Anonymous wrote:
Do your really think that everyone else only works 40 hours per week without any after work effort? Really?

I'm a teacher who works 35.5 hours per week and earns $55K. My husband is a government employee who works 40 hours per week and earns a little over 100K. He NEVER brings work home. If he is called in to work on the weekend (special event) they give him comp time.

And that is where the term "Close enough for government work" came from. Also, does your husband get three months off every year?

Also, how I handle grading paperwork is the same way my doctor handles paperwork. I do it during my time with my students (as the doctor does it during his time with his patients).

I do NOT take paperwork home, ever. I open my online grade book, have the students tell me what skill I was evaluating, and then enter the grade for the skill as we review their papers. Grades are therefore posted the day they are earned.

Because I am an early elementary teacher, the work is not hard to grade. Were I to be teaching upper elementary or secondary, I don't know how I'd handle it.

Anonymous wrote:Do your really think that everyone else only works 40 hours per week without any after work effort? Really?

I'm a teacher who works 35.5 hours per week and earns $55K. My husband is a government employee who works 40 hours per week and earns a little over 100K. He NEVER brings work home. If he is called in to work on the weekend (special event) they give him comp time.

Do your really think that everyone else only works 40 hours per week without any after work effort? Really?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

So when does she grade all those tests and papers? Does she save it up until the end of the semester and grade everything in one mega-work-weekend? Or does she grade it every week?

She said she tries her best to have everything done within a week but that is only possible b/c she spends quite a few hours over the weekend and 1-3 hours outside of school hours during the week to get it done.

So that would be roughly equivalent to a 40 hour week?

Um, no. She is contracted to work 7.5 hrs per day. She spends an hour before school and at least an hour or two after school grading, planning, etc. Add a few more hours on the weekend and she works 45 hrs a week minimum including at least 7-8 hrs where she isn't being paid. She had her Master's plus 30 and she earns in the mid $50k range.

Sorry. I've taught high school and I have taught college. Yeah, grading sucks, but every job has things that suck.

However, if the kids get no feedback for two weeks, the assignment isn't worth much toward the kid's development.

Arrange your grading around your time constraints. Use quizzes and other assessments to insure that the material is learned. Don't give a thousand little assignment so that the grading overwhelms (and your class becomes an exercise in clerical accuracy instead of a class with real learning). Assign the homework, use the assigned material in class, and make sure that the test is easy for the kids who did the work, and hard for the kids who did not. Be professional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

So when does she grade all those tests and papers? Does she save it up until the end of the semester and grade everything in one mega-work-weekend? Or does she grade it every week?

She said she tries her best to have everything done within a week but that is only possible b/c she spends quite a few hours over the weekend and 1-3 hours outside of school hours during the week to get it done.

But if she didn't stay late and do it after school, what would the other solution be? Save it all up till the end of the semester and do it all ... when? Or is the solution just not to grade homework and quizzes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

So when does she grade all those tests and papers? Does she save it up until the end of the semester and grade everything in one mega-work-weekend? Or does she grade it every week?

She said she tries her best to have everything done within a week but that is only possible b/c she spends quite a few hours over the weekend and 1-3 hours outside of school hours during the week to get it done.

So that would be roughly equivalent to a 40 hour week?

I'm not the PP you were asking, but I am an elementary school teacher and my required time at the school building is 7.5 hours per day, or 37.5 hours per week. This includes a 30 minute duty free lunch period, and a 30 minute planning period. Otherwise all that time is "in front of children" (i.e. you can't leave to use the bathroom ... you have kids!

If I were to add an extra 2 hours on top of that, grading, plus 2 hours on the weekend, that would make my work week about 50 hours, not 40.

Currently my salary is $60K.

I do get a lot of vacation (not of my choosing of course -- when school is closed) and 8 weeks at summer off, so the salary is OK for me.

But many people here i the DC area who are working 50 hour weeks are earning a good bit more than $55K!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We get an emailed grade check every 2 weeks, which includes grades for any work done so far this quarter and lists anything that is not turned in yet. In FCPS.

We got it weekly. Sometimes we knew DC's place in the class before she even got home so we always knew when she was behind, had not turned in a test, etc. Such a breath of fresh air from our private where we never knew from week to week and sometimes months would go bybefore we found out there had been a homework problem or something was missing (and then it was the teachers' faults).

How do you your child's place in the class? Do they send out all the grades to everyone?

Anonymous wrote:We get an emailed grade check every 2 weeks, which includes grades for any work done so far this quarter and lists anything that is not turned in yet. In FCPS.

We got it weekly. Sometimes we knew DC's place in the class before she even got home so we always knew when she was behind, had not turned in a test, etc. Such a breath of fresh air from our private where we never knew from week to week and sometimes months would go bybefore we found out there had been a homework problem or something was missing (and then it was the teachers' faults).

Don't know about how long teacher has, but do know that all work done prior to interim must be graded by interim--in other words, end of quarter grade cannot be lowered based on ungraded work at interim.

Given the workload of teachers, I think 13 days after turn in is reasonable.

OP here. Thanks for the responses.

I didn't think twice until we we entered the second week. Grades finally posted at the 13 day mark.

Not good pedagogy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend teaches middle school and she has appr. 120 students each day. On most days, they had in homework and classwork for her to grade. That's 240 assignments to grade daily. They also have quizzes once per week and a test every few weeks plus a project every few weeks. She has one 50 minute free period per day to plan and grade. You do the math.

So when does she grade all those tests and papers? Does she save it up until the end of the semester and grade everything in one mega-work-weekend? Or does she grade it every week?

She said she tries her best to have everything done within a week but that is only possible b/c she spends quite a few hours over the weekend and 1-3 hours outside of school hours during the week to get it done.

So that would be roughly equivalent to a 40 hour week?

We get an emailed grade check every 2 weeks, which includes grades for any work done so far this quarter and lists anything that is not turned in yet. In FCPS.