When I was a young teacher making $19K a year, me and this

[Bouncy Ball]

other teacher would always have competitions to see who was the most broke near payday.

I'd come in in the mornings and she'd put both her arms up, fists in the air, triumphant and yell "EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS!!!"

And I'd say "HA!!! SIXTY-TWO CENTS!!!"

That particular day, we combined our money and got a taco and split it.

Then at the end of the school year, we arranged to have library book cart races. After the kids were gone, the teacher would lie on their stomachs on the cart, and another teacher would stand behind them and push on the cart. There would be two and we'd race down the hallway with our hands out to stop ourselves at the bulletin board at the end of the hallway.

Finally in a faculty meeting one day the principal said "The hallway book cart races really need to stop."

So the fun was over.

[Richardo]

1. And that principal today is posting on DU as....

...Skinner. :D

[GalleryGod]

2. Great Story, BB !

Not so wild back in our day!:shrug:

But Friday nights were great!:grouphug:

Were'd the years go?:crazy:

[vpigrad]

3. You may have been broke...

but when you work less than half of the days of the year, you have time to have fun. I envy anyone with that much time off.

[realisticphish]

4. pardon??

how do you figure less than half?

[vpigrad]

11. It is less than half

No state requires teachers to teach more than 180 days a year. For math-impaired teachers, 180 is less than half of 365.

[Bridget Burke]

13. The mask is slipping.....

Your other posts show you as gun-hating, religion-bashing ultra-Leftist.

Perhaps you're coming down with something.

[Bouncy Ball]

17. They do?

I just did an advanced search and found nothing but defending Ebbers and saying Dean is far too moderate for the Dems and he'll hurt us!

ROFL!

[realisticphish]

14. o, so you assume they only work weekdays?

riighhhtt

[redqueen]

26. And they NEVER, EVER take work home with them at night.

Nope, that never happens!


:eyes:

What a crock!

[Bouncy Ball]

27. I know I never did.

All those piles of papers were just figments of my imagination.

And 185 students a day. Five class periods of 55 minutes each. Get 'em in, teach 'em fast, haul 'em out! used to be our motto. LOL

[Left Is Write]

29. I once dated a guy who was teaching middle school science.

He even brought papers to grade when he came to my house for dinner on what was supposed to be his free time!

[Bouncy Ball]

16. No state huh?

Then why do Texas teachers work 189 days? (That is NOT including staff development and planning over the summer, either!)

Oh I SEE!!! You only count the days they actually TEACH. Well, there's your problem. You can't just walk into the classroom and not have spent any time planning, meeting with your team, department, school faculty, district, etc.

It adds up to a hell of a lot more than you are saying it is. Go learn a bit about it before you start talking about it.

[xmas74]

32. My best friend has to teach summer school.

It's in her contract w/ the school (but she does work in a private school so that might be different).

[katinmn]

18. D'oh! you forgot weekends, or do you work nonstopnobreaksever?

[Bouncy Ball]

20. I did forget weekends

and I did forget the breaks during the school year when you research units, write lesson plans, grade, read materials you will use the next grading period, etc.

[katinmn]

23. precisely.

Ah, it's easy for people to criticize something they know nothing about.

Anyhow -- it was a great story. Too bad it got hijacked.

:thumbsup:

[Left Is Write]

6. Oh, yeah. And radio DJ's only work four hours a day too.

[Bouncy Ball]

7. Ah another "oh don't teachers have a great, easy life" person.

I thought we were done with the Great Teacher Wars of DU. You missed them. Too bad you couldn't get your digs in then.

And uh, by the way, teachers don't work less than half the days of the year. When you consider mandatory staff development over the summer, inservice weeks BEFORE the school year starts, and all the days you spend sitting on your living room floor surrounded by books and papers and planning out the school year, AND when you consider 60-70 hour work weeks DURING the school year (easily--tutoring, after school activities, grading, lesson planning, parent conferences, meetings, etc), then you really don't have such an easy-peasy life, now do you?

And if you envy it so much, go do it. Lots of states have teacher shortages. Go find out how much time you have off. Somehow I don't think you could handle it. That "so much time off" myth is just perpetuated to suck people into the profession, thinking they'll have an easy life. The ones who are disappointed by what they find quickly leave.

LOL

[vpigrad]

19. Sigh

Another person that has trouble understanding than 180 is less than half of 365.

> 60-70 hour work weeks

Very funny. My wife was a teacher for years. She left home at 5 till 8AM and was home by 5 after 2PM. With her 45 minute smoke break (err, planning period) and 30 minute lunch, she only worked 4.45 hours a day, less than half the days of the year.

I work a minimum of seven 14-hour shifts each week. The past couple of weeks, I've worked more than that. Two weeks ago I worked a 37 hour work day straight with only 7 minutes off to eat one meal with no other breaks. You're complaining about having to teach 180 days a year is ridiculous. Some of us work many times that amount for much less money.

> Lots of states have teacher shortages.

Tell that to my wife that's been on a waiting list for over four years to teach 1-3 grade.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. Depends on your state. Remember I said "lots of states."

And I don't know how to tell you this, but if your wife walked into that school right before school started and got home just after 2 pm (DAMN, what time did she LEAVE SCHOOL?) AND didn't take any work home AND didn't do any work over the breaks AND never attended staff development days or inservice days, well........that could be why she's looking for a teaching job now.

That's the nicest way I know how to put that.

Around here, teachers get to school about 7 am to get ready for their day and start tutoring. School starts at 8:40. School gets out at 3:50. Then after school, there are faculty meetings, department meetings, committee meetings over at the administration building, MORE tutoring (the after school kids), evening school, etc.

Then there's grading papers, lesson planning, calling parents, having parent conferences, etc.

I left home at 6:30 am and didn't get home until well after 5:30 pm almost every single day of the week. That's 11 hours. Then I would work in the evenings most evenings of the week. And all day Sunday.

I added it up and it came to 60-70 hours a week, easily.

So I don't know what the hell your wife's deal was, but she wasn't teaching. Sounds more like babysitting.

[Bouncy Ball]

28. Also, hang on a second.

Your wife only worked just under 5 hours a day? Was she even on a full-time contract? Something doesn't sound right with that.

Was she a teacher aide or something? Or half-time? Those are the only two ways I can imagine a teacher having such incredibly short hours. That, or like I said, that's the reason she's looking for a job now. Even elementary school kids have a lot of papers to evaluate.

[vpigrad]

30. Well

> what time did she LEAVE SCHOOL?

About 2:04PM. We lived across the street. ;)

Admittedly she had to go much earlier and stay later when she had bus duty. She worked at a great school that paid teacher aids to watch the kids before school, watch them during recess, and watch them after school while waiting on buses or parents. She didn't usually have to do any of those things.

> staff development days

I have never even heard that term. Must be a new one. She had three or four "in service" days where she had to go to school when there were no students.

> MORE tutoring

I have never seen a teacher that did tutoring. That's very nice of you.

> I added it up and it came to 60-70 hours a week

Wow. You sound like one of the good ones. I've never met a teacher like you before in person (from both going to school myself and from my wife's friends) so please excuse my cynicism about your profession.

> Sounds more like babysitting.

She taught first grade. That's about 1/2 of what she was doing. If I asked her, I think she'd say about 90%.

[Bouncy Ball]

34. Teaching any grade, when done properly, is not babysitting.

That tutoring isn't nice of me. It's required. NCLB. It doesn't accomplish diddly squat, but it's required, mornings and afternoons.

Kids who are failing your class HAVE to go, and they get the make up work, do it turn it in. It's a big make up work session. Which means they feel like they don't need to do it in class.

NCLB is STUPID.

So she had a lot of teacher aides. Most teachers don't. I'm wondering when she left the profession. Twenty years ago?

[vpigrad]

39. Required?

How do the kids get to/from school for these tutoring sessions?

> Which means they feel like they don't need to do it in class.

You're right about that. Kids need to be taught deadlines, because so often in the real world, you don't have a second chance before getting fired.

> I'm wondering when she left the profession.

Four years ago. She was shot in the back of the head by a parent of a former student, and we moved somewhere warmer because of her headaches. She still hasn't found a job teaching yet, and I'm still making less than $7/hour even with two engineering degrees.

[Bouncy Ball]

40. Yeesh, sorry about that.

Yeah, required. If kids don't show up to tutoring, they are considered truant and their parents are fined. If they have all their work turned in, they don't have to go to tutoring. But if they are missing work, they HAVE to come.

Hope your wife finds a job soon. Even if she will have loads of time off and an easy life, as you say.

[Bouncy Ball]

24. Oh and look above for my post to you about days per year.

Teachers around here OFfICIALLY work 189 days a year. You said there wasn't a single state that went above 180. And what about year round school?

And the 189 figure does NOT count summer staff development, etc.

I am attending one workshop this summer that runs from June 6 to June 30. Hmmmm. 8:00 am to 4 pm five days a week the whole month.

Doesn't sound like a hell of a lot of time off, now does it?

Then in July I'll be going to graduate school for the second summer session (which will actually overlap the beginning of the school year) and inservice for teachers begins right at the beginning of August. That's a teacher's busiest time of the year right there. I'll spend all of July doing graduate school and planning for next year.

Wow, where's the vacation? :eyes:

[Midlodemocrat]

33. But very few people work that hard

with the education a teacher requires for that money. The kind of hours you are describing sound more like blue collar jobs, and for the most part, individuals who take those jobs do not have the level of education a teacher does. Not true in every case, but most. And, your math is incorrect. Most people do not work seven days a week, they work five, so 180 days is not half of the work that you do.

Additionally, most teachers I know, myself included, had to take summer jobs to pay for their living expenses, so that sort of shoots the whole summer off theory. The only teachers I know who take the summer off are ones where they are the second income. I don't know one who could afford to do it who was single.

I taught high school for ten years. I left for many reasons, one of the biggest being attitudes like yours. For God's sake, we are teaching the children of this country. Teachers deserve better salaries and more respect.

I currently work for a non profit earning quite a bit more than I did when I taught. I work hard, but nowhere near as hard as I did when I was teaching.

[SoCalDem]

9. Ever hear of year 'round schooling?

Out here most teachers work year round, and it's costing lots of them money.. Teachers used to have the whole summer to supplement their meagre teaching salaries with "summer jobs".. That's hard to come by these days.

[redqueen]

10. BAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAAH!

Is that you doin' a freeper imitation? 'Cause it's a good'un!

It even uses freeper math! Excellent! :thumbsup:

:7

[Bouncy Ball]

12. Hey vpigrad!

Doing anymore defending of Ebbers lately?

"Damn I hate to come to that idiot's defense... but he was a school teacher! How many school teachers do you know that know anything about accounting or corporate finance? Usually the "I don't know" defense is a load of crap, but this guy didn't have any background in any business before heading Worldcom. I still think the guy is guilty as hell, but don't blindly attack the "I don't know" defense when it is valid."

Or doing anymore telling us how Dean is too MODERATE for "us Democrats?"

LOL!!!

[vpigrad]

22. Sigh

I don't understand your point. The guy was just a damn gym teacher that got lucky. What in the hell was he supposed to know about running a company? Do you know any teachers you would trust to run a company? I certainly don't.

[Bouncy Ball]

25. Actually I can think of two right off the top of my head who would be

fantastic. Smart as whips, business backgrounds, wonderful people and good strong leaders.

Your view of teachers sure is dim.

And that guy was responsible for DOING his job no matter what he did before. It's a seriously crappy flimsy defense. Almost worse than none at all.

[Misunderestimator]

37. Wow... Hate teachers much? There are plenty of teachers I'd rather were

running companies than what we have now.

[katinmn]

15. I don't know any school teachers that work than less than half a

year, and I doubt there are any.

Most of the teachers I know supplement their income with temp jobs in the summer.

Why don't you google average teacher salaries for an eye-opening experience. :)

[ulysses]

38. come work my classroom.

I'll put your envy to rest.

[Left Is Write]

5. Are you still drunk on peanut butter and jelly?

Read your title sentence again, my love.

[Bouncy Ball]

8. You know, I re-worded that a couple of times

something's wrong with my brain today! LOL!

[GalleryGod]

31. Someone call the Sky Marshall-this thread is Hijacked.

And it WAS and STILL is a GREAT story !

Roll on, Libary Carts !!!:bounce: Roll On!

[Bouncy Ball]

35. LOL, thanks.

[iconoclastic cat]

36. Leave it to a principal to suck the fun out of just about everything.

My principal quote of the day (said to me a few short hours ago): "Maybe I should pit your attendance rates against each other and see who wins."

[Bouncy Ball]

41. "And maybe we should all gang up on you and duct tape your ass

cheeks together."

Did you say that in response?

I used to have a file folder that was titled "KMA," Kiss My Ass. For all the material I got from the district that should be labeled as such.

[iconoclastic cat]

42. As a first-year, I pretty much have to smile and nod.

Yes, sir. May I have a few more until I am tenured?