West Virginia Teachers on Strike, still make sure hungry students are fed

[Fireball]

While I don't know about the specific conditions of this strike; and I'm not commenting on the merit thereof.

I do remember, reading in the Chicago Tribune about how school teachers was one of the highest paying bachelors degree's per hour. 
While I would assume,  that the calculation did not include work taken home, but only hours on campus; it is an interesting figure.  I know I would love to have school teachers hours, although I am sure, that my boss would also want to adjust my pay.  Heck, I would love to be able to take a month off just one summer, and go for a nice motorcycle ride.

You wouldn't last as a teacher for very long if you think the hours are attractive.  They're really not.   Yeah, we're only in school from 7:00 - 3:00.  (Well usually a little after 3, because we need to have office hours in order to do our jobs well).  Then we get home, and the real work begins.  Planning, grading, and contacting parents.  I work anywhere between 50 and 60 hours a week (depending on how much grading I have to do, and depending on what happens in class.  Of which I have 7 classes to teach, with over 100 students).   Planning is crucial for being a good teacher.  You can't get by without planning.  "Winging it" only works in the movies. 

We do get sick days, but taking a sick day means your class falls behind the schedule you need to meet.  And of course you have to leave plans for a substitute, but substitutes (and I have nothing but respect for them) aren't you.  Which means that students are bound to fall behind, and act up--because hey, this sub is only here temporarily.  Let's see what we can get away with!  And the substitute might not know the subject that well.  I honestly don't take sick days unless I think I have something contagious.  Because it's easier to tough through it, than to try to make up the next time.

Yeah, we get summers off.  During which time we use for professional development, as well as recuperating from a long and stressful school year.  Of course many teachers have to take a second job during the summer so they don't go broke.  I know that my first couple of years teaching I did.  Took a crappy retail job because it was all I could get.  The only reason I don't take one now is because my husband finally got a better paying job.  When he lost his last job--through no fault of his own--I was definitely worried I'd have to take a second job just to get by.  I don't think people realize just how much teaching can take out of you.  And we can't take a vacation any time we want.  My cousin's getting married in the Bahamas?  Oh wait, it's during the school year.  I'll have to decline, because I can't miss any time and have my students fall behind.

Of course none of this is to mention the athletics and other extracurricular activities we do.  Personally I coach cheerleading, as well as run a Yoga Club.  Both of which take up more of my time, but which I do because I know there are students interested, and they need someone to run those.  I'm not even counting this time among the 50-60 hours I work each week.

From the outside it sounds easy, but it's nowhere near as easy as it sounds.  I love my job, and wouldn't want to do anything else.  But the hours aren't attractive at all.  Those who join teaching because they think they'll have it easy tend to wash out quick.

Hear, hear! One thing I learned in the early '90s when I was unemployed and taught as a substitute on call (which meant I had better be paying attention to the phone in the morning if the school district called me) was to get together with the math and physics teachers so that the continuity of their classes would be there if they had to take time off for being sick. Between my time as a Petty Officer in the Navy, and my training as a BSA leader, I had the crowd control stuff pretty well down. If the kids tried to derail the class into hearing "war stories" from this sub, I said that they could talk to me at lunch time. No takers. ...and I can "wing it" in either a math or physics class. I've had enough of both that I can run circles around a high school student. I actually liked teaching Advanced Placement classes, because the students were motivated...whether by parental threat or of their own accord, because they just eat up what is offered, and ask a ton of questions. I got a great sense of satisfaction when the students asked a question that made sense- it meant they were getting it.