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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wouldn't lump in teachers and nurses. Having the summer off and all those days/weeks off during the school year, and a daily schedule that matches your kids' schoolday is incredible.

Yes yes many will say they are working nonstop during all this time but the teachers I know IRL don't feel that way, especially once you have been doing it a few yrs. And many make supplemental income in the summer if needed with tutoring, ed camps etc.[/quote]

I’ll remember that next weekend when I spend all Sunday grading IB papers. I’ll also remember that when I sit in my car during my own kids’ meets so I can get my lesson plans in on time.

I’ve been teaching many years. 55-60 hour weeks are the norm for many high school teachers. It’s getting worse, too. If this job were so wonderful, like your post suggests it is, why exactly are we facing a growing teacher shortage?[/quote]

This is the sort of reasoning that gets me about teachers.
1) Don't you think many of us spend all Sunday working not unoccassionally? Inc & esp nonprofit workers?
2) Don't you think that many of us have to sit in our car during meets to grade?
3) don' you think many of us work 55+ a week?
I find it amazing that teachers think they are entitled to not work b/c their kids have a game.[/quote]

Do some professionals work over 40? Of course. Do most? No, I’m not buying it. Look no further than DCUM for threads about working only 15-20 hours a week at full-time jobs.

And where did I say that I am entitled to not work because my kid has a game? Guess what? I work at EVERY game and EVERY practice. I’d like the ability to watch one of these days without having a stack of papers on my lap. Is that acting entitled?

Seriously, the disrespect throughout this thread is a perfect illustration of why teachers are quitting. [/quote]

My sense from your post was that you think it's outrageous that you have to work during every game. [/quote]

Shouldn’t I find that outrageous? Should I be okay with the idea that half my job (the planning, the grading, the data collection and analysis, the parent contacts, the mandatory trainings) all have to be done outside work hours? I get 3 hours of unscheduled time at work each week to do ALL of that. You don’t find that outrageous? [/quote]

I would 100% support better hours & pay for teachers. But as someone who also works in a mission-based profession paid slightly more than teachers (but way more than most hands-on, direct service delivery professions) it would be shocking to me if I could accomplish my work in the # of hours in a teachers official work day. What I am trying to say that most teachers don't get is that this is not unique to teachers. [/quote]

What I read is that you may be one of the few posters who understands a teacher’s workload. A teacher’s work day may be 8 hours, but I usually work 12-13.[/quote]

Right. 12-13 hours isn't unheard of. Sorry.[/quote]

And, admittedly at least in my case, 10 hours is more standard -- if you look @ billable hours at least, which I do, b/c we operate on grants -- esp. the more experienced I am. What isn't standard is having predictable, long breaks during the school year and 6 weeks over the summer. That would be unheard of, even though if you spread a teachers' salary over the year and spread mine over the year (which is of course how my salary is dispensed at my org) they are still about the same. In other words, my hourly rate is likely significantly  less. I could totally take a significant pay cut to have that time and know I could take it then. It's not a choice for me. Although in some ways I have more flexibility re when to take leave generally, I just have a lot less of it. 
I would say at most more prestigious orgs and higher levels -- which of course, not everyone makes -- the above is likely the same idea.

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