We Shouldn't Reward Teachers ...

[senseandsensibility]

93. I was just thinking about that the other day.

As teachers, we spend six hours working directly with students. That is very draining and demanding work. You must manage their behavior, differentiate instruction, speak loudly all day, stand on your feet all day, and be flexible enough to react to all kinds of student needs, all the while never deviating from a demanding "script" that you are required to teach. That leaves two hours (assuming an eight hour day, which of course is a joke) to do everything else. What do I mean by that? I mean reams of paperwork required by our districts, grading papers and especially tests by hand and then entering them online, referring students for special help, communicating with parents by phone, e-mail and/ or note, meeting with colleagues, making copies, decorating the classroom to provide a welcoming and educational physical space for students (this alone can be very time consuming), organizing the classroom, ordering supplies, cleaning the classroom (no one dusts at my school unless the teacher does it), attending staff meetings, answering e-mail, planning and organizing field trips, meeting with our after school program leaders to co-ordinate homework help, plan fundraisers, plan family nights, plan for the Science Fair, plan programs such as the Winter Program and Multicultural Night, plan the Spelling Bee, do report cards ( I was responsible for giving each student over seventy grades this quarter), .....really, the list is never ending. Most of the time I not only take hours of work home every night, but work on the week-ends, too.