The Truth About Teacher Overtime - How Many Hours Teachers Actually Work

As teachers, we hear the comments every year.

"It must be nice having summers off."

"I wish I had teacher hours."

"Being a teacher is like working part fourth dimension."

Of course, none of these are true. Nearly teachers are signing contracts for 180 days of work every year, and then at first glance, it might wait similar it's a sweetness summers-off gig. But nearly all teachers (including me) will confirm that they work a lot, LOT more than—and we are non paid for that work.

So just how many hours practice teachers actually put in each yr? Despite my fright of math (I'm an English teacher), I thought I'd dive in and take a look at my personal number of piece of work hours each year. This is based on a typical 180-24-hour interval/39-calendar week teacher contract.

Hours of Education in the Classroom: 1,170

Every school is dissimilar, but for the virtually office, teachers are in the classroom for about six hours a day. Personally, I have a 25-infinitesimal lunch, just this is unremarkably spent with students every bit they brand up work or use my classroom every bit a tranquillity infinite. I know this is true for most teachers, so for tracking purposes, I'chiliad keeping information technology at half dozen hours a day.

To compare these hours with a private sector job, these 1,170 hours in a classroom are roughly about 29 working weeks for a typical forty-hour-a-calendar week job.

But look! In that location's more!

Hours on Classroom Prep, Planning, etc.: 450

There'southward an old adage, "If yous are 5 minutes early, y'all are already 10 minutes late." This couldn't band truer for teachers. Most contracts ask teachers to be in school five minutes before class begins. Yet if you ask whatsoever teacher who is in a classroom, they'll probable tell y'all that if you don't get to school an hour early, you can forget about being ready for the day.

There'south no way you'll go access to the photocopier before it runs out of newspaper or, fifty-fifty worse , t oner! Almost teachers brainstorm their twenty-four hour period an hour before the students testify upwards. This is the calm before the storm, when we can adjust desks, make copies, write out our boards, and have those terminal few precious, tranquillity moments.

Also at the "end" of the day, you'll often see schoolhouse parking lots full of cars, anywhere from one to three hours afterwards the terminal bong. Why? Teachers are decorated with after-schoolhouse help, meetings, clubs, sports — the listing is never-ending. For this section, I approximate it's between 300 and 600 extra hours, so nosotros'll estimate that it's somewhere right in the middle, 450 hours.

Hours of Grading Outside of the Classroom: 300

I love teaching. Grading? Not then much. There have been plenty of times when my family has found me pounding my head on my desk, request why I assigned so many written assessments. (The bottom line is that they help my students abound and go fully set for higher or career, but I digress.)

I did the math for this section, showed it to my husband, and he laughed. He said my estimates were far also low. So I went back to the drawing board, with his observations in heed. Now I know this section can vary a swell deal based on class or discipline, but I'm estimating that teachers spend between five to x hours a week on grading. My number is closer to between 500 and 600 hours because I'k an English teacher. But I'm going to keep this at 200 full hours for virtually teachers.

Hours of Planning Outside of the Classroom: 140

I don't like grading, simply do I ever dear planning! There's zippo like a perfectly planned lesson.

I tend to save my planning to Sundays, and I spend a few hours on it each week. I can imagine that the subject, grade, or place you teach might touch these hours as well. If you're a kindergarten teacher, for case, you might spend 300 hours planning versus 100 grading. But allow'due south average this at most three hours a calendar week for most teachers, making it another 120 hours for the year.

And then let's as well add in nigh 20 hours for this time during vacation.I'grand non talking well-nigh summer vacation (even so). I'm just talking about the typical fall, winter, and jump breaks. You know those times when anybody assumes we teachers sit back and relax? Sure there is some of that, just the planning and grading don't terminate during this time.

Hours Spent on Summer PD: 100

All my non-teacher friends ask me all summer, "Are you enjoying your time off?" Equally nice as information technology is to have stretches of availability during the summer months, at that place's a lot of PD rolled into there also. This summer, I've already been up to my neck in PD and trainings.

I retrieve I missed the memo about teachers getting summers off, as did many of the teachers I know. I accept 64 hours scheduled in my last two weeks of "summer intermission" alone. Between meetings, PD opportunities, and special trainings, information technology really adds up. And this is non counting bulldoze time. All in all, I concluded up with 146 hours this summertime. I'm going to average this to about two and a one-half weeks of PD for most teachers, putting in about 100 hours each summer.

Hours Spent on Email and Other Communication: twoscore

This includes all the emails from students and parents that I receive during the summer or weekends, not to mention the phone calls. If I worked in an part, I'm sure they would be considered billable hours, but I don't runway those very well.

Honestly when I accept families who are invested in their child's education, I'grand so excited that information technology doesn't feel like work! Nevertheless, information technology is work. So permit'south approximate that teachers spend at to the lowest degree an hour or two each week on communication, a total of well-nigh 40 hours.

Then where does that leave us?

Our one thousand total is ii,200 hours, or 42 hours a week, working year-round. (This is more than than most full-time employees.)

Of course, I realize that many people with 40-hour-a-week jobs have work domicile or work more their 40 hours. But remember, again, that teachers' contracts aren't actually for 12 months a yr. Contracts are usually for 39 weeks, or around 180 days. Yes, nosotros're working total-time jobs while getting role-fourth dimension pay.

I'yard non trying to be cranky about pedagogy or even compare our jobs to the residue of the earth. What I'k trying to show is that teachers work more than the time outlined in their contracts. And having summers off? That's basically a myth. So allow'southward all work to give teachers a little more respect. They definitely deserve information technology.

How much teacher overtime do you put in? Share in the comments or in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, check out 11 surprising statistics that sum upwards the life of a teacher.

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Source: https://www.weareteachers.com/teacher-overtime/

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