How Many Hours Does a Teacher *Really* Work?

Friday, August 17th, 2007 | Sara the Teacher

As the end of summer quickly approaches, I find myself anticipating my fourth year of teaching! This will be my third year teaching 8th grade. I can’t believe it! Time sure has gone fast. This past year, especially! I had a wonderful group of students this last year, and I find myself missing them (many of them, anyway!).

While most of my audience knows that it takes a lot of hard work to be a teacher, a good teacher anyway, the mathematician in me really wants to know just how many hours a teacher puts into her classes each year. Since I’m getting the hang of this “teaching” thing, I thought I would try logging the actual hours I work. The “new” teacher works many, many extra hours and experiences a huge learning curve during her first couple of years of teaching. This year, however, I will be teaching the same subject (Algebra Readiness) to the same type of students for the third year in a row. Therefore, most of my lessons have been taught before (at least 10 times, seeing as I teach 5 sections of the same class) and most of my manipulatives, worksheets, and materials have already been created. So, the actual hours I spend working this year should be a little more aligned with teaching, and less with learning how to do my job.

Nate says that teachers work 12 months of 40-hour work weeks in 10 months (or close to it anyway). He has always been in full support of taking the summer off, as most teachers simply need a time to “refresh” for the coming year. Of course, being a teacher is quite different from a “typical” 40-hour/week office job anyway. I have a feeling that if we forced teachers to teach 12 months out of the year, I’m not sure we’d have too many people left standing after a few years!

However, there are people out there who don’t think teachers work as hard as the “average joe,” and that they really don’t deserve to have the summers off (of course, none of us get paid during the summer, so technically, we’re not taking the summer “off,” we’re unemployed!). But is it really true? Does a good teacher really work as many hours in 10 months as the “average joe” does in a year? Or are teachers getting paid to do less work? This, my friends, is what I want to know! Therefore, I shall log all of the hours I spend actively “working” this year. Starting today:

  • Aug. 17~2 hours
  • Aug. 20~1 hour
  • Aug. 24~ 5 hours
  • Aug. 25~1.5 hours
  • Aug. 27~2 hours
  • Aug. 29~9.5 hours
  • Aug. 30~9.5 hours
  • Aug. 31~10 hours
  • Sept. 3~3 hours
  • Sept. 4~9 hours
  • Sept. 5~10 hours
  • Sept. 6~10 hours
  • Sept. 7~8 hours
  • Sept. 9~1 hour
  • Sept. 10~10 hours
  • Sept. 11~12 hours
  • Sept. 12~10 hours
  • Sept. 13~9.5 hours
  • Sept. 14~11.5 hours
  • Sept. 16~2 hours
  • Sept. 17~9.5 hours

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