What Teachers Make!

[greencrest1272]

I will say again that teaching is one of the most important jobs in America. But like any other job, people will have something to complain about. It just seems that most teachers, not all, but most complain about the pay. I just wanted to put things into perspective a little bit. I dont want anyone to think that Im taking away from the work teachers do.

[imported_Counts]

I think everyone likes to complain about there job and tell folks how tough it is. But by the same token every job has its perks.

Teaching perks would be

1) Summers off - Yes they MAY have to recertify but many other jobs are the same way for example I Know the DOC folks have to travel to Richmond and For my job I end up traveling to Indianapolis and Atlanta Roughly once a year for 2 to 4 weeks.

2)Short work days - Not saying that some teachers do not bring work home but for every one that does There are 3 that do not DOC works 12+ hour shifts my job is 9 a hour shift with a 30 lunch and 2 15 min breaks however my job also requires ALOT of after hour work and in some extreme situations marathon shifts (a few years ago we had a BIG upgrade that we implemented on a 3 day weekend I worked my reg 9 hour shift Friday then we started the upgrade we finished 1 AM Tuesday morning we finished up and I finally got to go home for some sleep and still had to go into work the next morning [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] ) Granted that was an extreme situation and in my 12 years in the workforce I have only had 4 or 5 36+ hour shifts but trust me they leave an impression LOL

3)Snow Days - I currently work in Grundy so things are not so bad BUT then I worked in Lebanon traveling over Dante Mouton in the winter would bring out more praying than church

4) Cheap Health insurance - A few teachers I know were complaining about there premiums going up and I was right there with them until I found out that there yearly Premiums were about what I pay in 3 and a half months

I am by no means cutting teachers and I could make a list of perks for the DOC (Early retirement age, Only work half the year) and My Job (Good pay, alot of standby time if there are no problems) I am just tired of everyone talking about how tough there job is I agree with one of the above posters that said the grass is always greener on the other side

Teaching is an easy job.... great benefits also. Insurance is very cheap..we do get the summers off... we get snow days off with pay.... we only work 4.5 hours of class time... because of the planning period.... I have never complained... I am very grateful for my job. Oh yes.. off every weekend!

[LPD_spectator]

Quite honestly it would depend on what you are teaching that would make it easy. But about the 4.5 hours of work, quite honestly no teacher that i know of works that little. i know many teachers who are on block scheduling that work all 4 blocks, meaning they have no planning period and most of the time stay after school until 5 or so. I do agree that there are some good perks but the reason there is a lack of teachers now is because the college graduates (or now you dont even have to be a college graduate to teach. You only have to be certified by the state to teach any more) can get better paying jobs than what a teacher makes. But i guess it depends on what kind of teacher you want to be as to how hard your job is.

[sup-rbeast]

To be frank, after HS i went to the 25th ID at Schofield Barracks, then after i returned I worked various jobs while in college (WalMart, Housing Authority, Furniture Store), after college I stacked Lumber at the sawmill in Appy for 2 1/2 years. Then I started teaching. Of all of these I have found teaching the most demanding. The teaching part (lectures, grading, etc) is not hard but it is tedious and time consuming. But that's the easy part of the job. The hard part is the stress involved, especially if you coach in addition to teaching. You have to deal with parents, the problems the kids have at home whether school or non school related, satisfying politicians who have no idea at all about the educational process, etc etc) And yes teachers have 10 weeks per year off, but there are 20 more "contract days" that have to be completed every year. It adds up to roughly 100 extra hours of seminars, workshops etc. So if you think about it that's 20 more days, and if you're involved in sports that all continues in the summer as well. And, no, the pay isn't very good for a 4 year degree. And, as far as medical insurance goes, I pay $350 per month of my salary for my family's health and dental. After taxes, health ins., and other deductions from $30,000 per year,...well you can do the math.

[retiredteach]

I didn't mean to start a big discussion. Just thought that the story fit. Teaching is hard. I taught for 33 years at the Middle School Level. The pay did get better and I was not trying to say that the pay was not adequate. It is perhaps unfair to be held accountable for all student's learning when some of them have no ambition, other than draw a check.

[plantsman]

That's the hard part of teaching - trying to motivate those who have no drive and in fact tell you that all they plan to do in life is "draw". Kids living with grandparents is all too common; I wonder where so many of these parents are. The salary I receive is adequate. My greatest source of stress and worry comes from seeing kids who are so beaten down, so hopeless, without drive and motivation, and from seeing county offices who are overstaffed to the point of being in one another's way, overpaid, and largely unproductive and unnecessary. The Peters' Principle at its finest! But that's not just public schools - that is evident in every level of government and every agency.

[imported_yomama]

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By the time I have the students out of the room and have gone to get my lunch I usually have fifteen minutes of it left

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I wouldn't say that's the best example of not getting an hour for lunch. It's kind of a general workplace predicament.

My lunch is also supposed to be an hour, but when it boils down to it, I have 10-15 minutes of it left to actually eat after I do all I have to do, manage to get out of the office, and get back to the office on time. Can't be a minute late. The hour is provided, it's just "too bad" if we don't get to use the whole thing as a lunch.


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I work in an office setting and I get an hour for lunch and I get every single second of it. I bring my lunch to work just so I can have that full hour. Leaving the office takes too much time, I'd rather eat a cold sandwich and relax for an hour then run down the road to a fast food joint or stop and eat inside a restaurant and then try to make it back with time to spare. Luckily I work at a place where I am treated like a professional, so if I'm a minute late or 15 minutes late, it wouldn't be a big deal unless it was habitual, or my work started to suffer.

On the other hand, teachers usually don't have an option to go out to eat. They get their "fifteen minutes" or whatever and that's it- its not an hour consisting of preparing to leave and leaving the office. Anyway that's just my random train of thought.

Top 6 paid positions are all doctor positions. From neurosurgeon to pathologist.
Teachers ranked about mid to less than mid way on the pay scale of top 100. Most were from cities.
Police officers not much better. And again these were from cities.

[R8R]

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Can't we all complain about our jobs, pay, lunch breaks, etc.. from time to time? I'm a teacher and the job can be a pain just like everyone elses. I think the pay is fine. Of couse I get an 85 minute planning, 25-30 minute lunch, and vow to never bring work home. If I cant get it finished during my planning, then it waits until the next day. I'd rather be a teacher then do some of the other things that you guys do. A lot of you guys do way more than I do and probably don't get paid no where near enough.

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With your grammar, I certainly hope that you don't teach my kids. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif[/img]