How much do teachers work?

I got this correct. I taught for 32 years. Grades, done at home. Papers, daily grading, lesson plans, etc. done at home. Class size, 25 by law, took longer. For all of you who think it is a cake walk, sub as a teacher, if you are able. Then, we will chat again!

I remember my Dad coming home from school and grading papers every night or getting things ready for the next day...

Yes, on the days they actually work. The more meaningful data would be how many hours they work for the year while getting paid...or not...for the full year. Then you could derive an hourly wage averaged over the entire year. Some teachers are on a nine month schedule while others on a 12 month schedule. Generalizations such as this are therefore statistically useless.

Bull Crap..... Teachers get furloughed without pay for the summer. Get it right, Ken Kennedy.

Teachers in California are paid only for the months they work, September-June. July and August you are on your own to figure out how to pay your bills. Most have their 10 month salary divided among 12 months, so you do the math.

Most don't realize that todays teachers work far more than in the past. With all the required paperwork most work 12 yo 14 hours a day. Add in extra duties, coaching, conferences, committees, required further education and Professional development Training it ends to being quite a bit more. If you taught just one year and fixed Your lesson plans and used them without changing then you're a bad teacher and part of the problem. If you don't revise and improve Your lesson plans then you have evidently shorted you students education and have not lived up to the essense of Your contract. Teaching is a calling that too many don't live up too. Its not about the pay, But ir you really wish to begrudge a teachers pay i'll go there. Pay me as daycare proceder. Per student. Lets use $25 dollars per day per student with an average of 196 students per day for $4900 a day $24500 per week or further $867,300.00 per 177 day school year. That doesnt include extra duro es, coaching, or further education as required by law for licensing certificates. Now lets see if you really want to Cross this threshold?

I have always believed in the saying of "teachers or overworked & underpaid" in one of the most unappreciated professions in life.

Obviously, you are not a teacher and have no idea what you talking about. Please sit in the corner and put on the dunce cap...

As a retired teacher and many time Mentor teacher, I never worked 10 hours a day. I didn't have to. My first year was very hard, then that summer, I tweaked my lessons plans in a week. Starting the next year, I review in my head what I was going to teach that day and used the already prepared (by me) lesson plan. I worked lunch hour and an hour after school with students. Three projects a year were graded on weekends and all test were graded in class and discussed. Wake up teachers of today, if you are working that many hours you are not preparing well. It seems you are fudging in order to get sympathy for your work. I worked about 180 days a year and got paid very well for my efforts both by the district and the success my students enjoyed.

And they are sorely underpaid!!!

Wow....

Wow. Talk about ad hominem attacks! My entire point was that the question was poorly formulated, not that teachers don't work their butts off. I got the answer right, but only because they didn't offer a higher number, because my experience has been that my teachers (below the college level) put in endless hours during the school year. Why so much anger, folks?

Donald H Eakin I live in San Diego on a similar income. I have two kids and live in a very modest 3 bedroom house that as a mortgage or rent is equally aprox $2700 a month. SDG&E has the highest rates of any power / gas company in the continental USA and its not uncommon for the power to be $350 lowest month to $600 highest. In hot months we've had bills higher than $700. Property taxes in San Diego also top the nations highest, well over those in LA, SF or NYC. Its commonly known that a family needs to bring in well over $100k a year to live in a middle class (Safe) neighborhood in San Diego. After taxes, which CA has made sure are the highest nationwide, we have left about the same amount of spendable income as my cousin who lives in WV and makes $68 as an engineer. As I said, I make about the same and don't drive a BMW or have my kids in private school. I haven't been able to afford a vacation for more than 10 years.

Donald H Eakin Its arguably the most expensive city in the nation to live in and cleaning staff in San Diego make $60-$70k so what's your point?

Bruce Holden That's not being furloughed without pay when you get paid a salary. I've never heard of any teachers who get paid by the hour or by the day. HOWEVER most teachers get paid less than other professionals with the same degree of education. I do stress most, because there are some districts who get paid far more. At the same time, "most" k-12 teachers are paid more than college instructors with equal or greater degrees of education. Coming from a family of educators, this is an argument that I've had to listen to throughout my lifetime and everyone has reasonable points, though all quite biased.

Teachers need to get paid more money for all the hard work that they do, plus it's the most IMPORTANT job anyone could ever have. If we didn't have teachers, we would live our lives the way it is in poor 3rd world countries where very few people can read and write, and jobs would be harder to find, and poverty would spread throughout the country. The reason technology and our "comfortable" and "modern" way of life has improved so greatly over the last century, is because of our very successful public education system. Some people may disagree with me, saying that America is further down the list, compared to Japan, China and some European countries. Well, perhaps that may be true, but considering that there are 196 countries (including Taiwan) in the world, we should be lucky that we are in the top 10 at all. We are #6, after Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Finland and Germany (according to Rankopedia). France, Australia, South Korea and the Philippines round out the top 10 with China at 11. Teachers work very hard to raise our children with good education and life skills, so we should appreciate them with every fiber of our being.

Mea Culpa. I only counted a teacher's presence on school premises. It was my very first job many moons ago. Now I remember doing lesson plans, teaching aids, etc. I do remember the not-so-great pay, though, but the welcome three-month summers. Teachers still don't make much today, I gather.

Judging by how many "holidays" schools are out for, I would have guessed ZERO hours but I have a niece that is a teacher. Considering how much she whines about the work load, they should be paying the government back!

Yea they also get paid for it. I go on strike, I get strike pay, a lot less than a regular pay check. Teachers go on strike, they get their full pay.

Tim, I work 190 days of which I am paid for OVER 12 months a year. So, my salary is based on 190 days but I have it stretched over 12 months so I don't have to go through the summer months without a pay check. Does that help you understand? I am not getting paid for days I am not teaching. I am just stretching my pay out!

Teachers DO NOT get paid for 12 MONTHS.....get that through your head! Teachers are furloughed in the summer. No work, no pay.

Your five cousins are an embarrassment to the teaching profession if they all say that they have a "part-time" job. And no school districts that I know of have a week off at Thanksgiving, two full weeks off at Christmas, nor a full three month vacation in summer. Don't forget, that summer time is a furlough time, a time of no work and no pay for a teacher. Many must go out and find part time work. Some teach summer school, some work in camps, some paint houses. Others simply save from their nine and a half month salary to have enough to live during that non-paid time.

Rhonda Wentz Bondurant So you allow your school district to hold back part of your salary during the teaching calendar year, rather than insisting that they give it to you during the mid-August to Mid-June teaching year? Not a very powerful union that agreed to that kind of maltreatment from your school district. Most enlightened districts would give you your deserved salary as you earn it and it is up to you to save for the "furlough" time during the summer.

I totally agree--Adjust your time for quality time with the FAMILY.