180 days a year is mandated face time with students. That does not include the weeks worth of meetings prior to the "first" day of school nor does it apply to committee meetings after school hours. Then, of course, there are the "Parent Teacher conferences" which run for three days 'till 8:00 PM, twice a year. And then there is the "ad hoc" conference when Johnnies Mom shows unannounced and expects to talk NOW. At the end of the day you still have papers to correct so you take them home and spend several hours after dinner doing that little chore.
Since the district has put a computer on every teachers desk, they expect head count for attendance & lunch to be entered by 8:00 AM so the ladies in the office can send it on to Central Office. Since you no longer use a grade-book all those grades you finished last night need to be entered into your computer to "automate" the report-card. Most teachers did that during class room face time, I did it from home because my wife thought she was there to teach not do data entry chores. As per usual when things get "computerized" you wind up with more paperwork, more time spent on scut work, and less time spent actually doing your job.
Still want to sign up? That three month summer vacation is down to a scant two and the district requires all staff teachers to aquire additional teaching credits on their own time (kiss that two months good bye!). You get enough additional credits and you'll have to declare a major and now you're in night school working on a Masters degree (you can always see your family on weekends).
My wife taught for 40 years for only one reason, she loved the kids and the way they lit up when they caught a new idea. She made principal and quit after two years to get back to the classroom because she missed the kids.
You should walk a mile in her shoes before offering an opinion.
Regards,
GtG
PS She was in the union because the district was a closed shop. She was the building rep for a couple of years. She entered into a lawsuit against the union because they were diverting dues to political contributions with out members consent. It takes stones to teach!
“It takes stones to teach!”
100% agreement in this day and age.
But, the REAL problem here is getting lost. Should the taxpayers pay for over-the-top salaries, cadillac health insurance plans including extremely liberal prescription drug plans, over-the-top retirement plans, etc. for public sector employees, while those same tax payers pay 30-38% contribution for their healthcare, etc.???
The teachers in Wisconsin make on average $89K a year...39% of them send their kids to PRIVATE schools, paid for by the tax payers.
Democrat administrations in these states and given blank checks to public sector unions promising that “someone” else would pay for all their salaries and benefits, which are WAY out of line with what the average tax payer can enjoy....to paraphrase Margret Thatcher, “Socialism is great until you run out of someone else’s money.”
Well, in state after state, as public sector employment grew as a percentage of total workers in each state, and given their outreageous compenstation (particularly benefits), the states started running OUT of some else’s money.
In New York, the tax payers pay 92% of the healthcare coverage for teachers...how is this MORAL or FAIR, much less sustainable?
How these governors are doing, is asking these public service employees to pay are “fairer” share of their compensation costs, and they act as if THEY are being robbed, when in fact it is the entire country and our financial health being robbed.
The bottom line is this: These public service workers all over this country are going to have to pay MORE (like the rest of us are doing) or states and the country will go bankrupt, and when and if it does....don’t even want to think about it.