Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on year 6 and just when I thought I hit my stride a year ago, they got rid of our old ESOL curriculum and told to teach what the teachers teach. Um, okay. How about some professional development for that? No, none? My principal keeps switching the grade levels that we teach so we are guaranteed to never get good at any of them. I wonder how they choose the people in charge. Drawing straws? Dartboard?

I'm also an ESOL teacher and we haven't had a curriculum for years. We also change grade levels pretty much yearly depending on the master schedule. After all of our entry testing etc. we just figured out our schedules today and will start teaching on Monday, so I have to learn 2 new grade level curricula over the weekend. I spend a ton of money every year buying resources on TpT because we are provided with nothing and need to develop our own lessons that align with the language indicators taught within content. Plus create a curriculum for newcomers every year which needs to be highly differentiated.

What gets me is having to be "on" all the time and having every minute of the day proscribed for me. Last year my lunch was at 10:45 and this year it's at 1:30. I just want to be able to choose when I eat lunch and choose when I can go to the bathroom or make a phone call if necessary. I want to be able to sit down and return an email without having to watch the clock to make sure I'm not late for dismissal duty every day. Or finally sit down to scarf some food at my computer only to be interrupted by a fire drill or a kid who just threw up in the class across the hall and needs to be escorted to the nurse. Now that I've been teaching for 13 years, I think I'm much better cut out for a job where there's work to be done and as long as I get it done well and have it done before the deadline I can choose when to eat lunch and when to go to the bathroom. Sometimes it feels like I'm in jail when I'm at work. I know that's kind of dramatic, but it's how I feel.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60 hours a week x 38 weeks = 2280 hours per year.

40 hours a week x 52 weeks = 2080 hours per year.

A full time year round employee who works 44 hours a week works the same amount as a teacher. Most professionals I know work this and then some. I get the exhaustion that comes from long days with other people's children, but the amount of complaining is really unwarranted.

Except most of us also do unpaid work during the summers. For me, it's typically training and writing curriculum, but I'm also expected to attend summer IEP meetings.

If you do unpaid work, don't complain about it. It's your choice. I get paid to come in to do summer IEP meetings and so do other teachers.

That's so true. I hate when other teachers set the precedent that they will work unpaid. The ones who go in every summer to work on their rooms for days before preservice starts, attend leadership team meetings without a stipend, run after school clubs unpaid etc. Because so many do it on their own free will, there's no pressure for us to be compensated for doing those things. One year I was asked to be team leader, which is an unpaid position for teachers in my position. I declined due to the fact that I wouldn't be paid for doing the same work and putting in the extra time that 7 other people would be paid for. I told my principal that once it became a paid position for my specialty then I'd be happy to do it. My principal then listed about 6 people who weren't paid but still agreed to serve as team leader. I guess she thought since they chose to work for free that I would too?

What annoys me the most about my fellow teachers is the martyrdom. Always agreeing to take on more even when they're not compensated for it. Yes, it's obviously important "to do it for the kids", but the reality is that it is my job and if I wasn't getting paid for doing it then I wouldn't be there. I've learned that it's really not ok to voice that opinion while working in a school. You'll get looked at like you have three heads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60 hours a week x 38 weeks = 2280 hours per year.

40 hours a week x 52 weeks = 2080 hours per year.

A full time year round employee who works 44 hours a week works the same amount as a teacher. Most professionals I know work this and then some. I get the exhaustion that comes from long days with other people's children, but the amount of complaining is really unwarranted.

Except most of us also do unpaid work during the summers. For me, it's typically training and writing curriculum, but I'm also expected to attend summer IEP meetings.

If you do unpaid work, don't complain about it. It's your choice. I get paid to come in to do summer IEP meetings and so do other teachers.

Anonymous wrote:I'm on year 6 and just when I thought I hit my stride a year ago, they got rid of our old ESOL curriculum and told to teach what the teachers teach. Um, okay. How about some professional development for that? No, none? My principal keeps switching the grade levels that we teach so we are guaranteed to never get good at any of them. I wonder how they choose the people in charge. Drawing straws? Dartboard?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:60 hours a week x 38 weeks = 2280 hours per year.

40 hours a week x 52 weeks = 2080 hours per year.

A full time year round employee who works 44 hours a week works the same amount as a teacher. Most professionals I know work this and then some. I get the exhaustion that comes from long days with other people's children, but the amount of complaining is really unwarranted.

Except most of us also do unpaid work during the summers. For me, it's typically training and writing curriculum, but I'm also expected to attend summer IEP meetings.

Anonymous wrote:60 hours a week x 38 weeks = 2280 hours per year.

40 hours a week x 52 weeks = 2080 hours per year.

A full time year round employee who works 44 hours a week works the same amount as a teacher. Most professionals I know work this and then some. I get the exhaustion that comes from long days with other people's children, but the amount of complaining is really unwarranted.

Anonymous wrote:60 hours a week x 38 weeks = 2280 hours per year.

40 hours a week x 52 weeks = 2080 hours per year.

A full time year round employee who works 44 hours a week works the same amount as a teacher. Most professionals I know work this and then some. I get the exhaustion that comes from long days with other people's children, but the amount of complaining is really unwarranted.

Anonymous wrote:I am putting in at least 60 hours a week, sometimes more. I'm a veteran teacher, so this is not cause I'm new. I have taken on a bunch of new responsibilities, and teach some extra curricular activities (unpaid), so that's part of it. But I'm exhausted. I'd much rather teach from August 1 to June 30th and have a week off every 2 months than a long summer and this kind of workload. I'm even working in my building on the weekend. I get that other professions work long hours, though I'm curious how many other professions making 65K a year are working 60 hour work weeks.

Anonymous wrote:This thread will not end well. DCUM as a whole thinks that teachers are whiners and complainers and that they understand exactly what teaching entails because they spent time as a student in a classroom and that a teacher only works the hours they're with students. I empathize with everyone who has posted but be prepared to start hearing it from the people who have no clue. Then there will be the poster who chimes in that she's in by 8 and out by 3 and loves the flexibility and time with her kids that a career in teaching provides her. She will not answer questions about where she works.

Anonymous wrote:
Do you all have MDs or PhDs?
My husband and I work as research scientists and some of our colleagues work 60-80+ hours in their lab.
Salaries range from 40K as post-docs to 100K for senior scientists, sometimes a little more for specialties.
Considering the years needed to get their diplomas, the rigors of their study and profession, I think they are truly underpaid for what they do: research on cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and all the rest of it.