Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
P.E., music, and art are the only disciplines I can think of which do not require a great deal of "extra" time to grade students' work.
Music teachers do give written assignments that need to be graded (at least most of us do).
In electronic music each project needs to be graded and the projects take at long time to grade. Each needs to be pulled up on the computer, listened to and scored with the rubric. Since each project is 3-4 minutes it takes a minimum of 5 minutes ( most of time closer to 10) to grade each project. With 30 kids in the class it takes hours to grade the projects and since they are on the school's network I need to grade them at school.
Piano/guitar/chorus-get fewer written assignments, but there is at least one written assignment per class per week, which is IN ADDITON to the after school rehearsals that we have a few times a week. I don't know about PE and art, but music requires a fair amount of time to grade student work if you are doing it the way it should be done.
At our middle and high schools, PE is combined with a Health curriculum so students are assigned work and have tests when they are in the "health" portion of the class.
The OP probably could have asked more straight forward questions on what the teaching field actually entails. My sister is a nurse I often hear people say "Nurses make the big bucks for just taking temperatures."
Teaching is more than summers off and short work days. Many schools require teachers to participate in after school activities. Think of it this way. You worked all day, you have papers to grade, dinner to make, spend time with your kids and you need to be back up at the school for the basketball game or dance. Its a tough job and becomes more of a way of life really. I think other posters suggested shadowing a teacher. That is a great idea. It will give you a good idea of what to expect. I taught pre-school for 3 years. I got burned out. I would prefer to be around older children that require less hands on care. To be honest, the kids didn't get to me as much as the parents. You really meet some scary parents. I have had kids that did not behave all day but I wasn't too keen on giving the parents a lot of feedback cuss you could tell they might be a bit crazy. I did not want to be responsible for a child getting a beating because "little johnny was acting up." Then you have the parents that simply do not spend any time at all with their children. It can be a depressing job in that respect because you do get attached to the kids. Anytime I had to deal with a parent that I felt was a bit off, I always started out with the positive first. "John is such a bright boy! But we had an issue today with him hitting another child."
41k per year is on target from where I am originally from. I know someone that teaches and she started out at this wage. 10 years later is making 70k a year. It depends on where you are at and for what school district. She did have to further her education over the years and recently obtained her masters degree.
The OP probably could have asked more straight forward questions on what the teaching field actually entails. My sister is a nurse I often hear people say "Nurses make the big bucks for just taking temperatures."
Teaching is more than summers off and short work days. Many schools require teachers to participate in after school activities. Think of it this way. You worked all day, you have papers to grade, dinner to make, spend time with your kids and you need to be back up at the school for the basketball game or dance. Its a tough job and becomes more of a way of life really. I think other posters suggested shadowing a teacher. That is a great idea. It will give you a good idea of what to expect. I taught pre-school for 3 years. I got burned out. I would prefer to be around older children that require less hands on care. To be honest, the kids didn't get to me as much as the parents. You really meet some scary parents. I have had kids that did not behave all day but I wasn't too keen on giving the parents a lot of feedback cuss you could tell they might be a bit crazy. I did not want to be responsible for a child getting a beating because "little johnny was acting up." Then you have the parents that simply do not spend any time at all with their children. It can be a depressing job in that respect because you do get attached to the kids. Anytime I had to deal with a parent that I felt was a bit off, I always started out with the positive first. "John is such a bright boy! But we had an issue today with him hitting another child."
41k per year is on target from where I am originally from. I know someone that teaches and she started out at this wage. 10 years later is making 70k a year. It depends on where you are at and for what school district. She did have to further her education over the years and recently obtained her masters degree.
Oh get tral, you don't think other professions work as hard or harder? My dh often pulls 10+ hours, comes home for a quick bite, then either telecommutes or goes back to work, and, he doesn't get summers off!
Oh get tral, you don't think other professions work as hard or harder? My dh often pulls 10+ hours, comes home for a quick bite, then either telecommutes or goes back to work, and, he doesn't get summers off!
Oh get tral, you don't think other professions work as hard or harder? My dh often pulls 10+ hours, comes home for a quick bite, then either telecommutes or goes back to work, and, he doesn't get summers off!
What does he do for a living and how well is he compensated for it?
I'm a former engineer and I can tell you that, in spite of times when I worked like your husband, I work harder now for about 1/3 of the pay I had as an engineer. And those summers off? You'd need to more than double the time off to make it comp time for the hours over 50 a week I put in per week during the school year.
Now, I teach three lab based preps so I do have more to do. I have chemical stores and disposal to manage, labs to plan for, trial, set up and clean up afterwards on ly to set them up again for students who were absent on lab day (I usually make them do the clean up but they can't do things like chemical recovery so I still get that). My day is 10 hours long. I arrive at school almost an hour before school starts and leave about two hours after school ends (the first hour of that is spent tutoring students), the second hour cleaning up from the day (both physically in the room and doing things like putting together absent packages for students who weren't there that day or getting late grades in). In addition, I spend about 10 hours a week just paroosing the internet in search of better ways to teach my topics about 10 hours a week on lesson planning and another 10 or so grading. By the time summer gets here, I've worked anough hours to have worked 50 hours a week for 58 weeks with no holidays off!!
I'm also only a second year teacher. I do expect the stuff I do at home to diminish over time. Both the time I spend writing lesson plans and trying to find ideas to make them better should cut, at least, in half by the time I have 5 years into a subject but that assumes I teach the same subject for 5 years. I could very well end up teaching new subjects every year and never have a chance to settle in.
I'd compare what I do as a teacher to being an engineer on launch (The process of starting up a new product line). Insane hours, insane responsibility, owing too many people too much at any given time for about 1/3 the pay of an engineer . Those summers off are just time to take the classes I need to keep/upgrade my certs. I'm taking 17 credits this summer towards another cert that will take me two years to complete.
Do I think there are professions that work harder than me? Sure but they also tend to be well compensated for that work AND tend to be more respected (the disrespect for teachers is the worst part for me.). Someone working the hours I do at a job that pays $12/hr and who took the same time off I have would make more than I do (including overtime pay). I hope your husband makes more than $12/hr. If not, you have my symathies that he has to work those kinds of hours for so little pay. Hopefully, your pay brings up the family's income. Assuming I work 80 hours a week for 36 weeks of the year, my hourly rate comes out to $11.11 . I made more than that on my first Co-op job 20+ years ago.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 01-10-2010 at 06:18 AM..
I'm sure there are professions that have it easier than me. I'm also pretty sure they pay more than I make by a mile. There is probably someone out there working as hard as I do for less and they have my sympathies.
I'm sure my step son works harder than I do. I'm sure he works more hours than I do. He also makes 4 times what I make which allows his wife to stay home. So he doesn't come home to meals he needs to cook or a house he needs to clean. She's there to take care of his life outside of work. He's in construction so he actually does come close to me on vacation time. He, normally, takes a week or two between jobs which last anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks. (He does foundation work) but he often works 6-7 days a week. 60 hours a week is pretty typical for him, sometimes more but those extra hours are at time and a half. I'd be happy as a pig in slop if my extra hours were at time and a half.
Teaching is NOT easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is incredibly rewarding.
Compared to starting salaries for other professions/degrees, teachers' salaries are low, and no teacher stays in the profession for the money. Many US states have taken the initiative to improve working conditions, benefits and salaries for their teachers, but it will take a long time to ever align a teacher's pay to that of many 'other' professions that start out high, and continue to pay well, even if in steps or increments for years' experience. Just to be able to retire at an acceptable grade, a teacher must work well beyond those 30 years, as retirement pay is based on the 4 highest years' salary, which is generally the last four of a career.
It takes a special person to be a teacher. Most anybody can make it through the EDU courses (turning a blind eye to some of the BS), but to start out, and then choose to stay, in the trenches becomes demanding -- and for some, impossible. I was always dismayed to see some of the best and most creative young teachers, fresh out of college, leave the classroom; many just as soon as those teaching fellowships are repaid.
Being an instructor requires wearing so many hats, and it is a 'people-pleasing' position. There are the students, who should come first always, but then there are the administrators, the school board or other such entity, the State, the parents, the taxpayers, the National Boards, the Federal agencies. . . and the guy who just stands behind you in line at a check-out bad-mouthing every school, every teacher, every system, whoever failed his child. God bless us, one and all.
Teaching, like any other profession, is not without its own trials, but honestly, in 27+ years, there was never a time when once the classroom door was closed, and it was me and those kids, that I couldn't -- if only for the 90 minute block -- tune-out everything else, and even if I couldn't reach 100% of them with 100% of the curriculum -- feel like I had made some small difference in their lives. Sometimes, it was for no more than that 90 minute period, but that at least was 90 minutes better than say another 90 minutes somewhere else -- at home, or on the streets.
I only retired for health reasons, and even after 5 years, miss it terribly. Not the BS that comes with the job, but that 90 minutes of magic that sustained me most days. It was hardly 'fairytale land' with plenty of difficult, disruptive students, little parental feedback, censure sometimes from colleagues and admin, who didn't always 'get' what you were doing with the kids, and enough mandates coming from enough different directions, that would fill whole manuals, until you hardly knew which way to turn. But still, when I cross paths with a former student who stops me to tell me the difference having me as a teacher made, I can say with clear conscience, it was well worth it.
As with any job, it's a trade-off, and you take the good with the bad. For me, the good far outweighed the bad.
Luckily, the planning becomes easier & easier, year after year, especially the years you can teach the same grade level or class.
However, then you turn around & get a major behavioral problem (or 2 or 3 or 4!) in your new class and POW! It becomes tough again on at least the level of behavioral management! So we have easier years & tougher years.
Teaching is certainly not for those who can't weather change. It is never the same from day to day, semester to semester, year to year.
Some things do get much easier as you gain experience -- lesson planning and classroom management. After about 5 years, I don't recall being thrown any curve balls that I hadn't already encountered, although some years are certainly more difficult, especially those that involve transitions. One of the worst years of my own career was the year the 9th grade was moved to the HS, and the county went with 7-8 grade centers as opposed to the former JR HS, grades 7,8,9. I went to the HS with the 9th graders, and I wondered if any of us would survive.
Probably one of the next toughest was when I transferred to the newest HS in the system. The kids were horrible, citing almost daily which of the three other high schools they could've attended if not reassigned. A lot of acting-out. I started out with a class of almost (30) 9th graders in English 1, and by mid-semester was down to about 20. Of the 20, 11 passed. Just to administer the end-of-course test, I had to have an administrator sit in the classroom with me and the proctor I'd arranged. The second semester was better, and the following year was like night and day.
In my entire career, most of what was the worst for me, however, were all of the things over which I had absolutely no control -- and they were generally state, or federal, mandates. Believe it or not, I taught long enough, to see the pendulum swing both ways. Just lately, it seems to be sitting just dead-still while the 'powers that be' try to figure out the next great trend to try.
I really think neighborhood schools are the way to go, and instead of pouring millions into buses, drivers, gasoline and maintenance, pouring that money into the schools, instead, to make them equal across the board -- better programs, more teachers, other personnel. No kid ever got 'smarter' spending two hours on a bus per day.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
