Teachers - How Hard is Your Job, Really?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully this is a troll post. Lots of things that fall under teachers job responsibilities are not always visible to parents. There are offsite meetings, training, planning, grading, prep and attendance for 504 meetings, IEP meetings, endless rounds of emails, phone calls to and from parents. These are just a few items. Please don't cast judgment because the school parking lot isn't filled hours before the first bell.

[Anonymous]

Some are good teachers, some are bad. The good teachers really care about your child *and* your child knows it.
That takes serious talent. Few have it, very few.

[Anonymous]

My kid's K teacher in DCPS says she's there at 7:30 every morning, and leaves around 7 at night. She's always there when I'm picking up my kid from aftercare.

[Anonymous]

I teach secondary, and my job is very "hard" because it takes a great deal more time and care than an ordinary 9-5. I typically spend at LEAST 3 hours each evening (once or twice a week, it is much more, and I always work on Saturday) reading/marking compositions and planning: I do try to get out of school as soon as I can each day so that I can go home to my own children, but I assure you that I'm at the kitchen table working on school stuff as soon as dinner is over. It is very, very intense, and my best friend from college, who is now a doctor, works similar hours. I love my job, but it makes me sad that so many of my students' parents look down on me for doing it: this attitude is clear to your child, and it hinders his/her learning process.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm a former teacher (secondary - so some of your descriptions don't apply). I'm not a big union supporter, as you are. I left teaching for a "high status" public sector job (of course it was higher paid, too) but the feedback I got indicated that I was at least a good teacher.

In my book, there's "difficult" and there's "hard." Difficult relates to whether you need special talents or special coursework, or whether you needed years and certain training or practice to develop your craft. Hard relates to whether it's not easy to get through a day, either because of the hours or the conditions. In my experience, teaching was both difficult and hard. I won't go into details for you, and of course there are many factors that play in to each teacher's situation.

I appreciate your "wanting to be on the side of teachers," although I'm not sure what that means to you.

[Anonymous]

YES! You are "on" 100 percent of the time (especially when you teach little kids.)

[Anonymous]

Plus we do work from home (newsletters, reports, lesson plans, and much more!)

[Anonymous]

It is hard. I've worked in two other professional fields for 3 and 4 years respectively. It is slightly less intellectually challenging depending on the courses I'm assigned to teach and the particular students I get. This one career is definitely hardest on the body. For example, I had to have varicose veins treated due to standing all day. It's also emotional hard in a way that maybe only clergy, health care workers, and social workers understand. Financially, it is a lot harder. Not only am I paid relative little for my education and experience, but I shell out hundreds each year for basic classroom supplies.

A typical day:

I'm a morning person so I put in 2 hours of grading or prep for my classes at home before I wake up my children. I arrive at work a half an hour before the required duty time. I'm not the earliest staff member to arrive.

I have hot tea and a Greek yogurt while I handle email or make copies. This is important because I may not eat again until I arrive home.

Colleagues start arriving. This is when the important "meetings" happen. Information about students is exchanged, we learn which staff will be out and need someone to support their sub.

I make adjustments to my lesson and hit the bathroom. This is my one guaranteed opportunity to go before 1 pm. There is one female staff bathroom near my room, it has a single stall, and we are not allowed to use student bathrooms.

Students start arriving. Like all teachers, I have hall duty between classes, but I also am one of the few teachers with a locker key so I dash up and down the halls dealing with jambs and forgotten combinations. At the same time, students are looking for me to solve other issues: needing a pass to retake a quiz at lunch, a missing book, a crisis with a partner on a project.

I teach my first two classes and go to a team meeting during my "planning period" that could have been handled via email.

I teach a third class and tutor through lunch.

I teach my fourth class.

Finally, I have my real planning period. I dash to the bathroom. I'd love to sit in my room quietly to eat my lunch while I set up the next day's lesson, but my classroom is used by another teacher. I go to the media center and plan there. I have to post homework and any upcoming assessment information to Edline before 3 pm so I usually do that before the bell rings to change classes.

I teach my last class of the day.

I set up my room for the next day. Answer emails. Pack a bag with grading and print out anything that has to be copied the next morning. It's useless to try to copy after school because that's when flyers for the whole school and IEPs are run.

I head home. From now until they go to bed, I belong to my own children. I will sneak in emails while they are at sports practice or in bathroom, but I am not at my best at 3:30 so I try to conserve my energy and good will for them.

As I drift off, I do think now and then of something I want to do in the classroom so I keep a pad beside the bed for jotting down a quick note or making a simple sketch. If I really can't sleep, I get up and grade since light doesn't bother my partner but noise from tv does.

Grading, prepping, and dealing with email is also a big chunk out of each weekend.

I haven't even delved into dealing with confidential student records. I used to get IEPs at a glance. Our RTSE stopped the case managers from giving them because a few teachers didn't keep theirs locked up. Now I need to access the entire thing on MyMCPS to find the one piece of info I need.

This is actually a pretty good day. A bad day involves a student with SN having a meltdown mid class, technology failures (like bldg svcs unplugging my Chromebook cart overnight) and all the times I have taught sick because it's more effort to plan for a sub than to drag my feverish self in.

Despite this vent, the first 3 weeks of this school year were the easiest of my decade and a half long PS teaching career. By that, I mean that, I didn't sit in too many long and useless staff meetings, the copiers didn't break down, and the materials that I stored over the summer weren't misplaced or thrown away when building services cleaned my room.

However, all the usual stresses and strains that occur behind the scenes were still there. I received a new shipment of textbooks (finally) at 3 pm the Friday before school opened. I had no choice but to come in Saturday unpaid to inventory them and get them on shelves if I didn't want 10 boxes in the middle of my classroom floor.

I teach at a MS that is not only known for being a pressure cooker for MoCo's affluent kids and a good place for twice exceptional children, but is experiencing a small demographic shift. We doubled our ESOL enrollment in the short time I've been there. I'd be willing to bet my entire salary that none of these students are the illegal immigrants that DCUM's armchair pundits like to wail about. In fact, the majority aren't even Latino or lower income. But they still have enormous unique educational and socioemotional needs that we are struggling as a school to meet. I know my Down County colleagues have it harder.

[Anonymous]

I try to leave by 4:30 each day (though sometimes I stay as late as 5) because my daycare closes at 6 and I have to sit in tons of DC traffic to make it in time. Plus I hate having my child in daycare until 6. So I leave usually by 4.

I pick up my child, go home and feed her dinner and take care of her until her bedtime at 7:30. Then some nights I sleep from 8-2am and then get up and work from 2am until I leave for work at 6:50am. Or sometimes I work from 7:30pm-1am and then sleep 1-6 before getting up.

Every single weekend I spend time buying things I need for my classroom, going to the library, lesson planning, reviewing student work, writing a weekly newsletter we send out, doing readings for our weekly professional development etc.

Every night I have emails from parents and colleagues that need to be answered.

I am constantly preparing materials for my kids - center materials in particular. Lesson planning. Analyzing assessments.

I have been working for about 10 years of my life. Only 3 of those years were as a classroom teacher and the other were in demanding office jobs. Those jobs were nothing compared to teaching.

You have to have lessons and activities planned for literally every single minute of the day that you have students.

It is exhausting. And one of the more annoying aspects is that people think you don't work hard. It's pretty insulting.

[Anonymous]

I was a MS teacher and it was by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I had to leave teaching for my health. But I still miss it every day. I miss the students and the energy. I miss seeing students as they grow and learn.

I do not miss the long hours, the inability to have control over my day (going to the bathroom shouldn't be that hard), always having to be 'on' and no 'slow days' and the worst was if you were sick or had to be gone--having to plan for every minute of that day. Imagine you were gone from your job and someone was going to sit at your desk. And you had to plan for every minute, who they would call, which emails they would answers, what meeting they would attend of yours. Now imagine you are sick and are trying to pull something together. Now imagine that being sick one day throws off your planning for the next 4-6 weeks.

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.

I equate it to being launched off an aircraft carrier in Aug, then you are on and alert until your screeching halt of landing in June.

Hardest job I've ever had and it almost killed me...and I still miss it everyday...

[Anonymous]

I leave at 4 to go tutor until 6:30/7pm and then do work at home.

[Anonymous]

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?