Reply to how many hours a week do you put in as a teacher?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=ChristinaBarry][quote=Anonymous]

There you go, teachers.

Stop doing the extras.  They are "useless" anyway.  Work your contracted hours and what doesn't get done just... doesn't.  Parents will have to pay someone else for what you normally do.  [/quote]

When I put in twelve-hour days as a teacher, none of what drove my time was "extra." My first priority was developing interesting, developmentally appropriate lesson plans. My textbooks were so dated and difficult to adapt for LD kids that if I just "taught from the book," too many of my students would fall behind and my classroom management would suffer as the children became bored and frustrated. My second priority was frequent assessment and feedback. Without it, teachers and parents get unpleasant surprises when students earn low marks on summative assessments. It takes a lot of time to design, administer, and score formative assessments, though. Then I would have an average of two emails or phone calls to families per day. Some were brief reminders about missing homework or similar administrative items. (These could, however, develop into complex back-and-forths at times.) Others were longer, sensitive documentations of ongoing social, academic, or behavioral challenges. If I skimped on these, I could damage parent relationships with me and my school. Skipping this "extra" work only amounted to much more work and stress later. In addition to the day-to-day workload, I was also required to write 60+ report card comments four times per year. At just ten minutes per comment, I needed to find between ten and eleven extra hours at the end of every reporting period. Usually this meant giving up the better part of a weekend.

With competition for enrollment between schools, even public schools, administrators are under pressure to deliver extracurriculars and supervised study halls to families. If one teacher opts out of doing her share to provide these extras, it just burdens others teachers. Declining additional duties may work for a time, but being a team player is critical to maintaining professional relationships and career advancement.[/quote]

What did you teach?[/quote]

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