Teachers Work Hours

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Permalink Reply by Brian on March 30, 2008 at 12:11pm

Hi Indigo--your comment is a rarity; instead of slamming and blasting teachers (as one said to me once, "You ought to get a real job.."), you open the discussion up with eloquence and a peaceful approach. How often we need to understand each other and support others choices of careers and not break into that defensive mode. Huzzah! I have a friend who is a physician and we would often compare stressors of our professions. I so enjoyed how we'd LISTEN to each other.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on March 29, 2008 at 9:14pm

Thanks, Kelly, for this article. When I worked in China one seminar as a seminar presenter for the Ed. Bureau, teachers shared with me that they have an average of 70 students per classroom by themselves. They thought my 36 students (plus one para) was a dream-come-true!

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Irish on March 30, 2008 at 7:15pm

II thought the most interesting part was the result of the govenrment's effort to reduce work hours actually increased them. A few years back my district actually had a committe set up as a "Paper Work reduction Commitee". They asked for so many survey's that heir efforts to "consolidate" actually ended up in two additional forms that had to be filled out.

When working with students I think we would all agree that they deserve well rested,iefreshed, and motivasted teachers. I would also like a well rested doctor treating me. The reality is that may not always be the be the case. I guess the key word here would be balance-in whatever profession someone works at. Most days I would just settle for being able to grab 15 minutes alone to eat lunch a couple times a week. :) I present this article as a point of interest. I am sure their are many professions who work longer hours ect. just thought it interesting to see that the issue was being looked at in the UK.

To answer Ingigo's question I believe teachers work days vary from school to school, state to state. I work in a Prek-8 building. I teach 7-8 classes a day. My scheduled lunch period is at 10:30 a.m , which the classroom teachers view as an "Open time" in the lab and send students in to get work done. If I were to leave the room for lunch the students would not be supervised. I have 3 planning period's per week,that are scheduled on paper, but have not happened yet. These times are scooped up quickly by teachers -(listed as Open Lab times) to send groups of students to work in content areas. I am not complaining-just letting you now the reality. I get to work at 7:30 a.m. Students dismissal is at 3:15. The last bus leaves around 3:30. I ususally have students working in the lab until 4:00 at which point I turn off the lights. On Tuesday and Thursday the school offers after school tutoring and those children are send down to work with me until 4:00 and on Wednesday I have the Moms and students there until 5;00 working on the yearbook. My building work hours when I am engaged in teaching are 8 hours. The rest of my work hours are planning, correcting projects, posting students work on the wiki, grading, conteacting parents ect. By Friday I am tired but I am sure many other professionals are as well.

The elelmentary teachers in my district do not have any morning break, as administration took away themorning recess that they used to rotate. They do have a 40 minute lunch hour but most often have a couple of students that have to eat with them in the classroom, because of a food allergies, discipline problems or parent request that the child not go outside for recess. They have one 30 minute music class, one 30 minute PE class and one 40 art class that the students attend without their classroom teacher-These are considered their planning times. However if a students misbehaves in these classes they are sent back to their classroom teacher. Our district has a 30 minute before student arrival report time, and a 30 minute after students dismiss, dismissal time. Also if there is no one home when the bus tries to drop off the student-they are returned to school to their classroom teacher until someone can be found to pick them up. I have waited with many students over the year until 5:00 and 6:00 pm and scrambled to get someone to watch my own children when they got home. we are an urban district.

The school in the suburbs where my children attend have shorter teacher contact hours and more planning /release time per week. Each disrict is different in their expectations.

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