Full Time Classroom Teachers who are moms-- how do you do it?
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Anonymous
Most teachers do have to pay for after or before care. I'm a teacher, I work 7:30 to 3:00 (report time) but usually need to stay till 4. So I leave at 7 and am home by 4:30. My kids' school though is 8:15 to 2:15. So I need both before and aftercare, as my husband needs to leave earlier than I and comes home later. I do think it is very hard to work with young children all day, when you also have your own young children to come home to at night. Before I had children, I gave much emotional energy to my students. Now I save my energy for my own kids. That is how I find "balance." |
Anonymous
I teach ES too and it always made me laugh when people would say how I can save on before/after school care. I pay for both and I also pay a sitter for the many professional development days. Teaching is a very draining job at times. I tell people it is like 4-5 one act plays each day with no rehearsal and a sometimes hostile audience  I cannot give it my 100% now that I have kids but I do my job and I do it as best I can.
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Anonymous
Seriously. My contract hours are 7:45 to 3:45 with a half hour lunch break (which usually ends up being about 20 minutes if anything). I usually arrive at school around 7:30 and find myself leaving around 4:30. There have been days I have stayed until 5:30 or 6. Several times a month I have after school meetings or IEP meetings which require me to stay until around 5:30 or later. Professional development days we have to stay until 5. There is no overtime. I often bring work home with me and sometimes will find myself going in on a Saturday or Sunday in order to set up and prep. Especially if we end up having meetings on Monday mornings. Our school year for the kids runs from August 12 to June 6th. But teachers have to be there much earlier to undergo training and to prep their classrooms. As a first year teacher at the school I am at I had to arrive by July 31st. Some teachers work ESY and summer programs or have second jobs that they work over the summers. There is a rumor that our school may become a year round school. But I am not sure how credible that is. And yes, teachers have to find and pay for childcare and aftercare and make arrangements for childcare on professional days or days that may be different if they are working for a school that has a different calendar then their child's school. They also have to find childcare for days they stay late. They also have to find care for the time before and after the school year ends when teachers need to be there but students are not. And many teachers work in the summers, so they still have to find summer care. Not complaining. Just stating what it actually is like as compared to whatever reality that poster is living in. |
Anonymous
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For 10/10/2013 20:43, you said that you have no actual lunch break, that you eat with and supervise your students. You may be in a private school, but if you're in a public school system, I hope you're aware that you're likely entitled to a duty-free lunch. Something to check on. I feel for you!
Anyhoo.... OP, I struggle with a lot of these issues too. Here's one thing I've found, in addition to all the great tips already mentioned. It's a lot more time consuming and stressful to plan one day at a time, especially for multiple subjects. I try to plan a week and a subject at a time. Ex: Mondays, I plan 5 days of language arts; Tuesdays, the next five days of math, etc. Also, even if your school does not departmentalize at all, you can save some time and stress by pairing up with a colleague. Say you both want to do science lessons A and B. You prep A, she preps B. You each teach your own classes one day, then another day switch kids so you do A twice and she does B twice. Good luck! I wish I were better at the balancing act too. |
Anonymous
Great idea but this only works if you don't work for Lucifer who does not allow such smart ideas. |
Anonymous
| Teachers are among those who receive the lowest SAT scores. |
Anonymous
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I am a FT teacher, with a young child, and pregnant. I just want to say to any naysayers that as a parent, you want the teacher who is concerned with the home/work balance. This is the teacher who wants to work to their best ability and not just deliver one lesson to 30 students, but differentiate to your child's needs. It is a teacher who brings home work because she knows that your child needs to be challenged and she needs to figure out what to do to challenge your gifted child. It is a teacher who teaches not to have a "job" but because they want your child to grow and develop into a well rounded, respected, contributor to our country. You should be thanking the poster instead of demeaning them.
I have worked both an office job and a classroom job. Nothing is harder than teaching. It is not because of the hours, or lack of adult time, lunch time, bathroom breaks. It is because every second of their day is spent making sure your child is learning, loved, and taken care of. Every moment of the day a teacher is juggling 30 tasks and making a billion decisions. Grading, planning, and creating can not be done during contract hours because they are dedicating their lives to helping your child. |
Anonymous
Here is how it is different. I had a different career for many years before becoming a teacher. At my last job, people were respectful, there was no negotiating with children because their mommy will call the principal if little Johnny doesn't get his way or didn't make an "A" on a paper he didn't eve TRY to finish. I didn't worry about getting sued for removing a splinter from a child's hand (which I have had happen to me, but it has happened so it scares me). At my former job, I wasn't exhausted at the end of every day. At the end of the day, that was the of my work day. I didn't spend 10-12 hours a day working, grading papers, making copies, or looking for the best way to accommodate the child with ADHD whose parent refuses to get him/her tested or hold him/her accountable for their behavior. At my last job, I got restroom breaks, a lunch break and a chance to sit in peace when I needed, I was able to leave and go to my child's school activities because leaving didn't mean leaving a class of 20 kids by themselves. At my last job, I made the money I was worth, which was a lot ore than a teacher salary. (FYI...look into the education required by a teacher vs education required by most any other career). Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but it requires more than any job I have EVER had. All the "bad" things are much more out weighed by the love I feel for these children. But if you want to know what the difference is, work in a classroom for a day and decide yourself. I promise it is different kind of exhausted. |
Anonymous
Well said. I have a student teacher this marking period and she is falling apart. This is a 30 year old woman who worked in the private sector for 8 years before deciding she wanted to teach. Every day, she develops some new ailment (she's exhausted, but she can't sleep, her feet hurt, her back aches, her throat is sore, her wrist feels weird, she has a tension headache, etc.). The other veterans and I just laugh. That's simply how classroom teaching beats up your body. She adjust to it. Or you don't. It is not a career for the weak, physically, emotionally, or mentally. |
Anonymous
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It also depends on what you teach, your school, your experience, etc. It's particularly difficult being a first-year teacher. A teacher with 100+ students who teaches English or history or something like that has so many things to grade, let alone lesson planning and administrative duties, that they work well into the night and all weekend if they are doing it right.
All I can say to a teacher in her first year is to survive, enjoy the happy moments, try to put off all the extra duties (if that's even an option), and cut yourself some slack. Every year gets less overwhelming. It's very, very difficult even if you are single and have no family responsibilities waiting for you at home. The type of schedule you have and the type of work you do is very different from office jobs. (It really would be nice to keep this a teacher thread as the OP was intending rather than an "OMG I work hard, too" thread, but that's probably too much to ask.) |
Anonymous
Many jobs dealing with "adults'" (I use that term loosely) problems for 10 plus hours a day are more stressful than teaching kids, trust me, I've done both. |
Anonymous
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Does anyone want to hear from people that work in the ER for a real tit-for-tat?
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Anonymous
| I used to be an Elementary school teacher and loved it, but I could not spend all day with other people's kids and then come home and have enough energy and patience to deal with my own kids. I totally understand your questions, OP. Sure, my job now is hard, but it uses different skills than managing, teaching, and spending time with CHILDREN requires. I think that is OP's point. Being with kids all day in a meaningful way is very difficult. It's obvious that the posters here who are critical just have no idea how difficult it is. |
Anonymous
Do ER doctors work alone without any backup in a room with 30+ patients for 45 minutes? Then get another batch of 30 patients after a 5 minute "break"? Repeat three more times. |
Anonymous
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so. Much. Whining.
All I have to say is that you chose the profession and the fact that it is low pay AND difficult seems to be common knowledge. i sympathize with all the problems in and around the work, but it would be nice if all the complainers admit that this is a bed of their own making. It's like becoming a garbage man and then complaining that the people make smelly garbage. |