These details are a little exaggerated, at least in my situation. I get 50 minutes of planning a day and a 30-minute lunch. Every other minute is with students. There are things that I reuse from year to year, sure, but there is a LOT of things that need changed or newly created. As an HS ELA teacher, I don’t have a textbook, so everything I use, I create or adapt from an idea I’ve found. But planning is only a tiny part. Grading essays is extremely time-consuming. I work at night and on the weekends. We get a week off at Christmas and long weekends otherwise. I work all summer, but at a different jobs. Lots of teachers have second jobs. We get from second week of June through third week of August. The main stressors are not students and parents; it’s constantly pounding from above for more, more, more and near-constant change to something “better.” Now that I am at the top of our salary scale after 18 years, I will not get more than a tiny .05-2.5% raise each year until I retire. Just some facts from someone active in the job right now.
As long as property taxes are tied to salaries, I think this is very difficult. I’ve been through 4 or 5 contract negotiation cycles, and even a 0.5-2% average raise can receive major pushback and stalls settlement. I know PSEA is pushing for a minimum starting salary of $60,000, which could help. I think Maryland has done this.
jekomo OP t1_jbtunys wrote
Reply to comment by redditmbathrowaway in How can we attract more people into the teaching profession? by jekomo
These details are a little exaggerated, at least in my situation. I get 50 minutes of planning a day and a 30-minute lunch. Every other minute is with students. There are things that I reuse from year to year, sure, but there is a LOT of things that need changed or newly created. As an HS ELA teacher, I don’t have a textbook, so everything I use, I create or adapt from an idea I’ve found. But planning is only a tiny part. Grading essays is extremely time-consuming. I work at night and on the weekends. We get a week off at Christmas and long weekends otherwise. I work all summer, but at a different jobs. Lots of teachers have second jobs. We get from second week of June through third week of August. The main stressors are not students and parents; it’s constantly pounding from above for more, more, more and near-constant change to something “better.” Now that I am at the top of our salary scale after 18 years, I will not get more than a tiny .05-2.5% raise each year until I retire. Just some facts from someone active in the job right now.