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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I disagree somewhat with previous assessments of teaching. I have worked in federal consulting and teaching and I found teaching to be much more family-friendly than consulting. True, the first couple of years were incredibly overwhelming and I was often at school for 12-13 hour days (and I didn't have kids then) but once I got the hang of things, I only needed to work outside of school to grade papers - and that was maybe three weeks/quarter. I also got really good at prioritizing how I used my prep periods once I had kids of my own at home. The vacations were aligned with my kids' vacations, and I had so many more sick/vacation days that I could use if I needed to stay home with one of them.

The only family-friendly benefit of consulting is the ability to work from home - obviously that couldn't be done when I was a teacher. But my project does not allow regular work from home, so I don't get to take advantage of it that often.[/quote]

You clearly aren't teaching now. And, I might add, you were doing the minimal, which , while we understand a person should not have to take that much work home, but teaching is pretty much an 18 hour a day job. The work never ends. With the new evaluative systems in place, you would be earmarked for "ineffective." Also,my colleagues with kids run out of sick days before January. None carry over for the next year for cumulative days. They have had to use sick bank.[/quote]

You're right, I stopped teaching a year ago b/c of relocation. However, when I was teaching I certainly was not doing the minimal - I just became more efficient at planning and grading. The longer you teach, the more instructional tools you have in your "toolkit" and it becomes almost intuitive which type of lesson to use based on your instructional goals/student interests and needs. You also have materials to draw on for repurposing. I almost never used the same lesson two years in a row, but it's a lot easier to tweak an existing lesson than generate a new one from scratch. A lot of teachers in my school also wasted their prep periods getting coffee, chatting, etc. I was the same pre-kids and paid for it by working long hours in the evening. Once I had kids, I forced myself to be more efficient/less social at work. I was consistently evaluated "exceeds expectations" in all of my reviews, and was the Department chair for my discipline, and this was in a district consistently ranked in the top 25 in the US by US News and World Report. So no, I would not be earmarked "ineffective." Re: sick days, there must be some variation by district - when I left my previous position, I had almost 100 accumulated sick/vacation days. [/quote]

I should add...I also got to work every day by 6:45am, pre and post kids (DH was in charge of mornings with the kids). The hour and fifteen minutes before classes started was "sacred" time for me  and I got tons of work done while the school was quiet. So maybe that is in the spirit of "taking work home," but I didn't see it that way - I went to work early because I loved my job. Federal consulting, on the other hand, comes home with me every day, there are minimal vacations (don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people who complain about teacher vacations - I just see them as a well-deserved perk of the job) and I have absolutely no accumulated PTO or sick days b/c I have to use all of mine on snow days and childrens' illnesses. So, yeah...teaching is hard but in my experience is more family friendly than either of the two corporate jobs I've held. Also, without a doubt more rewarding. I'm not saying teachers don't work hard - they absolutely do and deserve way more credit than they generally receive from the general public. But certain aspects of the job, IMO, are much more family-friendly.[/quote]

Look at the Charlotte Danielson Framework- you would have upload a ton of artifacts to qualify for exceeds expectation in only ONE of the domains,  and much more  of the data for others.   In a 50 minute planning period per day, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to do that. How about grading 100- 150 papers/essays/projects per day? In your 50 minutes and lunch time? Where does planning come in to play?  How about answering 4-12 emails every evening from students and parents about questions, grades, etc.  Yes, I can understand that you might have had 100 days of sick leave, but you are obviously older, do not have young kids in day care and stored your days from year to year. This original poster was looking to see what might be a family friendly job...you were not able to acquire a life outside of school until years in, and under new guidelines, I doubt you would be able to do it today.  She was looking for a realistic answer. Not sure what you taught, but all of my colleagues from K-8 have to collaborate three times a week at school to plan, and the high school teachers have to track and upload data,  and grade heavy assignments, write references, deal with parent complaints about grades. What were you teaching? What grade? Yes, it is true that some teachers may not use the 50 minutes as wisely as you, but it also could be that  they know they can't start or finish something in that short time and know it's going home regardless. [/quote]

Yikes, I'm sorry you deal with that, PP, but that was not my experience at all. What district do you work in because if I go back to teaching, I want to avoid it like the plague. I had two prep periods plus lunch, 100 students max, and why on earth are you grading 100-150 projects/essays/papers per day? Students should not be producing extended assignments like that at a rate of one per day. I'm very sorry to hear that this is the state of teaching in DC/MD/VA. [/quote]

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