’t optional—they’re essential for supporting diverse learners.

The Hidden Time Thieves
- Answering parent emails
- Writing letters of recommendation
- Updating grades and learning platforms
- Supervising clubs, sports, or events
- Attending professional development
- Supporting students in crisis
- Rewriting plans after fire drills, assemblies, or snow days

Each task may seem small, but together they form a mountain. And teachers climb it daily—not for praise, but for their students.

The Takeaway
A 70-hour week isn’t a sign of inefficiency—it’s a reflection of how deeply teachers care and how manyntasks they’re juggling. They’re not just delivering content.

Yes, there are other professionals who also work an unreasonable number of hous per week. No one is denying that. No one is saying teachers have it worse than other professionals. However, no one has the right to effectively call teachers liars when they say they routinely work 70-hour weeks. Do all teachers work those type of hours? Not even close; some teachers barely work more than 40 hours per week. But many teachers do work 70 hours per week, and they deserve to be believed.

This does sound like an insane amount of work for a job that pays government level salaries.

But I don’t think it has always been like this. So what changed to make the hours so crazy?

Again, another topic that has been discussed endlessly on this forum. There are additional meetings, paperwork, data collection, trainings, duties, etc., that I’ve been added in the past 20 years.

I began teaching 20 years ago. Back before Schoology/Blackboard/Online Systems. And parents couldn't see our online gradebook - they saw grades at interim and end of quarter.

To give an assignment, I would write all of the assignments on the board or hand out a worksheet. Now it has to be assigned in Mathspace, cross-listed in Schoology (but make different due dates for odd/even classes!), and then an assignment created in SIS. For paper assignments, a blank version it has to be uploaded to Schoology with an answer key.

To check the assignment, we'd either check off it was done (and students would get a zero if they didn't do it) while putting the answer key on the overhead for 5 minutes. If I did that today, it would take students 15+ minutes because they come in unprepared and want to be spoon-fed.

Now, I get dozens of emails a week from students and parents asking "how do I raise my grade" because they have instant access to grades and can't connect cause and effext. I spend 30 minutes to an hour each week (outside of contract hours) just grading/updating late work.

That's just one snapshot of why the workload has increased. Parents and students expect more, which as a parent I understand, but planning time has only been diminished or decreased by other obligations.

I’ve been teaching the same amount of time. You need a better late policy. I update them when they are due and then again at the end of the unit. I tell them this at the beginning of the year and at BTSN. That’s the penalty of turning it in late, they sit on the zero until the end of the unit. You are spending way too much time updating late work!

DP. I update late work grades on Fridays. I also tell students/parents that at the beginning of the year. The zero can sit for a while.

That’s the only way that task doesn’t consume my day. There’s always late work. There are always emails about late work, to which I respond with a cut/paste reminder about Fridays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster - I can't get over the "70 hours" comment. There is 0 way you on average spend 70 hours throughout the school year and if you do, well you need to find a better way to do your job. One random "70 hour" week maybe? but probably very inflated. Might have gotten away with 55-60, but come on.

It’s been explained multiple times, what don’t you understand?

Because some don’t want to understand and they don’t have any frame of reference anyway. The math has been all over DCUM. At this point, it’s no use.

Posters don’t understand that grading and planning can’t get done AT work because teachers are busy with students. It’s a different type of job, one that doesn’t provide the luxury of sitting at a desk getting work done. But if you’ve never experienced that, perhaps it’s hard to imagine.

And some of us have friends or family that are or were teachers and know that 70 hours a week is absurd hyperbole

Okay. I can’t believe I’m trying again:

150 essays at 15 minutes each: 37.5 SUSTAINED hours of grading (that means without breaks, like sleeping or checking DCUM). They need to get back in 10 days, so that’s an extra 3.75 hours of work for 10 days straight for that assignment ALONE. That doesn’t include other assignments, emails, meetings, “other duties as assigned,” data collection and analysis, tutoring… most of which has to be done off hours. Because the work day is spent with the students.

My kid is a Sophomore and hasn't written more than 7 essays their entire FCPS career. I think the hyperboles need to stop. Teachers do a lot but let's not get carried away they have a great work life balance.

I’ll remember my great work/life balance when I’m up at 4am tomorrow grading. I’ll remember it when I’m grading papers throughout the day on Saturday as my family goes to the beach to give me privacy. I’ll remember it when I am writing college recommendation letters Sunday so dozens of students don’t have to panic about upcoming deadlines.

It must be true because a DCUM poster told me so. She knows my job and my responsibilities more than I ever will.

I wish my job only required me to work 195 days a year. I’d even take a pay cut to have it be so. But alas I am expected to be there throughout the year and yes many a night I’m up until 1 to 2 am putting in “unpaid” extra hours, and sometimes even weekends, This is necessary so that I can eat, spend time with and and make dinner for my family.

When I was younger and paid much less, with 2 weeks vacation, plus 8 holidays off a year. I ran the numbers and realized that hour for hour I’d make much more money teaching, with summers off, shorter work days, and school breaks. Now throw in pensions, no work travel, heath care that was much cheaper comparatively and I was looking at a total boondoggle.

After thought and investigation I realized teaching wouldn’t be best for my introverted personality.

I laugh whenever I hear teachers grumble about the money. How much exactly to you expect to be paid for as you stated a 195 day a year contract job, especially when only 180 of those day are spent in the actual classroom teaching.

I would imagine that career switchers are the only ones who know what it's like being a professional in other jobs.

DP. I’m a career changer. I work more in my 195 days as a teacher than I did as a 12 month employee at my former corporate job.

I worked 45 hours a week there. I’m over 65 a week now. The way I see it, I do 12 months of work in 10.

LOL, also a career switcher. Oh the peace of my cubicle or office depending on the year. I can recall having endless time to chat with co-workers, disappear for lunch, etc. I had busy days but nothing, NOTHING, like teaching.

I was an elementary teacher and then switched to a government job after a spousal move. Then, quit when I had kids.
While the satisfaction at the end of the year of seeing the progress of the kids was wonderful, the amount of free time in an office job is extremely different:

1.You have time to have a five minute chat with your colleagues.
2.You can use the bathroom facilities at any time rather than worrying about what your class is doing if you have to leave the room.
3. You can eat lunch with your colleagues--even at a restaurant.
5. No grading papers after hours.
6. If you are out sick, your desk remains the same. You don't have a sub messing up your plans.
7. I did not have duty free lunch for a number of years. My first principal--a wonderful woman--wanted us to sit with the kids. We usually sat at the "teachers' table" though.

Yes, the summers are nice, but that is when you take additional classes from time to time.

Teaching is quite rewarding, but anyone who thinks it is easy is sadly mistaken. I will add that when I taught, we were free to teach our own lesson plans in our own way. There probably should have been more guidance, but hearing what teachers must do now, I think I had it better.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and I love the 4-day weeks, but I wish it was 4 days in a row instead of having a Tuesday or Thursday off. Anyway, studies have shown that a 4-day week has a lot of benefits. And trust me, your kids aren't learning that much in school anyway. Most of them just really need more sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If teachers are working 70hrs/week grading, can someone explain to me why my child has no grades entered into SIS for English and History?

I work about 50 hours a week as a HS teacher. I don't enter a lot of grades because every time I grade something it means that I then have to chase after 30 students to get them to actually do it and hand it in so that they don't all get zeros and fail. Given how often they are absent or skip class, it takes forever to get them all. Then I have to enter grades in Schoology and then re-enter all the grades again in the grade book. Schoology actually doesn't talk to the grade book system, so we have to enter every single grade twice.

So, that's probably why there are no grades there. I'm not working more hours than I already do.

[Anonymous]

I am guessing attendance will be low this Friday. LOL Last week felt long even with Tuesday off. It will be interesting to see how a Thursday off feels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If teachers are working 70hrs/week grading, can someone explain to me why my child has no grades entered into SIS for English and History?

+1. No grades in Civics. It’s almost October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher and I love the 4-day weeks, but I wish it was 4 days in a row instead of having a Tuesday or Thursday off. Anyway, studies have shown that a 4-day week has a lot of benefits. And trust me, your kids aren't learning that much in school anyway. Most of them just really need more sleep.

Citation needed for this, particularly at the elementary level.