If I may cut into this conversation...I'd like to say that here in
California the conditions for elementary teachers are very similar to those
described by Philip as far as hours per day. But I'd also like to add that
in many districts, including those that have union contracts, teachers are
forced to lose one break period per day (that'sthe only time we can go to
the bathroom!) to do yard duty (supervise the kids' recess) I believe that
federal labor law still mandates one ten minute rest break for every two
hours worked, so we don't even get that.
Class size: After twenty years of underfunding public education due to
property and corporate tax cuts, California has a budget surplus, and so
K-2 class size was just cut to 20:1 last year, in some districts K-3. But
many districts have not had enough classrooms to accomodate this class size
reduction (underfunding = no new construction for many years), so it has
been implemented very unevenly from district to district, with more
advantages for higher-SES districts in my area, at least. But in 4-6
grade, the typical class size is 32, and in my district that means we must
accept up to 34 if more kids register in September or afterward. Also, at
the beginning of each year several districts have a "grace period" on class
size, until they can "prove" to the district bureaucracy that the extra
kids are there to stay, and that more teachers must be hired. So usually I
have to carry 36-38 kids in a room designed for about 30 from the beginning
of Sept. until about Oct 15. This has been my own and colleagues'
experience over the past 15 years in several urban districts in Northern
California
Pete Farruggio
Oakland, CA
>Thanks very much Philip. Just one more question, what's the typical class
>size in your district? Thanks!
>Angel
>
>At 02:47 PM 1/25/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>
>> Hi, Angel - an interesting question you have here:
>>
>>On Sun, 25 Jan 1998, Angel Lin wrote:
>>
>>> A high school teacher typically teaches about 5 lessons (each 40 minutes
>>> long) a day, 5 days a week. Usually a teacher teaches 3 or more classes,
>>> each has 38-43 students. The no. of subjects taught can vary from 2 to 5.
>>> The teacher's duties also include taking care of extra-curricular
>>> activities, talking to parents, doing individual counselling with students
>>> who have emotional or academic problems. Also, a language teacher has a
>>> heavy marking load (Ss are required by the school (a usual practice) to do
>>> weekly compositions and teachers' marking is also usually monitored by
>>> school administrative personnel.
>>> Teachers do not have any assistants; they do everything including
>>> photocopying worksheets and handouts, registering students' marks on mark
>>> sheets... etc.
>>
>> To begin with, it looks as if your high school teacher has a pupil
>>contact time of three hours and twenty minutes a day.
>>
>> I contrast this with elementary school teachers here in Colorado
>>who have pupil contact time of five hours a day. They would also be
>>responsible for teaching 5/6 subjects, or more, depending on the day;
>>i.e., math, reading, writing, spelling, social studies, science, health
>>etc. And of course, they have daily work to assess and grade, as well as
>>the other routine jobs you describe - plus school committee meetings and
>>faculty meetings. Essentially, an elementary teacher's job can be a fifty
>>to sixty hour week, or just forty, depending upon the individual teacher.
>>
>>phillip
>>
>>pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu
>>
>>
>>