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I love these ignorants that can say nothing but "teachers get so much time off". Blah, blah, blah. Think of something else to come back with.
Having off for approximately 3 or 4 months of the year is a pretty BIG deal to most people in any profession. Consider what your reaction might be if your summer break, spring break, and Christmas breaks were to be taken away from you....then you will better understand why we ignorants keep bringing it into this discussion. At least you have big heart and love us anyway.
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 08-02-2009 at 09:27 AM..
Reason: typo!
I love these ignorants that can say nothing but "teachers get so much time off". Blah, blah, blah. Think of something else to come back with.
Having off for approximately 3 or 4 months of the year is a pretty BIG deal to most people in any profession. Consider what your reaction might be if your summer break, spring break, and Christmas breaks were to be taken away from you....then you will better understand why we ignorants keep bringing it into this discussion. At leat you have big heart and love us anyway.
...and all we ask is a little love and understanding in return. If my breaks were taken away from me, I wouldn't be doing something as demanding as teaching. I freely admit it.
...and all we ask is a little love and understanding in return. If my breaks were taken away from me, I wouldn't be doing something as demanding as teaching. I freely admit it.
I don't do it for the breaks, but the way things are set up, I COULDN'T do it without them. I swear I screeched into June totally spent this year. It's early August and I'm starting to feel human again but it's time to ramp up for September. I have two new preps this year and had a major learning curve last year so I need to rewrite the lesson plans I used last year.
I would like to see year round schooling with a more sane schedule for teachers. I'd gladly trade time "off" for that (and maybe people would quit complaining about teachers asking for reasonable pay). Give me an 8 hour a day job like most people who make what I make. Let me go home and not take work home with me. Let me actually have weekends off. Let my vacation and holiday time actually be vacation and holiday time instead of time to catch up.
Christmas break, mid winter break and spring break are nothing more than time to catch up on things I get behind on. They are not time off. The last four weeks of summer are time to get ahead for next year. From the beginning of summer to the last four weeks is time to recharge and, ironically, exactly the amount of vacation time I had as an engineer but only this year because we have a long summer. Next year, I get a week less.
When you consider the amount of "vacation" time I spend catching up and getting ahead, I actually have less time off as a teacher than I did as an engineer and that's before you consider that I now take work home with me and work the weekends. I work way more hours now than I did as an engineer and I do it for about 1/3 the pay but people feel the need to point out the amount of time off I get.
As an engineer, I had 14 holidays off a year and 6 weeks vacation. Vacatoin time was actually vacation time. Holiday's off were really days off. I also had one week's personal time and unlimited sick time. I could actually take time to take care of me. I WISH I had the kind of time "OFF" as a teacher I had as an engineer. I'd love to go back to NOT bringing work home with me, to having weekends off, to holidays being real days off instead of days to catch up and actually being able to enjoy vacation time and affording to actually take a vacation. Hmmm? Why am I doing this???
I don't do it for the breaks, but the way things are set up, I COULDN'T do it without them. I swear I screeched into June totally spent this year. It's early August and I'm starting to feel human again but it's time to ramp up for September. I have two new preps this year and had a major learning curve last year so I need to rewrite the lesson plans I used last year.
I would like to see year round schooling with a more sane schedule for teachers. I'd gladly trade time "off" for that (and maybe people would quit complaining about teachers asking for reasonable pay). Give me an 8 hour a day job like most people who make what I make. Let me go home and not take work home with me. Let me actually have weekends off. Let my vacation and holiday time actually be vacation and holiday time instead of time to catch up.
Christmas break, mid winter break and spring break are nothing more than time to catch up on things I get behind on. They are not time off. The last four weeks of summer are time to get ahead for next year. From the beginning of summer to the last four weeks is time to recharge and, ironically, exactly the amount of vacation time I had as an engineer but only this year because we have a long summer. Next year, I get a week less.
When you consider the amount of "vacation" time I spend catching up and getting ahead, I actually have less time off as a teacher than I did as an engineer and that's before you consider that I now take work home with me and work the weekends. I work way more hours now than I did as an engineer and I do it for about 1/3 the pay but people feel the need to point out the amount of time off I get.
As an engineer, I had 14 holidays off a year and 6 weeks vacation. Vacatoin time was actually vacation time. Holiday's off were really days off. I also had one week's personal time and unlimited sick time. I could actually take time to take care of me. I WISH I had the kind of time "OFF" as a teacher I had as an engineer. I'd love to go back to NOT bringing work home with me, to having weekends off, to holidays being real days off instead of days to catch up and actually being able to enjoy vacation time and affording to actually take a vacation. Hmmm? Why am I doing this???
I may have given the impression on my post that I teach just for the breaks; nothing could be further from the truth.
But I agree 100% that I couldn't do without them. It's amazing how I can be so energetic and fired up at the start of the year and I always seem to get to the first of June feeling rather used-up. One reason why is that we get very short breaks...last year we had 1 1/2 weeks at Christmas, and 3 day weekends at Labor Day, MLK Day, Easter, Memorial Day, and 4 days at Thanksgiving. So if you actually have a true spring break count yourself fortunate! The lack of one I'm sure is a big reason why I feel the way I do in June.
I'm all for teachers getting a fair salary, but maybe part of the problem is not that teachers aren't getting paid enough (some are, some aren't) but that other professions are getting paid too much. And again, I know that this thread is about teacher burnout in particular, but when it does go back to being compared to other professions I've got to say that it sounds like engineers have a pretty easy life. Six weeks real vacation? Unlimited sick time? Eight hour days with no work at home? It would be tough to leave a job like that. Most professional jobs come with two weeks vacation (plus more, if you're lucky, after you've worked there years and years), limited sick time, and you're expected to put in time outside of the office. For many people, including those in lower and middle salary brackets, those "8 hour days" are not the reality. Obviously that includes teachers, too.
The problem here is a culture that doesn't approve of breaks or vacation. While some approaches to professional burn-out are going to be career-specific, some of these issues are broader American problems, not teacher-specific. I've still got to wonder if teachers would have more traction addressing some of these issues at a larger level if there was more attention to the universal issues rather than constant pointing out about how much "worse" teachers have it than everyone else. Sure, they have it worse than many professions, but they also have it a lot better than many, too.
One thing that came as a shock to me was that when I call parents, there's about a 50% chance they will defend the child. I've found I have to get off the phone quickly as the longer the conversation lasts, the greater the liklihood they'll start defending their child.
I completely agree. I far, far prefer to deal with parents via email. At the very least, I get their conversations to refer to in the future if I need to, and each of us gets the other's comments on the record.
Plus, as I'm sure IvoryT can confirm, everything in a phone conversation gets said at least three times when only once would have sufficed admirably. Email cuts down very, very well on needless repetition.
The problem here is a culture that doesn't approve of breaks or vacation. While some approaches to professional burn-out are going to be career-specific, some of these issues are broader American problems, not teacher-specific.
Amen! What's wrong with a society where you work to live, rather than living to work???
I completely agree. I far, far prefer to deal with parents via email. At the very least, I get their conversations to refer to in the future if I need to, and each of us gets the other's comments on the record.
Plus, as I'm sure IvoryT can confirm, everything in a phone conversation gets said at least three times when only once would have sufficed admirably. Email cuts down very, very well on needless repetition.
I teach a mix of AP and very basic at-risk classes. Most of the students in my at-risk classes to not have e-mail at home.
I make very few e-mails or calls home. I just don't like putting myself into a potential confrontation, and I'd rather deal with the problem face to face with the student if I can. It's worked most of the time for me.
I may have given the impression on my post that I teach just for the breaks; nothing could be further from the truth.
But I agree 100% that I couldn't do without them. It's amazing how I can be so energetic and fired up at the start of the year and I always seem to get to the first of June feeling rather used-up. One reason why is that we get very short breaks...last year we had 1 1/2 weeks at Christmas, and 3 day weekends at Labor Day, MLK Day, Easter, Memorial Day, and 4 days at Thanksgiving. So if you actually have a true spring break count yourself fortunate! The lack of one I'm sure is a big reason why I feel the way I do in June.
No, you didn't. I was agreeing with you. Sometimes things just don't come across as they're intended in type.
My point is no one would do this job for the breaks. The breaks are too necessary for our sanity. I think people think of their job and lots more time off and think how great that would be. They don't think their job times two and the breaks are needed just to remain functioning. I couldn't go at the pace I go if I couldn't tell myself, Just X more days until you get a chance to catch your breath.
We still have a true spring break. I think we only get 1 1/2 weeks at Christmas this year and they're not giving us two days in November for a convention we usually go to (due to labor day being late) but we're still getting a spring break. I think we're only getting a long weekend for mid winter break but that's ok. Midwinter break usually comes too close being Christmas and it's normally not too far until spring break.
I teach a mix of AP and very basic at-risk classes. Most of the students in my at-risk classes to not have e-mail at home.
I make very few e-mails or calls home. I just don't like putting myself into a potential confrontation, and I'd rather deal with the problem face to face with the student if I can. It's worked most of the time for me.
We are required to have two contacts with each parent per year. One of which must be a hand written note and one must occur early in the school year. I'm amazed at how many students have bad phone numbers and email addresses.
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I work way more hours now than I did as an engineer and I do it for about 1/3 the pay but people feel the need to point out the amount of time off I get. 
One thing that came as a shock to me was that when I call parents, there's about a 50% chance they will defend the child. I've found I have to get off the phone quickly as the longer the conversation lasts, the greater the liklihood they'll start defending their child.
