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I have been teaching elementary school for going on 26 years and I now make about $15,000 more per year than a beginning teacher, who makes about $30,000 in my distict. Keep in mind that this is after paying for at the very least, four years of college. There are not too many four year degreed careers out there where the workers make only $30,000. I do live in an area whose economy is tourist based so in my community my salary is at least fairly respectable, but I work very, very hard for that money and not only do I work very hard for my money, I end up putting a lot of my salary back into MY OWN JOB! I do not do that because I want to, but because it is necessary. This coming year, due to state budget cuts I will have a budget for my kindergarten classsroom, for the entire year of a whopping $87. In most good years, we don't have quite double that amount. We will ask the parents to supply their own child with a box of crayons, a pair of scissors, one pack of glue sticks, one box of tissues, a bottle of hand sanitizer and one container of wipes. We will also ask them supply one snack item per month as we have lunch at 10:30 and to go for the rest of the school day without a light snack is very difficult for a five or six year old child. About half of our parents, give or take a couple more, will comply. That means that my $87 will pay for the rest of those necessary supplies. I will also need writing paper (not the kind you can buy in the store, but since its Kindergarten we'll need the handwriting paper that can only be ordered or purchased from our warehouse or from an educational supply store). I will need newsprint, construction paper, drawing paper, paint, finger paint, and the list goes on. At some point before Christmas even arrives I will be out of supplies and need to purchase those. Where will the money come from? Oh, I can send a wish list home, but I'll be very lucky if 1/4 of my parents send anything in. So that means it comes out of my own pocket. There will be parents who forget to send a snack for the class and some never do. That means I am the one who supplies it. My choice now, but I will purchase Christmas gifts for these kids, crafts supplies so we can make Valentines for our families, Mother's Day gifts, etc. I kn ow these things do not sound absolutely necessary, but with very young children, most of them are. I do not know any custodian who goes out and purchases his/her own cleaning supplies. I do not know any doctor who goes out and purchases his/her own medicine. I do not know any dentist who goes out and purchases his/her own toothbrush and toothpaste samples to give to his/her patients and the list goes on. Now, on to the hours and days I work. My contact calls for me to be on duty for 196 days per year, seven hours per day. In order to do everything I need to do, and notice I said need, not want, I will work most days for at least nine hours, many days for ten and some even 12 hours. There will be PTA meetings I have to attend, workshops I need to attend (some of which I have to pay for), parent conferences, committee meetings (and we don't get paid extra for those, even if we chair the committee) and of course as I mentioned above, shopping to do for my class. I also need time to write my lesson plans, prepare my materials, like taking time to cut out the pumpkins and Christmas trees (in our district we have no assistants in Kindergarten), grade papers, orgainize my centers for the next day on a daily basis, pick up messes and the list goes on. During the summer I will attend a couple of workshops, again, not being paid for them and even having to pay for some of them. I will be at school over the next few weeks, several days, just to prepare my room since four days is not nearly enough to prepare for the coming year when they schedule meetings and such all day long for a couple of those pre-planning days. And, you think my job is NOT hard?????? Think again. I have usually 25 (it can be more) five and six year olds, alone, all day long with about a total of 20 to 25 minutes to eat my lunch and if I'm lucky, 35 minutes to get some paperwork done. At any given moment in my classroom I can literally have one child crying for mommy, one throwing up in the corner along with six or seven of them yelling to me about it, one trying to eat glue, one crying and telling me that another kid doesn't want to be her friend anymore and two calling for help with writing their names on their papers. Moments and days like that I can assure you, are NOT rare. I have so many different levels of children and my colleages who teacher high grades, have even more levels of children with which to deal. On the first day I will have two or three come in who have already been tested and determined to be gifted. I will have a couple more who are reading already. I will have a few who have obvious speech problems, one or two who may have language problems and/or other learning disabilities, one or two who have severe behavior problems, a few others whose problems may not be severe, but who have obviously either been spoiled rotten to the core and/or beaten black and blue and have their own issues, among them, never having been taught any social skills. I will have several who fall somewhere in between. I am not complaining. Overall I do love my career, but I tend to become a little defensive when someone says its easy or I make too much money.
Please do not say that my job is not hard or that I am overpaid, at least not until you have spent at least a week in my shoes dealing with 25 young children who all want your attention at the same time, their parents, administrators and other school staff, endless paperwork, meetings, planning, setting up, cleaning up and so forth. Oh, and during your week on duty, don't forget to go out and purchase with your own money, any additional things you will be needing to teach the class. Then you have the right to come back and tell all of us here who are teachers, that our jobs are easy and we are overpaid. Or even better, after reading about how stressful our jobs can be, instead of disagreeing and bashing us, go out and fill out a volunteer form in a local public school and volunteer to work with the teachers and children on a regular basis. Lord knows we could use the extra help in our classrooms.
Nancy
Obviously this teacher is overworked and underpaid.
If we just paid her more, she would learn about paragraph breaks and instill such knowledge in her students.
Are you happy now? I wasn't exactly concerned about paragraphs as much as I was making my point since my eight year old DD was waiting for me to take her to the library and to meet a friend. I was in a hurry. So I thought I should take some extra time now to prove to you that yes, I do understand paragraphs and grammar in general. It's pretty obvious you were just looking for a "come back" comment to make.
Nancy
Nice try, but paragraphs should be integral as you write. It's not something you add it later. Writing fast is an excuse for a few typos, not paragraphs.
I must state again, teachers in NH work 180-day contracts (4 months off) and are very well paid and with even more generous benefits. And retirees are being forced out of their houses due to insane property taxes almost every week here. It's wrong.
I must state again, teachers in NH work 180-day contracts (4 months off) and are very well paid and with even more generous benefits. And retirees are being forced out of their houses due to insane property taxes almost every week here. It's wrong.
Someone tell me why teachers are off for spring break, winter break and summers? Shouldn't they be in workshops, etc? I've been in classrooms both as an adult and student and there are a lot of teachers who are not good.
Where I work, teachers come in over spring break and any time that is given off at holidays, exclusive of the day itself...there's a lot that can get done when students aren't in attendance that gets the back burner during day to day teaching duties, and it's nice to have that chunk of student-free time to catch up on the things you need to do that can't be done when you are instructing and planning. We also are in session through the summer, running a full ESY, so nobody gets summers off. Many people also take coursework through the summer, and my school typically offers various trainings that take place while we are not in session. Because we don't get paid for days we are on break, most people tend to not take those days off.
There are a lot of people in every profession who are not good. I work with plenty of teachers who are marginal to poor at their jobs. But I've also worked with journalists, assembly line workers, attorneys, cashiers, police officers, and administrators who are marginal to poor at their jobs.
There are planning days for teachers where the kids are not in school, as part of the 180 days.
Thanks. That chart shows the length of the school year is 180 days. It doesn't show the length of each district's contract. Are you sure that planning days are part of the 180? That would put the kids in school for less than 180.
For example, our school year is 183 days, but the teacher contract is 194 days.
Where I work, teachers come in over spring break and any time that is given off at holidays, exclusive of the day itself...there's a lot that can get done when students aren't in attendance that gets the back burner during day to day teaching duties, and it's nice to have that chunk of student-free time to catch up on the things you need to do that can't be done when you are instructing and planning. We also are in session through the summer, running a full ESY, so nobody gets summers off. Many people also take coursework through the summer, and my school typically offers various trainings that take place while we are not in session.
Really? Not where I work. Nobody goes in over spring break. I don't even know if the building is open.
Is your school a special education center? Why does the whole staff work through the summer? How long is your contract? When are you not in session?
Because we don't get paid for days we are on break, most people tend to not take those days off.
Sorry, I'm confused here too. If they don't get paid for days they are on break, why wouldn't people take those days off? They have it off as a break. It's not a paid day.
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I nominate this post for post of the year!!!
