Simple Joys

One of my favorite things about teaching is that I get to think like a perpetual twelve-year-old; I get to look forward to summer vacation and pray for snow days. Also, I love having weekends and holidays off.

Before anyone chokes on jealousy, I should remind you that I work 60 hours a week through the school year. Teaching in the classroom takes 7 hours a day, 187 days in the contract year. That's 1309 hours. All of us at Henry Clay sponsor a club; I sponsor two. we meet one hour after school a week. That's an extra 2 hours per week, across 36 weeks. That's 72 hours. I spend at least 15 hours per week grading and planning during the 36 week school year. That's another 540 hours. On top of that, I, like every other teacher at my school, sit on a School Improvement Committee. I also chair a second SIP committee. SIPs meet an hour a month 10 times over the school year. The one I chair meets 30 minutes per week; that's 18 hours in addition to the 10 hours. Every teacher is also required to work in common planning committees or PLCs. They meet for an hour every other week. That's another 18 hours meeting time with approximately an hour prep time before we meet. That's an additional 36 hours total. Every teacher is also required to complete 24 hours of professional development each year. Let's run a tab so far:


1309 hours - Working days
72 hours - Club sponsorship
540 hours - Planning & grading
28 hours - School Improvement Committees
36 hours - Common Planning Meetings & Prep Time
24 hours - Professional Development

That gives us 2009 Hours in a working year, or a little over 50 weeks at 40 hours per week. That's pretty much an average work year. The only flex-point in my calculation is the amount of grading planning. The rest is mandatory. It also doesn't take into account the other professional development I do, or writing for publication, or large-scale projects. This year, for instance, I'm developing the school-wide writing program. I've already poured more than 60 hours into that, probably closer to 80. I also attended two conferences this summer, beyond my required PD hours. I was working an additional two work weeks.

Please don't mistake this for a hymn sung to the tune of "Poor Me." I love what I do. But the next time someone gripes about how teachers get so much time off, print and give them this list. It might open some eyes.