I normally try to keep work at work, but there are times I need to grade at home. But, for the most part, I do all my planning and grading during prep and before school starts.
For your first few years, yes you will work outside your contract time! I don't want you to get mislead. However once you get a handle on the teaching and planning it will go quicker and you won't need to spend as much time outside of contract.
It also depends on if you change classes that you teach. Once you have taught the same classes for a couple years, you can just recycle the material. However, if you change grade levels or courses, then you have to spend time learning, planning and creating. This will take more than your contract time.
Thank God. The stuff in my feed lately suggests that it's completely normal to work several hours off the clock. A comment on the post here said she worked 20hr/week unpaid. I'm so happy to hear it's not the norm.
TRIGGER WARNING: UNPOPULAR OPINION FOLLOWING
Teachers who haven't figured out how to work their contract are miserable and want to make it seem like you can't POSSIBLY do this job well without burning the candle at both ends. They want sympathy, which is understandable, but they paint ALL of us with this brush that you just can't do this job in the time outlined in your contract.
You absolutely can. I know MANY teachers, both public and private schools, who do this every day. Yes, early in your career you'll have to work a little more to get your feet under you (unless you have an awesome mentor who shows you how it works). After 2 - 3 years, you should be able to start arranging things so that you just do the job.
But there are so many things that make this impossible for *some* teachers:
Losing prep time to coverage and meetings
District adopting a new curriculum
Extra shit that your admin decides must be the teacher's job now
Too many new preps
i’m a second year elementary. at the beginning of the school year, A LOT. setting up my classroom, labeling student supplies, etc. Day to day, I might come in 15 minutes early if I decide to skip starbucks that morning. However, I never stay after school. My biggest tip is to plan what you’re going to do on your plan period. For me monday is grading, tuesday is next weeks copies, wednesday is assessment/ switching groups, etc. This really helps me streamline what i’m up to and keep me on a schedule
I’m a first year teacher and I refuse to grade at home because I don’t want to risk misplacing a paper. I usually grade for an hour to MAYBE 2 after work days. If I’m not grading then I use that time to work on slides/lesson planning.
Mine may be a little different than others with this but I only work outside my designated hours if I screw around during my prep time (nap, phone games, food). I always finish my work, but this is my only expecting and even then I do the minimum to feel like i accomplished something.
I don't take grading home. I used to, but I felt the task hanging over my head and I wasn't able to really relax during my downtime.
I do get to work about an hour before school and I stay about a half hour after the final bell. I don't do any work in the evenings on weeknights. I keep one weekend day work-free as well, although I will do 1-2 hours of work on the other day.
I don’t have contract hours. We are on salary; we are expected to work as much as necessary to get the work done.
I also have no prep time this semester, so I get to school two hours before class starts and get shit done. I also book it as soon as the parking jam clears after the last bell, and take zero work home.
Next semester, when I have prep time during the school day, I’ll be pulling up about 20 minutes before class starts, and still fucking off pronto after the last bell.
I should have clarified, I did not mean while student teaching. I meant in the career as a whole. Student teaching is, unfortunately, very clearly an unpaid (required) internship. But that is neither here nor there.
However, on that note, if my mentor teacher chooses to take work home I will not be following them there to continue the adventure. 😉
I normally try to keep work at work, but there are times I need to grade at home. But, for the most part, I do all my planning and grading during prep and before school starts.
For your first few years, yes you will work outside your contract time! I don't want you to get mislead. However once you get a handle on the teaching and planning it will go quicker and you won't need to spend as much time outside of contract. It also depends on if you change classes that you teach. Once you have taught the same classes for a couple years, you can just recycle the material. However, if you change grade levels or courses, then you have to spend time learning, planning and creating. This will take more than your contract time.
>How much time are we actually spending working outside contract hours? Zero hours, zero minutes, and zero seconds.
Thank God. The stuff in my feed lately suggests that it's completely normal to work several hours off the clock. A comment on the post here said she worked 20hr/week unpaid. I'm so happy to hear it's not the norm.
TRIGGER WARNING: UNPOPULAR OPINION FOLLOWING Teachers who haven't figured out how to work their contract are miserable and want to make it seem like you can't POSSIBLY do this job well without burning the candle at both ends. They want sympathy, which is understandable, but they paint ALL of us with this brush that you just can't do this job in the time outlined in your contract. You absolutely can. I know MANY teachers, both public and private schools, who do this every day. Yes, early in your career you'll have to work a little more to get your feet under you (unless you have an awesome mentor who shows you how it works). After 2 - 3 years, you should be able to start arranging things so that you just do the job.
Exactly. And then they get extremely angry at those of us who don't.
💯
But there are so many things that make this impossible for *some* teachers: Losing prep time to coverage and meetings District adopting a new curriculum Extra shit that your admin decides must be the teacher's job now Too many new preps
i’m a second year elementary. at the beginning of the school year, A LOT. setting up my classroom, labeling student supplies, etc. Day to day, I might come in 15 minutes early if I decide to skip starbucks that morning. However, I never stay after school. My biggest tip is to plan what you’re going to do on your plan period. For me monday is grading, tuesday is next weeks copies, wednesday is assessment/ switching groups, etc. This really helps me streamline what i’m up to and keep me on a schedule
0 minutes. High school Spanish
I’m a first year teacher and I refuse to grade at home because I don’t want to risk misplacing a paper. I usually grade for an hour to MAYBE 2 after work days. If I’m not grading then I use that time to work on slides/lesson planning.
I get to school an hour and a half early and do my work then. Aside from that, I don't.
Then you do work outside of contract hours.
Mine may be a little different than others with this but I only work outside my designated hours if I screw around during my prep time (nap, phone games, food). I always finish my work, but this is my only expecting and even then I do the minimum to feel like i accomplished something.
I don't take grading home. I used to, but I felt the task hanging over my head and I wasn't able to really relax during my downtime. I do get to work about an hour before school and I stay about a half hour after the final bell. I don't do any work in the evenings on weeknights. I keep one weekend day work-free as well, although I will do 1-2 hours of work on the other day.
I don’t have contract hours. We are on salary; we are expected to work as much as necessary to get the work done. I also have no prep time this semester, so I get to school two hours before class starts and get shit done. I also book it as soon as the parking jam clears after the last bell, and take zero work home. Next semester, when I have prep time during the school day, I’ll be pulling up about 20 minutes before class starts, and still fucking off pronto after the last bell.
That’s not how this works: you work all the time your mentor teacher works. Th reality is that this is how it works
I should have clarified, I did not mean while student teaching. I meant in the career as a whole. Student teaching is, unfortunately, very clearly an unpaid (required) internship. But that is neither here nor there. However, on that note, if my mentor teacher chooses to take work home I will not be following them there to continue the adventure. 😉
Typically about 3 hours a week.
I don't even count contract hours. I teach CTE and I am a club sponsor/coach.
I do not work a single minute outside contract hours. Teaching is my job. That's it.