Why we need "Teach to the Contract Day"

Exchange between me and my dearest friend (edited to preserve privacy)

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Me: “….the tutoring gig pays almost $50 dollars an hour. When I proofread and edit, I make $40 an hour. I took out a calculator....$50 an hour is 100K a year [at 40 hours a week working a full year, which I see now makes no sense]

That should be my goal. 40-50 dollars an hour. Right now (or up until now) I was making less than $20 per hour.

I know in my heart of hearts that 1) I am worth more that than that, and 2) I can do better. I am so sure I can...



Cal: Really? 20 an hour for usual teacher's schedule would be 32K…that's harsh....

{{32,000 divided by $20/hour = 1600 hours.}}


Me: OMG.

Cal is my dearest friend, my most cherished friend…and I am about to fly through the computer and start screaming.
….And I would never scream at Cal, because he is my favorite person of all right now. number 1 in the rankings. Also, I just went to yoga, and screaming is not in me. Five days ago I would have fallen on the floor and started sobbing.

Cal—no need to read this rant, and…I love you, man….
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A Teacher’s Day (not in great detail) – high school; and times required for all tasks are underestimated:

7 am – required arrival time
Allowed to leave: 2:30 pm
Most teachers must stay at least an hour past this to do the most minimal of necessary tasks:
· copying or requesting copying [which in itself can take TOO FREAKING LONG!!]
· collating, stapling
· filing
· phone calls
· answering e-mail
· paperwork (fill out this overly complicated chart so that the administrator currently getting her Ph.d. can compile all your data and present it as her own)
· tutoring students
· decorating the room—not froo-froo—children need visual stimulus to learn
· book inventory
· attending required after school meetings:
o school-wide, departmental
o county-wide
o required orientations for new teachers
o technology seminars….
So, 3:30 pm [don’t laugh, we know you don’t leave ‘til 4 or 5 pm]
Minimum length of day at school:
8 ½ hours
I will not deduct lunch time, because if a teacher can grab lunch, it is a noisy affair with phones ringing, students buzzing in and out, asking for tutoring, recommendations, so essentially, you are still working. Lunches are working lunches.
Add: minimum one hour, give or take, of work at home—this fluctuates wildly based on whether you teach math, science, elementary, music, phys ed, worl languages, social studies, etc.

Without a doubt, the English teachers and history teachers take home the most work if they are even doing a half-a$$ed job. Elementary teachers come a close second. All teachers, if they are very good, on top of their game, have prep work to do. No…there is not adequate time during the day. Not even close.

English teachers can have non-stop grading sessions that take all night:
120 students x 10 minutes a paper = 1200 minutes = 20 hours….per week. That’s assigning one paper per week, with a really low number of students (24 per class?) giving it the most cursory read-through, edit, and perhaps comments, with little time for reflection. Many, if not most high school English departments want kids writing one paper a week.
So, we won’t include English teachers because they are such a special case that they merit their own post, if not their own website of despair.

So, 8/12 hours [at school] plus one hour [at home—all the teachers are laughing right now—ONE HOUR!?!] = 9 ½ hours – minimum
X 5 days = 47.5 hours per week
Add:
4 (minimum) hours of grading, lesson planning, answering e-mails, entering grades, phone calls on weekend. Yes, occasionally, you may have a weekend with much less work. Perhaps you forced yourself not to work, but the gnawing sense that a tsunami of work is about to explode on your horizon comes true the next weekend when you are chained to your desk for 8-10 hours each “day.” The days bleed into night. Up is down, black is white. You seem to understand all languages, and know that if you wanted to fly, you could. A giant panther leaps out of the moon and devours your heart.
So,
51.5 hours per week – this is a bare minimum
51.5 hours per week x 37 weeks(typical school year – 9 week marking periods x4 plus 1 required teacher work week):

1572.5 hours

Okay, here we go—let’s see if my hysteria was justified:

50,000 [a random appr. salary] divided by 1572.5 = 32 dollars an hour. So, I was off the mark. By a lot.

HOWEVER….that figure represents the bare minimum.
I cannot do the math right now to account for:
· Most teachers get to school much earlier—or even a little earlier-- than required.
· Those who make less than 50 K
· Those who take students on field trips that last until 1 in the morning—field trips are unpaid—no one seems to get this.
· Coaches who effectively lower their average hourly wage by working countless hours for what-- 500 bucks a year?
· …and newspaper advisors, after school homework helpers, afterschool hall monitors all working if not for free, for 3, 4, 5 dollars and hour, or a pat on the back.
· Marching band directors who take students on week- long field trips over Spring Break—no, this is not “fun” for the band teacher
· Prom
How many teachers come in a week, two weeks before the mandatory teacher work week? 50 percent? 75 percent? I would love someone to do a study and demonstrate how this effectively lowers everyone’s hourly wage. If no one came in until required,…that’s another blog post…
It is all too complex. I wish I had gone into Stats and gotten a Phd in Teacher Compensation and the Economics of Public School Wage Scales.
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But (out comes the calculator) even factoring in one of those factors—teachers usually come to school early, let’s say a half an hour early--lowers the hourly wage to 25 dollars an hour.
AND….I have not factored in keeping up to date with the latest research in methodology, child psychology, course materials for your discipline, journals pertaining to your field. Granted, lawyers and doctors do this on their own time, but in other professions is “part” of the job and done during the “work day”--arts administration, journalism, research positions. Teachers are also researchers in their fields….some take it more seriously than others, of course.

AND, I think I way underestimated the length and frequency of after school meetings….
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One might say, but you don’t HAVE to work those extra hours.
Teachers—PLEASE let rip in your comments. I know this blog is entreating you to work only the required hours, but we all know that schools would grind to a halt, an absolute halt, tremendous pressure would be brought to bear on you…bad stuff would happen.

Imagine you stopped grading papers after “work” hours. Now envision sitting in front of the superintendent with your union representative, a lawyer, three irate parents, your principal, and a box of tissues.

For amazingly painful and detailed descriptions of teachers’ days as contrasted with other similarly educated people, please read Teachers Have It Easy.
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his blog is suggesting we do an action, a Teach to the Contract Day – once a year. It is very important that we educate the public on the real hours NO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT TEACHERS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY STOP REGARDING THEMSELVES AS GOVERNESSES….DO NURSES STAY THREE, FOUR, FIVE EXTRA HOURS??? I know they do extra work—I’ve seen my own nurses staying to do paperwork. BUT HOURS? No. Correct me if I am wrong.