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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]
When I convert 10 months into weeks, I get at least 40 weeks.

Also, the teacher's salary is the teacher's salary -- unless the teacher supplements their income with a second job during winter, spring, and summer vacations. Yes, they get time off during winter, spring, and summer vacations. But time off doesn't pay the bills. The question isn't whether teachers get compensated what they deserve to get compensated, because few people gets compensated what they deserve to get compensated; that's not how compensation works. (If it were how compensation works, CEOs and lobbyists would be a whole lot less rich.) The question is whether the compensation is high enough to attract and retain highly-qualified people. What do you think is the answer to that question? [/quote]

Hope you are not a math teacher.  Please count the days on your contract.  You do know that most people do not get Christmas vacation, all federal holidays, and a Spring break?

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We're not paid over the summer.  I begin work the week before the kids return.  We work through mid-June.  That leaves 2 weeks of June, all of July, two weeks in August w/o a paycheck.   For folks who have been in the system long enough, there's enough to save up for those summer weeks.  For new teachers, it becomes difficult. So many take on summer jobs.

And tbh, the hours we work AFTER school ends and on weekends more than makes up for the "free" summers we have.  I get home around 4 or after and work to at least 8 pm.  On weekends, I plan and grade.  not much of a life, especially if you have kids

But yes, my children see me.  We only worry about before care (nanny share), and I spend holidays and snow days with them.  So while I'm working, I'm around.  I sacrifice so that I don't have to place my children in any institutionalized daycare, nor do I have to rely on camps to watch them all summer long.

How many parents can say they see their kids this much?

not many

So that's my "revenge" when folks like you try to demean us.  [/quote]

[b]You do realize that many, many people, at the start of their careers, take on supplemental work, or have roommates, etc, to reduce expenses. [/b] And many, many people bring their work home, and don't get paid overtime.

It's not about demeaning; it's about the lack of understanding from teachers that they are doing no more than other people who are making a living. We all make sacrifices.

I think it's great (seriously), that you do what you do to see your kids more. That's my takeaway from this - that you planned well for your own children. I respect that.[/quote]

Of course I realize it.  But their salaries often reflect the work they put in. This is not the case in teaching. It's taken me 19 years (I took leave and was PT for years.) to make over $100K.  That's ridiculous, and it's not typical of many other professions.

Furthermore, the work load has only increased from one year to the next.  My planning periods are not my own. Just today, I was in an IEP meeting for an hour and a half - and they "released" me midway.  We have three meetings a month in addition to parent conferences and "working lunches."  So my work comes home with me.  I teach the cream of the crop and some of the most struggling children I've ever seen in my entire career - freshmen reading at a 3rd grade level.

So while my salary is OK, it's not enough to attract the best and the brightest.  And my children will NEVER enter this profession!  The public has no clue, and yet folks are the first to tear us down.  What will happen to YOUR kids when all the good teachers leave?  Do you know what's left?  I can list the young teachers who are savvy with technology but who can't teach a child how to read and write.  It's all about the gadgets and looking good!

I worry about our kids b/c they don't have a chance in hell now that teachers have lost all autonomy to do what's best for their students.
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