US teachers union head lawyer on its "power"

[Evildead666]

My mother, just retired, was a teacher all her life.
She only taught ~6 year olds, but I can say that it is a LOT of work.

As for the holidays, there is one BIG downside, you only have holidays at peak periods fare-wise. Expensive.

And you have all the bloody kids from school, from every school, on holiday also.
So make that two.

[DukeP]

I never said that, I was friends with a History teacher...well history doesn't change that much vs say Science..and I'm also not saying that it never changes, but at least in the US we are lucky to get new text books every 5-10 years...so if your going to teach whats in the book, how is your lesson plan going to change radically every year?

I do use books, from time to time. But:
1) Books can never be used as more than a base. If you use a science book, then it can describe a particular subject - say part of the light cycle photosynthesis. But You as a teacher has to include it in context (as I have written earlier - we are currently working with building artic climate greenhouses).
2) No matter what you teach, you always have to draw comparisons to current issues. If You teach the illiad, you have to also teach how the Illiad is reflected in modern litterature. Its a requirement, again pr. legislation.
3) All this is obviously subject to differences between classes. A math class might have certain sections of the curricula, that simply needs to be taught in a certain way. But the Math teacher still has to fit the relevance of his classes into an everyday context. Ie.: Teaching powerseries this fall, it was obvious to include the expected and the realized growth of the A H1N1 flu epidemic.

You might reuse one particular session, but you will always need to change it, so it fits todays agenda. But obviously -with experience You do build a kind of toolbox of solutions, that you can depend upon to ease the more base part of your preparations. But this should obviously just lead to a better context based education - since You now hare MORE time available to prepare in.

~~DukeP~~

[GT98]

I do not know from where You have gotten the picture of "once its in, its for ever".

I never said that, I was friends with a History teacher...well history doesn't change that much vs say Science..and I'm also not saying that it never changes, but at least in the US we are lucky to get new text books every 5-10 years...so if your going to teach whats in the book, how is your lesson plan going to change radically every year?

[DukeP]

So you need to prep 5 hours for every 5 hours you work? Thats just crazy! I can see it being a problem at first or when needing to change lesson plans, but once you have the kinks worked out, it shouldn't be an issue.

Kinks worked out?

Ehm. The earth does not stand still solely for my pleasure!

I can not and do not repeat my teachings ever. I have to teach in accordance to an ever changing curriculum - that of the world around me.

Currently, we are preparing for COP15 here in Denmark. So the last 1½ years have been in the sign of the enviroment. My pupils are working with constructing greenhouses for use in the arctic areas, measuring and evaluating wheter new crops can grow in the now ice-free areas of Greenland and so forth. I OFTEN use more than 1 hour to prepare for 1 hour lessons!!

All the exam questions I have to prepare for my students are required by legislation to be based on articles and books released during the time of the class - ie. - released within the last 2 years (1 article pr. question, 1 question pr student pr class). Thats a rolling wall - nothing - or at least very little - can be reused.

The Science that I teach evolves so fast, I have to take classes myself at least yearly, to keep up.

I do not know from where You have gotten the picture of "once its in, its for ever".

Thats not something you are allowed to do in the Danish educational system - and I am pretty certain its a no-no in the US as well.

I do have longer vacations.
Off course, its not called a vacation, its called a teaching free period. And I am supposed to prepare for the coming semester. Since I have the exact same amount of working hours pr year as any other employee in Denmark - I have to work on average 44,5 hours a week when school is in (the normal workload in Denmark is 37½ hour pr week).

I make an ok wage. Nothing to brag about, but not too shabby. The work is hard, with long hours and almost always work in the evenings and on Sunday.
The joy of working with kids (well - 12-20yo) and teaching as well as learning yourself - thats why I do, what I do. Its priceless.

~~DukeP~~

[cjolley]

No your misinterpreting what I'm saying, if your an exempt employee you don't get paid OT

What exempt employee gets paid less than a teacher?
And if you are going to use certified techs vs degreed teachers, at least allow for equal years of experience.

[Dr Mordrid]

Same here, and a few others including a couple within 2 weeks of school starting

[GT98]

Exactly. Our district just had 2 days off before the Thanksgiving weekend now they have another half day for "teacher development" next week, followed shortly after by the 2+ week Christmas-New Years break which is then followed Martin Luther King's Birthday 3 day weekend in January and spring break, another week+ in March. Interspersed in all this are numerous half days, more development days, conference days etc. etc. etc.

The crazy thing here was back in November:

The kids had a whole week off the first week of the month:

Day off For Election day (I never got that off when I was kid!)
2 Days off just because (they didn't get Veterans Day off)
2 Days off for the NJEA convention in Atlantic City that most teachers don't even wind up going to!

[GT98]

Its quite simple: You get what You pay for.

I wish that was the truth, but its not, yet again using my state as an example, we have some of the best paid teachers, yet we are mid-pack when it comes to standardized testing etc.

[Dr Mordrid]

This in addition to doing work during prep periods and other "down" or non-teaching times, its not like your teaching 8 hours a day all day.

Exactly. Our district just had 2 days off before the Thanksgiving weekend now they have another half day for "teacher development" next week, followed shortly after by the 2+ week Christmas-New Years break which is then followed Martin Luther King's Birthday 3 day weekend in January and spring break, another week+ in March. Interspersed in all this are numerous half days, more development days, conference days etc. etc. etc. during which school is closed.

My wife, being a teacher, reports that these "development days" are mostly spent in the break rooms consuming coffee, soft drinks and chocolate while watching TV and gossiping - NOT developing lessons since most of them are working from cookbook curricula purchased at exorbitant prices by the district. Even the homework and exams are pre-ordained.

Drives her bloody bonkers, especially when the other teachers complain about how hard they work (love to know how many have ever worked outside of academia) and how poorly they're paid, which is hilarious considering how many vacation in Mexico or the Caribbean.

[GT98]

Eh - teaching for 5 hours requires at least 5 hours preparation - thats allready a 10 hour workday!

So you need to prep 5 hours for every 5 hours you work? Thats just crazy! I can see it being a problem at first or when needing to change lesson plans, but once you have the kinks worked out, it shouldn't be an issue.

Teaching is about the most important profession bar none.

Teaching ought to be a valued and respected profession.

Its important but given or at least the impression it gives off to people, its not respected by people, esp when you work 180 days vs 260 or so days that a "regular" full time employee works as an example. Not to mention saying your profession is the most important one is a turn off to most people because at least IMO your trying to make yourself out to be a self important (fill in your favorite derogatory term here) drawing attention to yourself.

Society is based on generations teaching each other. No teaching = no society.

once again, not all teaching is done in the schools, the most important teaching comes from parents in child's early years, but hey thats another topic all together!

Plus more often then not people who can't cut it in their profession often wind up becoming teachers in that subject....And I've seen this at the job I work at- People who can do and those who can't do train others!

[GT98]

So, your solution is to entrust your kids education to 7-11 employees?

No your misinterpreting what I'm saying, if your an exempt employee you don't get paid OT

And any teacher who only gets around to grading papers once a week is derelict.

This in addition to doing work during prep periods and other "down" or non-teaching times, its not like your teaching 8 hours a day all day.

[DukeP]

My whole point was that it should be kept up with, not put off until the weekend.

This IS a valid point - plenty of teachers being swamped by papers!

I DO try to grade papers from day to day. But its heavy work.
I generally teach classes at one of 3 different lvls. At C-level most papers are supposed to take the student around 3 hours of work. At A-level some papers will require more than 5 hours of work from the student.

I get 6 minutes of wage per student paper per hour of student work.

So for my C-lvl class, one 3 hour paper, 30 students equal 9 hours of work to grade (If I am able to keep up with the "6 minutes or hour" tarif - which I can't always do - but thats just me being overzealous and unprofessionel).

Obviously I have to pace the numbers of papers from my classes. If all my 3 classes (one of each lvl) turn in paper at the same time, its about a weeks worth of work, all in all.

So planning is required.

~~DukeP~~

[cjolley]

why not grade the papers at the school, since you are only teaching for say 5 hours in the day?

My whole point was that it should be kept up with, not put off until the weekend.

[DukeP]

why not grade the papers at the school, since you are only teaching for say 5 hours in the day?

Eh - teaching for 5 hours requires at least 5 hours preparation - thats allready a 10 hour workday!

Imagine You have to give a 5 hour speech.

~~DukeP~~

[Tjalfe]

Take my schedule as an example:

5 classes per day

15 students per class (average)

1 page of homework per day (average)

4 homework days per week

5x15x1x4 = 300 pages of homework to grade each week (minimum, no tests, quizes, projects, etc)

Who would set themselves up for that kind of weekend?

why not grade the papers at the school, since you are only teaching for say 5 hours in the day?