🌟"WHAT TEACHERS MAKE"🌟 - Page 3

cecesnana · ‎07-12-2013

cecesnana · ‎07-12-2013

maestra · ‎03-09-2010

I look forward to the 1st time in decades being able to go to the bathroom when I need to, not when it's 2pm.

I'm sorry you feel the way you do about the teachers in your district. Try volunteering and perhaps you may gain more insight as to why teachers try to get work done on the 'school's time'.

You see, most of us have: families, our own volunteer work, a life, church obligatios that we want to fulfill, and weekends have other obligations as well such as clean clothes, grocery shopping, housework, etc.

I get to do my 2nd job when I leave school.

RainCityWoman · ‎06-16-2015

The teaching profession has good things about it and bad things about it. You will never get rich being a teacher, and you will work your butt off with no real recognition or appreciation from your bosses. Once in a while the students will let you know how much they appreciate you, but not often. If you are in an at risk school, you will feel discouraged more often than not. Some of your students will stay in touch for a lifetime, one of the beautiful things about teaching; others you will never see again. And always there will be members of the community who think you should be doing the job for free or that they could walk in any day and do what you do. You either have to decide that you like what you're doing, or you have to leave. Educating the masses has no easy solution, and the more it changes, the more it stays the same.

lolakimono · ‎03-29-2012

@Winifred wrote:
Can only speak of our local school district - for way too many years the teachers were horribly underpaid. Many of us were quite vocal about this and it was corrected. I should say over corrected. Horribly overpaid and underworked now - just not right. Our elementary schools for example start at 8:55 a.m. and are out at 3:05. Teachers do not have to be at the school until 8:45 in the morning and can leave at 3:15. Students attend school half days the week of report cards so teachers can do all their work on school time, not theirs. They also no longer have to do yard duty - we have "paid" volunteers do that. Lot of money flying out the window. Saying this I believe teachers should receive a very fair wage - not overpaid by today's standards.

@Winifred

I will respond to your post from the perspective of one teacher, and see if it gives you any insight.

I am contractually obligated to report at 7:30 each day.

Most days I am there by 7:00, although if I arrive any earlier I cannot get keycard access to the door where I park, so I have to walk around the building if I want to get inside. My one level building serves 1,500 students, to give you a perspective about the size of the building.

From 7:35-7:55, I am contractually obligated to stand outside (rain or shine) to make sure that the parents can safely drop students off without running anyone over. It takes me 5 minutes to walk from my room to the furthest point outside, where I am assigned duty. I am also supposed to be in the hallway outside of my classroom monitoring the students, who are released into the hallways from between 7:45-7:50. Obviously, I cannot be two places at once, but that is where I am assigned to be.

My teaching begins at 8:00. At 9:01, the students are dismissed and I have approximately one hour of personal planning time, to plan for four classes, return parent or colleague e-mails or phone calls, post homework assignments online, grade assignments, update the electronic gradebook, clean my classroom, attend one on one conferences, and get ready for my next class. Whatever doesn't get done gets put off until later.

I eat lunch from 10:07-10:30, when students begin being released for classes. Contractually, I am supposed to have until 10:32, but I can't eat lunch elsewhere when I am supposed to monitor the hallway. During my "lunch" I have to get my warm up ready, use the restroom, eat my lunch, and then stand out in the hallway to monitor transitions between the cafeteria and the hallway.

For the next three hours I teach three classes of two grade levels (two different preparations). Normally, my teaching schedule is such that I have four hours (four classes) back to back, with the 10:07 lunch. For the past 6 years, I have not been able to use the restroom between 10:30 and 2:50, without leaving students unsupervised.

The earliest I can leave is 3:00, but two days a week we stay until 4:15 for meetings and help sessions.

Whatever doesn't get done in my "personal planning" period gets done at the end of the day or, on "my time." This also includes things like making copies, going to Counseling and/or the health room, to follow up on absent students, and meeting for PLC, my professional learning community.

Did you know that in middle school, students can pay attention for about 10 minutes? That means that in a one hour class, the teacher is expected to have at least 5 activities. In any given week, I have to prepare 25 activities (and make copies) for each class. Because I teach two different subjects, that means I create about 50 activities each week. If I do a project, like we have been working on this week, I also need to purchase the supplies for students to have on hand during class.

For every graded assignment, students have one opportunity to redo the assessment, regardless of their original grade. At a minimum, we are required to have 9 grades, but they have to be from different categories. If I only have the minimum grades (normally I have between 20-30 in a marking period), that still generates 18 grades that I have to prepare a redo version or alternate assignment for, prepare a reteaching session for each child who wants a redo, and then grade a new version of the redo, while taking the better of two grades and making comments in the gradebook for each assignment. Students will often sign up for a redo, before the original has been graded, because they did not study or they know that they performed poorly.

During the time period of exams, I have a specific window in which to administer my test. There is no penalty for absences, so many students will not come to school on those days so that they can take their exam at a later date, when they have had more time to study. For each exam, I grade an essay, which needs to be bubbled in on the student answer sheet. I also have a sit down interview, where I have to give an oral exam grade, and bubble that in. The scans MUST be printed between a certain window of testing, and they must be scanned in by a certain date. If I have a student who is absent during this two hour test, often times they will miss the one after school help day and the test doesn't get made up. It is 10% of their grade, its own category, so I cannot generate a quarterly grade without it. Guess when some of those students want to make up that test? Yes, during the "grading time" when students are supposed to go home early. Teachers like me spend our "grading time" administering a two hour test to one or two students, and during that time I can't grade anything else because I am showing them the video/listening portions of the test or conducting their speaking exams. I also cannot scan any tests that might be finished because the scanner is not located in an area where I can supervise the test and scan at the same time.

On the days when I am lucky enough to leave at 3:00, I get my allergy shots or do medical appointments, because in order to go to the doctor I have to take a half day off from work. If I can get a 9:00 doctor's appointment, I have to take a whole day if I can't guarantee that I'll make it to school before 11:15. If I take a whole day off, I have to make two sets of sub plans, for my different classes. Each time I write lesson plans it takes about five hours of my time.

I'm not saying that I'm going to change your mind about anything, but I hope you at least consider the perspective from the other side before making judgments about what teachers SHOULD be doing that you think they are not.

Have a nice evening!