It's happening everywhere - the result of revenue cuts more than anything else, I believe.

As a former SPED classroom teacher’s aide, I 100% agree with her on the IEP issue.

Eta: Absolutely, Carol. Definitely in Texas, anyway.

This happens in higher education as well. I work at the University 5 hours a week in a non teaching position. And most of the clinical faculty is part time. In addition to our continuing education credits, + separate BLS or ACLS + separate DEA training + radiation safety training, none of which count as CE for the state, there are modules on emergency treatment, child abuse training for mandated reporters, sexual harrassment training, anti-bias training, cultural sensitivity training, infectious diseases exposure training and some other random department specific training.

All of which has to be done outside of work hours if you are part-time and some of which requires significant out of pocket expense. (CE, BLS, DEA, radiation).

And since I work in two places, some of the things are not transferable because they are institution specific. Hours wise this adds up to well over a week, possibly close to two weeks (80 hours), of job-related work, just to keep the job.

Yep. My granddaughter is 8 and has an IEP and the amazing staff at her elementary school had worked so hard with her last year that shes now a straight A student in every subject this year and barely needs any help but they are there if she does.

My grandson has an IEP and gets virtually no help from the schools and is now in HS and fortunately is getting along pretty well .

It depends almost exclusively on the school district and the administration and the teachers and local funding. And most importantly how much the parents push and push the school administration. ( edited for clarity NOT pushing their son) . My DD and SIL were really really pushy between Kindergarten and 1st grade. It made all the difference and it is a very wealthy school district.

My DS and DDIL also were very vocal but it is an entirely different set if circumstances in their school district. c

That is a lot! My high school ran from 8-3, an hour for lunch. Teachers also had to run after school activities, like French Club, Booster Club, Choir, Ski Club, etc. They also had cafeteria duty and bus stop duty. Probably more than I am mentioning. Some activities required travel, like ski club and choir performances. Saturday and evening games and dances. Oh yeah, detention! Play rehearsals ran a couple hours after school.

The teachers were allowed to smoke in their lounge, though. It was a very time consuming job although they got nearly three months off in the summer.

Working in a nonclinical position at a hospital required me to attend all sorts of meetingsand take tests that had nothing to do with my work at all. I didnt mind some of it, it was was interesting.

Arts teachers have added responsibilities: assisting students prepare portfolios and auditions for shows, competition, admission, scholarships. Produce and conduct concerts and shows and exhibitions. Holiday season hits hard for choral groups! Maybe work on the school musical. Our school meets on Veterans Day with assemblies, and the band director conducts the band for patriotic music then and on Memorial Day. Football! Pep band! It’s a lot.

My elementary school met 9-3, hour for lunch, one or two 15-minute recesses depending on your grade. And here we invented, well, the internet, why we are all on this site today.

One additional note: For those of use who are or were Special Education teachers, we have to attend every staff, grade level, and team meeting in additon to our special education team and district meetings. IEPs are mostly written at home in the evening, along with grading which sometimes includes grading of general education students. We have to do the educational testing of students in gen ed who have been referred for special education testing which takes multiple sessions, and then attend the meeting to discuss what we all (psychologist, social worker, general education teacher, principal or assistant principal , Speech and Languge teacher, and others at times) found (scores and interpretations) in our evaluations. Then we all reconvene to present findings to the parents and their advocates if they have them before coming to a determination (with the parent) whether the child qualifies for special education sevices. Many IEP meetings take multiple hours and often those are held on separate days. Every district I have worked in holds a variety of mandatory training/classes after school and in the summer (no, we do not get three months off). You will not hear most of us complaining. That is the job.

Nonetheless, almost all teachers do this job because we want to do this job and do it well for our students. It is more a calling than anything else and it is tiring and disheartening to be considered less than people in other positions and treated as such. Not smart? Become a teacher. Not at the top of your class? Heck, even if you're at the bottom, we bet you can get a job teaching.

Ask our students and remember that every successful person learned from a teacher.

I remember on curriculum night, teachers telling me they were missing their own kids’ curriculum nights. Also their own kids’ concerts. Sports events.

I work for a very well paid district so this is not true everywhere, however my town’s average teacher salary is 90k for 10 months work which puts our teachers’ pay slightly above other fields with master degrees’ average pay. With tenure, a phd, extra coaching work, and summer school my district has many teachers making closer to 180k in 12 months. It is a hard job yes but where I work it is respected and paid accordingly.

The real issue and hardship with all these changes is not on us, the teachers, but the children’s joy of school is being destroyed. Pre k is full day and doing sight words in preparation for future testing. Kindergarteners are doing what was first grade math work and reading comp. Recess and lunch waves are shortened to get more instruction time. Children’s brain development has not changed but our expectations of their abilities have. It is killing childhood.

Couldnt some of these meetings, training, etc be done over the summer vacation and spring break? A week in winter? Some of us got two weeks vacation, maybe five holidays and worked long beyond five. I do agree that our educational system is very unbalanced.

Teachers in my school system average over $100,00 a year. My heart does go out to teachers in inner city schools, many of which are horribly underfunded and teachers face all kinds of problems.

Then there are people who say ”teachers have nothing to complain about, they work only 7.5 hours a day if that and have three months of vacation. I work 15 hours a day and don’t take my vacation days.” Yeah, I, we, know people like that. and they say it to the teachers.

dedtired, many meetings have to take place in the time that they can deal with an issue.

This thread has brought back so many nice memories, especially of the amazing, determined, hard-working kids and teachers I was fortunate enough to work with. I concur with cyn in that every teacher I worked with felt it was a calling.

Interesting timing, too, as just yesterday DH and I were taking a drive and happened to go past the school where I was employed. (I was an aide while finishing my degree in another field.) I hadn’t been by in years and it actually choked me up a bit.

Thanks, ks. And cyn, love this:

Ask our students and remember that every successful person learned from a teacher.”

Our para educators are very under paid and over worked and so essential. They are the unsung heroes of education in my opinion! Our system now, compared to when I started, has three time more paras which is very helpful. Teachers in my school no longer need to sit at lunch or recess or specials with the class unlike when I started in the 90s so that gives over 45 extra prep minutes per day that I did not have in the good old days.

Teachers and Para’s are not why education fails. Poverty, school administrations and goverment standards that constantly change are what is failing our children. Also screen time is a huge factor that is killing imagination and innovation.

I had a long career in Corporate America and then spent many years in a second career teaching, first at the elementary level and eventually at the community college level. All of those jobs were difficult. I've worked since I was fourteen, and never had a job where people didn't gripe about pay, hours, responsibility, bad bosses, etc., so I don't understand why Elmer's friends and relatives would think that their co-workers would be different. And at every job there have been people who gave way more than they should have to their jobs and people who skimped wherever they could.

What HAS been different about teaching is the 'babysitting' and oversight teachers endure. It struck me immediately, as a forty-year-old doing my student teaching. I, of course, expected a lot of oversight since I was training, but I was shocked at how frequently principals would walk unannounced into classrooms, demand lesson plans at the start of each week, etc. Many of these teachers were absolutely exemplary and had been in the classroom for up to thirty years, but they were treated like newbies who had yet to prove themselves capable of working independently. I found it maddening.

It's particularly galling because of the ridiculous state oversight. Just as it would be for Facebook or any other company to comply with day-to-day operations requirements from uninformed groups.

I like the models from countries like Switzerland, Germany, Canada, etc. Teachers are compensated well and even more importantly, allowed the freedom to do their jobs. My most enjoyable teaching was at the Community College level where I had much less oversight. I did my best, creative teaching there, and had the results to show for it.

+1 to @roarah comment - I will also add ”some parents” to the list of education challenges - our district is trying to limit cell phones in the classroom by having students put them in a cubby in the back when they enter the classroom, there is a whole set of parents fighting this bc ”they can’t reach their child” - nevermind that they could call the office with an emergency like the old days

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Here in FL, money for public schools has been successfully siphoned off for vouchers and homeschooling - and much of it seems to be misused by the homeschoolers, along with private schools having little oversight or required standards. Public schools are also being closed because of falling attendance. Average teachers' pay here is maybe $50K at the most, with many making much, much less. Last I saw, there's a shortage of 3K school teachers here in the state.

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Yes, I think so. At least one that I am pretty sure is gone.