Teachers... What Do We Do?

Teachers.... What DO We Do?

Is being a teacher as easy as it looks?

Let's explore the different views of different people who look at teachers. Some people even think that they could probably do a better job.

First, we have a typical friend.  Our friends look at our students perfectly engaged and following our every direction might think... "Wow! I can do that!  1+1 = 2, piece of cake!"  They think that from 8:00 AM until 3:00 PM, that's all we have to deal with... teach, teach, and teach some more and the kids would just absorb everything like sponges.  Wouldn't it be great if that were true?

Our parents, who look at us with pride, proudly say, "That's my kid!  Genius!  Go out there and change the world!"  That's what they see!  We change the world all day every day!  After all, we're geniuses, right?  Not so... There is a lot of research and studying done before we can get information from the textbook into the students' noggins.

Then there's society who thinks that all we do is sit on our bottom all day and do nothing while we get paid. Society thinks that we're overpaid for babysitting all day long.  As a result, we get budget cuts on education, low-pay salary, low benefits, you name it! There is even research done to prove its point! Read more here.

What do students think we do?  Some think that we're cynical people who never let them do anything they want.  Some think that we constantly interfere in their freedom of expression.  Some think we're control freaks!  The good news is that young students don't feel that way until Jr. High  when they turn from lovely little angels into rebellious teenagers.  The lucky elementary school teachers get angels who love and respect their teachers like their parents.

We would like to think that all we do all day everyday is having fun with what we love, right?  Wrong!  Look at what we really do! Although, we really DO love what we do!  Ask a teacher and you'll see that most of them, at least the ones who recently became teachers, absolutely love what they do because they love the idea of changing the world one child, or 30, at a time. Even though being a teacher comes with lots of headaches, teachers are who they are because they have big hearts and they want to share that love with the world.

Let's put all those pictures together.  It's true!  We do teach, and our students are engaged, but our students didn't just come into class prepared to learn and are engaged.

They come into the classroom looking like this...

After much love, care, and patience, we turn them into....

this!

Of course, it doesn't happen right away.  We must keep pruning them and help them become civilized before we can even begin our first lesson.

During class time, we don't just teach.  We entertain, we manage behaviors, we engage, and of course, we teach!

We must take students like these....

and turn them into these....

before we can do this....

During the school day, we are not just teachers; we are parents, nurses, safety officers, lawyers, judges, handymen, accountants, actors, ambassadors, clowns, coaches, dancers, detectives, editors, engineers, gardeners, florists, guards, interpreters, musicians, police officers, scientists, singers, and sometimes, we're even maids.  All of that happened during school times.  What about before school and after school?  What do we do?

Well, to start off... Before school we have to get to school early, prepare our classroom to make sure that it's ready before we welcome the students.  We have to be sure that all pencils are sharpened, all seats are clean, everything is neat, and everything that we need for the day is out and ready to be used.  The safety of our students is our number one priority before we can do anything else.

After school, we get our lesson plans for the next day ready, check and replenish our supplies, gather all the homework, classwork, tests, and any papers that might need our attention.  We had to grade those papers, contacts parents, clean up the room, and get ready for class the next day.  Most of the times, we don't even finish our work before nightfall and end up taking our work home as seen in the last picture of the meme.

With all that, society still views us as overpaid baby sitters who do nothing all day but sit and socialize with our friends.  Search "overpaid teachers" on Google and see what you get...

Here's a letter from a parent's perspective:  Enjoy!

Sick of highly paid teachers? Here's what to do

By an unknown author

Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year!

It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That’s right. Let’s give them $3 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585 a day.

However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.

LET’S SEE....

That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.

Wait a minute -- there’s something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher’s salary (nationwide) is $50,000.

$50,000/180 days = $277.77 per day / 30 students = $9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student -- a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!)

WHAT A DEAL!!!!