I Love Walmart!

Quote: TigerWu

I know a few teachers... they don't just work the school days; a lot of times they're working on weekends doing whatever to get caught up or to prepare, and sometimes work for several weeks in the summer before school starts to get prepared for the upcoming year. So, a 180 day school year realistically probably equates to somewhere in the low 200's of working days, easily.

That's what I'm told, anyway. Maybe the teachers I know just like to stay busy.

Ask your typical HS teacher how many classes they teach a day? Five 45 minute classes? Puleaseeeee if you can't get whatever prep work you need to get done in the other two or three hours a day you are not actually teaching.
By the way, I am ALL FOR teachers being well paid and having the time off. I don't begrudge them it. It's not like its a secret how well they have it. If you want to join them, get the Masters degree and join the ranks.

Can't verify accuracy - but I found it on the web. What they don't tell you about teaching High School.

Quote:

They don’t tell you that students will kill what you love.
The attitude, indifference, smug superiority, know-it-all demeanor, blatant rudeness, ego, and at times cruelty toward their peers is depressing.

That you will see and deal with family issues that are appalling. I’ve seen and heard of awful, awful things happening in student’s homes. Rape, molestation, drug abuse, a home as a drug lab, physical abuse, neglect, poverty, etc. etc. These kids bring that stuff to school with them and you have to navigate it with them while teaching.

Some students, no matter what you do or how hard you try, will hate you because of your title, “teacher.”

Many students are rude. Rude toward staff, each other, their friends, their families. Often you aren’t “allowed” to correct them on their attitude because administration feels it’s “not a teacher’s job to teach personality traits.” That, or they’re afraid of parental reprisal.

Many students are inept. You will repeat yourself more times than you can imagine. Information can be on a class website, on a board, on paper, and posted on a wall - all of it simultaneously available - and multiple students will say “What am I supposed to do?”

You can’t force a student to learn. At some point a student has to be accountable for their own learning. You can differentiate, model, come up with the coolest assignments and lessons imaginable and some kids just won’t care.

Going along with the above, you can see some student’s futures. They’re grim and miserable. You can do everything you can think of to steer them on the right path but ultimately they have to be the pilot of their own ship. It’s hard watching this happen. In spite of warnings and pleas, some kids just carry on down a dark path.

You will spend 90% of your time with kids who either a) don’t care, b) aren’t academically strong (and probably should be in a lower class), or c) are disruptive. The students who are academically strong, behave themselves, and try in class get little attention because you’re so busy dealing with the others. It’s unfortunate too because they’re the ones who would benefit most from extra attention and flourish with the opportunity to learn more.

Kids think they’re grown up but they’re more often children in nearly-adult bodies. They get scared, insecure, bratty, happy, sad, etc. etc. just like kids do. They’re just bigger.

People in the community will “hate” you because you get summers off.

You’ll be WAY busier than you think you will be.

It’s rewarding but not in the ways you think it will be. Forget every Hollywood movie that embellishes teaching. It’s not like that. I’ve seen the greatest teachers I know (honestly, outstanding at their job) universally hated by classes simply because they’re teachers. Other classes adored them. There’s no formula. It’s not always a happy ending.

You can’t say all the things you want to say to students.

You can’t say all the things you want to say to parents.

You can’t save them all. You can try. You will try. But you can’t.

The look on parents’ faces on the last day of school before summer holidays is priceless.

Kids are spoiled. They’ll act spoiled. You’ll have to deal with all sorts of issues in class and you have very little power. Some students will know you have very little power and exploit it.

School boards are terrified and they pander to the status quo to avoid issue. This leads to all sorts of problems.

Pedagogy flips and flops every 5–10 years.

School boards will implement all sorts of nonsense in an effort to inflate graduation rates. Students will be pushed through school when they absolutely don’t deserve to be. Many teachers that I know feel we are churning out a generation of kids who are performing 3 or more grade levels below where they ought to be.

Not to mention class sizes are getting larger and students have more distractions now. I don't envy teachers one bit.

One of my good friends retired after 35 years teaching at a local Catholic school.
He hit the max pay schedule after 5 years and only got token raises from then on.
He now works two days a week as a substitute for NYC and makes in two days what he made in a week at his old school.

Near autonomous AI in schools may be the thing to free teachers, so they are able to focus strictly on teaching rather than all the extraneous activity.

Example: robots can beat the tar out of the unruly student as well as any human

My neighborhood in LA was Class of 1999 in 1989.
Class of 1999 (1990) - IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099277/

The worst tasting food that I bought, was shrimp salad at walmart.

Quote: Minty

Not to mention class sizes are getting larger and students have more distractions now. I don't envy teachers one bit.

Oh, please. Generations ago class sizes were far larger.

As to "prep" this is true for younger teachers. After they have taught the same course a few times there is not much prep work left. Just pull out lesson plan for Day X and get rolling.

Back in high school we had 8 periods. Teachers got 1 off for lunch and 1 "free" period. That leaves 6. Most had to do a study hall, that leaves 5. Some study halls were easy some were not. But no "prep" would ever be needed.

So down to 5, but most had more than 1 section. So they taught maybe 3 courses a semester. Prep for just 3. Again, most of which is the same thing year after year.

If the job "is not easy" then quit.

Quote: AZDuffman

Again, most of which is the same thing year after year.

One of the more offbeat theories in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey involved the observation that many high school males took three semesters of Mechanical Drawing expecting to be easily obtaining rather high-paying jobs as draftsmen but Access Graphics, a value-added-retailer ended that job category by marketing so many high-end graphics units and copies of a computerized design program. All those would-be draftsmen hoping for $27.00 an hour were lucky to get $8.00 an hour,yet the school system was still teaching mechanical drawing as if those jobs still existed. The teacher had tenure and did not have to change with the times.

I thought I'd look through a few sources to see if class sizes are growing or shrinking and the data seems inconclusive. Smaller class sizes provide better student achievement outcomes, that much is certain, but as to whether classes are bigger or smaller than in the past, I'm unsure. Data shows it both ways. I did just read an article in which a teacher was talking about how teachers she knew we're quitting due to large class sizes and the inability to effectively teach.

Bringing this back to Walmart, I remember reading an article about a teacher with her master's that had to Uber and I think work at Walmart to pay her bills in addition to teaching.