Teachers - How Hard is Your Job, Really?

[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?

Keep in mind that teachers generally don't get paid for these weeks, they just choose to spread their paycheck over 12 months. Most teachers spend the 2-3 weeks before the year starts prepping their rooms. Also used to take grad classes, or tutor.

[Anonymous]

At my former school contracted hours are 7:45-3:45 (kids are in school 8:30-3:30). I typically worked 7:15-4:15 unless I had IEP meetings/meetings/trainings/etc then I was usually there until 5:30 or 6. Any time before or after contracted hours are not paid.

The 7:45-8:30 time before school was changed to having mandatory meetings every single day. It used to be meetings a few mornings a week and the other days I could use to meet with other teachers and prep for the day. That meant any time I needed to meet with other teachers it had to be done after school.

If I don't need to be in my classroom or at school to get work done (i.e.: prepping materials, setting up/cleaning classroom, etc) I bring my work home (writing IEPs, writing lesson plans, etc).

In addition to classroom teaching there's meetings before school and after school, lunch and recess duty, contacting parents, meeting with other teachers/professionals about particular students, following up on student concerns, submitting help desk requests, emailing parents/teachers/etc... then we were asked to be a part of xyz committees (which usually meant meeting after school or during school which meant creating sub plans and requesting a sub).

When our prep time was being reduced and taken away we totaled up how much work outside of classroom teaching to try to convince them not to reduce and take away our prep time - it was about 20+ hours a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

I'm concerned that your boyfriend believed that he had "perfected" his curriculum and didn't 'need to do more each year than tweak it. He doesn't sound like a very reflective and responsive practitioner of the craft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

I'm concerned that your boyfriend believed that he had "perfected" his curriculum and didn't 'need to do more each year than tweak it. He doesn't sound like a very reflective and responsive practitioner of the craft.

I don't see an issue with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

I'm concerned that your boyfriend believed that he had "perfected" his curriculum and didn't 'need to do more each year than tweak it. He doesn't sound like a very reflective and responsive practitioner of the craft.

I don't see an issue with this.

Exactly! You always have to tweak it because what worked for one class doesn't work for the next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

I'm concerned that your boyfriend believed that he had "perfected" his curriculum and didn't 'need to do more each year than tweak it. He doesn't sound like a very reflective and responsive practitioner of the craft.

I don't see an issue with this.

Exactly! You always have to tweak it because what worked for one class doesn't work for the next.

The point is he did, and was obviously successful because he was voted "teacher of the year" 2 years in a row.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

Your boyfriend was/is a terrible teacher. I teach secondary, and I have a few colleagues like this; they are a frequent topic of exasperated gossip in the staff room. Also, trust me, the students know. I overhear students complaining about a particular colleague who is lazy and does not correct/return their work, and who does not plan lessons, but shows up and "wings it", showing lots of clips from Khan Academy. I hope your (ex?) boyfriend found another profession.

How were you able to actually live with/date someone so lazy, unprofessional, and cavalier about wronging young people by depriving them of key concepts they needed for progress to the next level, but which they were not getting in his lazy, canned "lessons" (because, no, it isn't possible to teach effectively if one does what you describe)? Didn't it bother you that your boyfriend was a loser?

You didn't read the follow up post. He was awarded "teacher of the year" 2 years in a row.
Obviously either the students and/or staff thought he was doing a great job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Summer School and Tutoring is all optional and is not part of the teaching contract. If your job is hard, I want to hear about your actual teaching job, not how hard it is to fit in some side job. You picked a job with retirement benefits over current pay. That's a trade off that means less pay each year, but coverage over more years.

I don't work or teach during the summer now that I have children. I do usually take a class or two. Summer are great! During the school year, I'm at work from about 8AM-4:45PM and work at home for at least a few hours each week. I'm pretty focused at work and the only time I'm not actually working is for about 25 minutes at lunch. I've been teaching the same grade level for many years, but there's still lots of planning, grading, and parent communication. There are always new initatives that we have to plan for and impliment, and only sucky teachers just use the same lesson plans every year. Plus I'm the team leader, and we have a lot of new people on our team resulting in more time needed for collaborate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Summer School and Tutoring is all optional and is not part of the teaching contract. If your job is hard, I want to hear about your actual teaching job, not how hard it is to fit in some side job. You picked a job with retirement benefits over current pay. That's a trade off that means less pay each year, but coverage over more years.

I don't work or teach during the summer now that I have children. I do usually take a class or two. Summer are great! During the school year, I'm at work from about 8AM-4:45PM and work at home for at least a few hours each week. I'm pretty focused at work and the only time I'm not actually working is for about 25 minutes at lunch. I've been teaching the same grade level for many years, but there's still lots of planning, grading, and parent communication. There are always new initatives that we have to plan for and impliment, and only sucky teachers just use the same lesson plans every year. Plus I'm the team leader, and we have a lot of new people on our team resulting in more time needed for collaborate.

*implement*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

I'm concerned that your boyfriend believed that he had "perfected" his curriculum and didn't 'need to do more each year than tweak it. He doesn't sound like a very reflective and responsive practitioner of the craft.

I don't see an issue with this.

Exactly! You always have to tweak it because what worked for one class doesn't work for the next.

The point is he did, and was obviously successful because he was voted "teacher of the year" 2 years in a row.

With that little effort? How sad.

Come to think of it I don't know a teacher who has taught the same curriculum for 5 years in a row. He had to be bored out of his mind. No wonder he did as little as possible.

Regardless of all of that his experience is not average, as you can see from the posts here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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!

There's a big part of it right there.

The rest of it? Not the norm.

I'm concerned that your boyfriend believed that he had "perfected" his curriculum and didn't 'need to do more each year than tweak it. He doesn't sound like a very reflective and responsive practitioner of the craft.

I don't see an issue with this.

Exactly! You always have to tweak it because what worked for one class doesn't work for the next.

The point is he did, and was obviously successful because he was voted "teacher of the year" 2 years in a row.

That has nothing to do with anything. It's a popular vote. Our winner last year won because they coordinated the new teacher program and got a ton of votes from all the newbies. The year before it was a teacher who ran after school detention that we were all eternally grateful for. It rarely had anything to do with actual teaching quality. It can't--I have no idea the quality of my colleagues outside what the kids tell me, because I am never in their rooms.

[Anonymous]

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

They don't help when it's 8:35 am on a Wed in Feb and you just need to go to the bathroom

[Anonymous]

I am at work from 7 am to 5 each day. I try super hard not to bring work home, so I can focus on my family for a few hours. I usually spend another 4-5 hours on the weekend grading. So conservatively, 45-55 hours a week as a 5th year teacher. This is waaaaay less than my first few years, but I don't see it going down any further. Good teachers never teach identical lessons 2 years in a row. I don't even teach it the same 2 periods in a row.

The hardest part is having 100% energy all day long. I am exhausted each day from playing cheerleader to kids who hate math, coercing my screwballs to participate, and making a fool of myself to keep kids engaged. I teach in a low income school where anything less results in kids walking out of class.

The worst is getting sick (and it happens a lot). It is SO much more work to write decent sub plans and then try to make up a lost day than it is to just teach while sick. I have only taken 1 sick day in 4+ years because it's more stressful to be home.

[Anonymous]

Child of a teacher married to a teacher and work doesn't end when the school day ends. Home visits, parent meetings/calls, after school tutoring or other extra curriculars, preparing lesson plans -- all that happens before and after work.