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For the record, I know of zero teachers who consistently put in over 50 hours a week (I know dozens of teachers socially). Yes some weeks they might hit that mark (start of the year and reports cards come to mind) but overwhelmingly they average 40 - 45 hours. When I go to my kids schools at 4pm it is a a ghost town.
So you are following your teacher friends home and timing how many hours they put in for grading, lesson planning, answering emails from parents, reading up on new technology, techniques, literature, etc? All the lesson planning that is being finished in the weeks before the school year begins in August/September? All of that counts as work, and none of it is "on the clock."
Do you live in a high needs district? In a large metro area? Do you walk through the entire schoolafter 4pm, looking in each individual classroom, the library, the gym, the counselor's office, and make sure that no one is there?
Just for the record, for some of you who say you visit the school at 4 p.m. and it's pretty well empty of teachers -- schools where I taught over my career started at various times, often as early as 7:20. Meaning teachers started about 7 a.m. to be ready at 7:20.
The time schools start is often due to bus schedules.
lets say they start at 30k but they only work 180 days thats half the year so really teachers start off making 60k. Experienced teachers make 50k thats six figures. Am I missing something?
Yeah. I guess you are talking imaginary play money.
At some point this boils down to a supply vs demand issue. If teachers, want to be paid more then they need to constrict supply and to demand more in wages and compensation.
For the record, I know of zero teachers who consistently put in over 50 hours a week (I know dozens of teachers socially). Yes some weeks they might hit that mark (start of the year and reports cards come to mind) but overwhelmingly they average 40 - 45 hours. When I go to my kids schools at 4pm it is a a ghost town.
What I don't understand are teachers complaining about the compensation. No one put a gun to a teachers head and forced them into the classroom for 30 years. Everyone of them understood what they were getting into.
One last perk.... My wife (teacher) is off for 2 weeks like most teachers while I am 3000 miles away from home travelling for work. Not fun.
You might live in a more laid-back area. My experience where it is very fast-paced was more like working in a business environment. There were emails from administrators all hours of the night and on weekends. Teachers and administrators were still at school until 9-10 PM several days a week working on things in the classroom that could not be done at home. There were also required meetings for all staff lasting until 7 PM sometimes-this is staff meetings, not meeting with parents. Outside of school, besides all the planning, etc. we had to shop at least once per week for the food supplies needed in the cooking curriculum, as well as buying craft supplies and making all the posters, charts, graphs, storyboards, signs, that were hung inside the room.
I live in a town of 50,000 in east Tennessee, not exactly what you'd think of as a hot bed for teacher pay. The minimum that any teacher can make, even someone wet behind the ears out of school, is $41,000, in my city. Keep in mind that our cost of living here is much lower than the national average, taxes are negligible compared to the big, rich states, and that a decent home can be had for at or around $100,000.
The counties generally pay lower, but they're still above (low to mid $30k range depending on system) what most new graduates would make in the private sector here, as most of the private sector jobs are skewed toward retail, call centers, food service, and other low wage junk jobs.
After a few years and a master's, that city teacher will be up to $50k or so.
There seems to be no slowdown in teacher hiring here. Local universities turn out a lot of new education grads. Most seem to get jobs around here if they want them. The same can't be said for people who graduate with "hard" degrees that would generally be recommended - they often have to move to find work.
The teachers I know aren't getting rich, but I don't any except one single guy my age who works a second job. He teaches a couple classes at a community college in the summer to just keep busy.
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