2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.
correction: my heroes ARE the pre-K, kindergarten, and 1st grade teachers...
By many hats, 03/19/2010, 4:20 PM EDT
I am a mother of 3 kidsaged 3, 4, and 6. I am also a high school English teacher/yearbook advisor/rodeo coach. And as hard as I work in all of these roles, my heroes as the pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade teachers my kids have had (or will soon). Those who teach very young children are miracle workers, life-changers. Thank you. If anyone thinks your job is easy, it is only because you do such a good job that you make it look easy.
By High School Teacher, 03/19/2010, 4:13 PM EDT
Teachers are only contracted to about forty weeks a year, but what's the difference between 40 hrs a week for 50 weeks (office job) and 50 hrs a week for 40 weeks (teacher)? Few teachers pull less than 50 hrs a week-I'm at school 7-5, 5 days a week, not counting conferences and extracurricular activities. But it's not about the money-we really would just like support from home instead of blame. We do the best we can with what you give us, and you have to understand that your kid is NOT perfect.
By High School Teacher, 03/19/2010, 4:13 PM EDT
Teachers are only contracted to about forty weeks a year, but what's the difference between 40 hrs a week for 50 weeks (office job) and 50 hrs a week for 40 weeks (teacher)? Few teachers pull less than 50 hrs a week-I'm at school 7-5, 5 days a week, not counting conferences and extracurricular activities. But it's not about the money-we really would just like support from home instead of blame. We do the best we can with what you give us, and you have to understand that your kid is NOT perfect.
By High School Student, 03/19/2010, 4:07 PM EDT
For those of you who have said "do the job your paid to do!": Shut up and think. You can't always be there. A teacher's job is to be there for their students and if that means that they have to play the role of mother or father for a few minutes so be it. I know that i have found a few teachers that have been a friend and an emotional support. Its easier for a kid to go to a teacher and talk about whats wrong than a parent. I've done so. I talk to my teachers and my parents and i'm better for it
By F, 03/14/2010, 6:18 PM EDT
It's really important that the general public fully understand the time commitment that many teachers put in during a year of teaching. Contractually, teachers have to put in 182 days at school. Other professions work around 250. However, teachers, work well beyond the actual school day. Each night we take home papers to correct, and we spend much of our Sundays doing lesson plans for the upcoming week. The summer is spent catching up on professional development and preparing for the next year.
By First year teacher, 03/12/2010, 2:41 AM EST
And to go along with the salary comment, for those of you who think teachers should be based on merit, how exactly do we measure that? Do we use the standardized test scores that everyone, including us, hates? Do we base it on student feedback, which can obviously be skewed? I would love to be paid based on merit because I work hard and I think I do a good job, but until someone comes up with a good way to determine merit, we're just going to have to stick with the system we have now.
By First year teacher, 03/12/2010, 2:37 AM EST
And 6. Almost everyone I know (nurses, businesspeople, factory workers, and more) complains about being overworked and underpaid. As teachers, we're not saying we are the only ones with this problem, only that it is a problem we face. Don't we deserve the right to complain about this along with everyone else?
By First year teacher, 03/12/2010, 2:35 AM EST
5. We DON'T get summers off and 2 week vacations throughout the year. If the school does summer vacation, we get that and a day here and there, with a couple extra days for Christmas. In the Midwest, many of our "days off" become makeup days for weather cancellations. The only teachers who get 2 week vacations throughout the year are those whose schools run year round. So we do not get both. And we spend that time working on lesson plans and professional development anyway.
By First year teacher, 03/12/2010, 2:29 AM EST
4. For most of us, the reward of the job is seeing a student catch on to something they were struggling with. The problem today is that many students don't really want to learn. They come in thinking they are entitled to A's, and if they aren't getting an A, then they demand enough extra credit to boost them up. Obviously, this is a generalization - there is an exception to every rule.
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