To elementary school teachers...?

Question

I have two questions for you: (1) About how much time outside of the classroom do you spend preparing for class and grading papers? (2) What, in your experience, are the biggest challenges of teaching this grade level?

Answer 1

1. One of my rules is to not take work home so I spend a lot of time in my classroom every week - about 60 hours a week. If I subtract the hours with my students (32.5 hours) then I spend about 27.5 hours working in my classroom on lessons, grading, other prep, etc every week.

2. The toughest part of teaching my grade levels (4th and 5th grade) are meeting the educational needs of all my students while still covering the mass amount of required state standards whether they are developmentally appropriate for my kids or not (the politicians say they are but we all know better). This often makes teaching fast and superficial as opposed to being able to delve into subjects, reaching a more complete understanding.

Another big challenge is working with parents that don't want to take part in their child's education. The teacher, parent and student are a team that works together to help the child achieve at his or her best academically and socially. Any part of that team fails and the whole team fails. It's very frustrating to be held accountable for the childs performance in school when there are so many factors at home that I have no control over.

Answer 2

I'll address part two first: I taught third grade for nine years and the lingering impression I share with anyone who asks is that the school day is HUGELY social and discipline and classroom organization is the biggest talent and skill that a teacher can possess. Here's what I mean: Imagine that there were only ONE child in your class. How long would it take to address the standards and via the daily curriculum? (meaning you've constructed a day's lessons and didn't accelerate the instruction- because the district actually heavy-handedly sends you "road maps" of where you should be, roughly, on a given day) An hour and a half? Two hours at the most? Yet daily instructional minutes total somewhere near five hours.

The biggest challenge is maximizing instructional minutes to meet the needs of every child.

Part 1 of the question: I used to say that my day didn't really start until the kids went home. Delivering instruction is the easy part.

Answer 3

I teach Kindergarten. Before school starts I can spend up to 12 to 15 hours getting ready for school to start. Once school has started I spend about an hour getting ready for the next day. The biggest challenge of my job is ensuring I go to my classroom each day excited and ready to start the day with a clean slate. I also need to make sure I treat each child the same. No matter if I like them or not!

Answer 4

I spend almost as much time out of the classroom as I do in the classroom. Grading papers, staff meetings after school, lesson plans....etc. Which grade level would you be talking about? A fifth grade class is certainly different from a first grade class. Keeping all of them interested in what they are learning. Going out of your way to look up things on the internet to make it all come together in a different way for them. To teach small children you must be creative. It will help them to learn. You can't just give them a bunch of facts and expect them to remember them. And practice, practice, practice what they have learned so that as you continue to build on it they don't lose anything. I wouldn't have any other job in the world:)

Answer 5

I spend approximately two or three hours a day after school working outside of the classroom and all summer! PATIENCE!!! is the biggest challenge and coming in a close second is dealing with parents!

Answer 6

I would say once you're experienced, maybe 1-2 hours extra a day. Of course certain times of the year are busier. The biggest challenge is classroom management. It's unreal how much management goes into every second of the day with little ones.

Answer 7

1.) I would say on an average 1 to 2 hours, but I try very hard not to bring work home with me!

2.) Well, I am a special education teacher for k-5th and I think the biggest challenge is getting the parents and the teachers to work together. And keeping communication with the parents consistent and clear, they are really the key to helping your students becoming successful! But I absolutely love it!

Answer 8

I have five years experience and have started teaching in kinder(3yrs), 1st grade (1yr) and 2nd grade (1year).
Preparing for class:This year my fellow coworkers (2nd grade teachers) we are working together to help each other with the planning. We get it done by Friday. We use up our conference time to write the lesson plan, homework sheet, and make copies for the following week. 40minutes a day.
Grading papers are a pain. I do spend time after school at school and home grading papers. The key is to get them done at school. 1hour after school.
The greatest challenge since I started teaching is teaching our students Character Traits- Respect, Self-Control, Loyalty... We have a great curriculum KEYSTONE that we rarely have time for to teach our students these citizenship traits. There are very few students that have these traits (thanks to their upbringing). They need them to be successful human beings.

Answer 9

It depends on the grade level. Higher grades require more grading of homework and papers at home, but less work when you are there. I teach kindergarten and there is no take-home work, but I work my butt off when I am there.

Biggest challenge: staying healthy and not getting sick. Also, giving up your personal space and hearing your name 105 times a day.

Answer 10

1) I work to the rule and do nothing outside of class.

2) How to maintain discipline without being allowed to paddle.