People often think that teachers have an easy schedule. In fact, my own husband thought that until he witnessed my first year of teaching.
A lot of assumptions are made. First, the day. I get almost 30 minutes for lunch — I have to wait for the students to leave and be back as they return, so that cuts into that lunch time. Second, unlike my previous office job, I can’t take an extra minute or two, or even be late. If I am not in the room, no learning goes on. Sometimes they will have a security person sit in my room while I take care of something for an administrator (like fix a printer), but I really am not supposed to leave.
Bathroom breaks are hard too — we are supposed to maintain order in the halls, so we really can’t go then. And we really aren’t supposed to go during class time. There really isn’t any one to relieve us. Oh, we do duck out, but there is a bit of risk.
What about turning in attendance, paperwork, etc.? I don’t like sending a kid, because they are supposed to be working "bell to bell" And I do try to make that happen. Again, I get fussed at everytime I leave for something like that and an adminstrator comes by the room.
So in addition to this post, I’m also going to blog about this summer, so you’ll realize that getting a part time job really isn’t an option.
I’m lucky as I have the senority and the experience to do some district jobs — writing curriculum and finals, which will pay a little of $4000. Not bad, but not a lot either.
So I had one day off this week — first thing in the morning, I went by my doctor’s office to get blood work done. Not something I can really do during the school year, as there just isnt enough time — our official hours are 8:00 – 4:00.
I also did two hours of work on our curriculum.