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I would not consider having higher classes grade lower classes work. That's not what they are in school for. I know of teachers who pay their own kids to grade papers but mine don't work cheap
I graded papers free for my mother when I was a kid. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd say, "Anything but a teacher!" because I saw how it consumed my mother's life.
I became a teacher anyway, but at least I knew what I was getting into.
Really? You don't think grading papers for 140 students is time consuming? I'd like to know what your secrets are. If they each turn in three assignments a week and it takes me an average of 1 minute an assignment to grade (wishful thinking here but just trying to show how silly the notion is that grading doesn't take time) I'm looking at 7 hours per week spent grading. That's an extra day.
Every teacher I know takes papers with them wherever they go. I sit in my daughter's piano lesson and grade papers every week. I grade if I'm waiting at the dentists office. I take my grading folders with me wherever I go. Grading is non stop.
If you have some secret we don't know to cutting down on grading time let us in on the secret. It can take me 3 hours to grade lab reports for just one class and I have 6 classes doing labs.
As far as setting up your room, the teachers I work with spend the last week of their summer "vacation" (usually spent taking the continuing education credits we all have to have under NCLB) doing that. If you don't get it done before school starts, it'll be Christmas by the time it's done. We also need to do seating charts and send post cards to our new students before the term begins.
Phone calls home are another thorn in my side. I only seem to be able to get 6-8 calls in in an hour by the time I look up phone numbers and pull up grade reports. Got any secrets for that too?
Personally, I find that teaching compares to the term I took 18 credits in engineering school and worked 30 hours a week.
And another misconception is that we have as much time off as the kids do. We don't. Many of their half days and days off are in service days for us. We are required to work one week after school gets out and are in training for one week before school starts so that week to set up our rooms has to be before that. I'm contracted for 200 days per year. As an engineer, I used to work 220 days per year. Trust me, I work enough in the evenings and on weekends during the school year to make up for that 20 day difference many times over.
Where do you work? I felt the same way when I taught high school in NY. We were required 3 days before students started but not after. Carrying papers does become the norm. If there is a way to lighten this load, I'd like to know the secret also.
What are the CONTRACT HOURS of middle school and high school teachers?
What time does middle school typically start and what time does it end?
What hours are teacher contractually REQUIRED to be on campus?
7-3????
under our current system I am legally suppose to be in the building from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. so 7.5 hours.
the thread title sounded like it was asking how many hours do i actually "teach".
well these last 7 years under a block schedule i "teach" in terms of hours 22.5 hours a week.
next year when we move back to a 7 period a day traditional schedule i'll be "teaching" 20.8 a week but........since the classes will be all year it will actually at the end of the year turn out to be more class time with the traditional schedule for each class than with the block system.
Legally, how many hours are kids in elementary school suppose to get "free time" or recess? I have a teacher that puts the kids on the "x" during recess...their whole recess and sometimes for more than one recess. Is that legal?
legally speaking recess is not mandatory. schools are free to increase or decrease as they see fit. the atlanta public schools a few years back got rid of recess and told teachers to instead do 20 minutes of in class physical activity as the replacement.
Where do you work? I felt the same way when I taught high school in NY. We were required 3 days before students started but not after. Carrying papers does become the norm. If there is a way to lighten this load, I'd like to know the secret also.
I'm happy to say I no longer work at that school, however, I still carry papers everywhere I go where I will be sitting for any period of time. I grade at sporting events and during my dd's piano lessons. I haven't found a way to balance grading so I've just limited it. I grade two hours a day and that's it. If that's not enough, then it waits until tomorrow. Unfortunately, this results in it taking me 2-3 weeks to get big assignments like lab reports graded.
Still looking for that magic auto grader over here....I do find that, during the school year, teaching is all consuming. IMO, we really need to go to year round schools with time for prepping/planning/grading built into our weeks but that will never happen. If we do go to year round schools we'll just have more of the same intensity we have now. While I hate the all on/all off feel to teaching with the summers off, by this time of the year, I'm so burned out I need weeks to recharge.
thanks to everyone who replied............so teaching is really an eight hour day.
My "contract" stipulates an 8 hour day. Exception is the last week or two of school because we have various after school activities like senior awards night, underclassman awards night, graduation, ect that occur 1X-2X a week and start around 6 pm and end by 8 pm, so the days we have no other obligations, we get to leave out at 3 pm.
(I know the OP asking about MS/HS, just adding a different perspective)
Teachers in the elementary schools in my area start between 7:45 and 8:15. and finish at either 3:45 or 4:00. The earliest that any secondary teachers start is 7:15 and they are done at 2:45.
The earliest that any secondary teachers start is 7:15 and they are done at 2:45.
When you say, "done," do you mean the students leave? That the teachers are free to go home? That the teachers actually do go home? Or that there is no more work to be done until the next morning?
Schools in my area (San Antonio, TX) are in session for 7 hours, contract times were 8 hours. This coming year, the TEA (TX Education Association) mandated that contract times be extended to 8.5 hours. While there was some fuss, most teachers I know didn't bat an eyelash, because we are usually there much longer than contract time.
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If they each turn in three assignments a week and it takes me an average of 1 minute an assignment to grade (wishful thinking here but just trying to show how silly the notion is that grading doesn't take time) I'm looking at 7 hours per week spent grading. That's an extra day.
While I hate the all on/all off feel to teaching with the summers off, by this time of the year, I'm so burned out I need weeks to recharge.
