Teachers vs Students: Who works more?

Question

I want to be a teacher when I grow up, but I honestly think that many teachers tend to be unfair (not that I blame them for having to be). Does anyone think that teachers are unfair considering that students are learning 6-7 subjects at once, have class all day with a quick lunch, and then have homework. Teachers can basically do all of their work in school if they wanted to considering they don't even have to teach the full day start to finish (I apologize if any do have to, I know in my school I work 8 out of 9 periods while teachers only teach 5 out of 9). And then, we are encouraged to take on extra curricular activities and other things. Really, who has it worse?

**My desire to be a teacher is not based on what I think about it being easier, I was just curious of what others thought.

***In regards to me being a dim wit...
-I am up on a normal night until 12-1 finishing homework from 3 honors classes and an AP course, and luckily i have tonight off pretty much.
-I get to school at 7:25 and stay through 5 most of the time to do school work and extracurricular
-Clearly, I am in courses too.
-I may not attend staff meetings but I have about 3 meetings to attend per week as a class officer, student council representative, and chemistry olympics member.
-I am going to college next year to do the same thing, however I would never consider my students dim wits just because they are misinformed on something and ASKING on a forum to learn.

Answer 1

After being both a student, and now a teacher I believe that the teachers work more. Instead of doing homework for which we are "taught" or given resources for the answers, we must prepare lesson plans that target all students and their learning styles. We must figure out ways to reach our students who are extremely gifted as well as the students who have no desire to be in our class what so ever. We must incorporate learning procedures to reach students who are visual learners, auditory learners (they need to hear things to remember) or kinesthetic learners (they need to do something hands on to remember/retain information).
We must also create a lesson that grabs the attention of ALL our students and that is no easy task seeing as how there are 30 different students all with different personalities and completley different upbringings in the same class.
Yes, teachers do only teach a portion of the day... I teach all day with the exception of one 1/2 hour prep, and a 1/2 hour lunch (which is usually spent working) so you can see that it is really just as much as students, if not more.
Teachers are also "on the spot" all day. You can't really decide to just take a break or go sit at your desk and take it easy for a while (unless you're a not so great teacher). You are constantly in front of a class ready to teach, answer quesions and observe what is going on with all students.
Lastly, our day doesn't end at 3 o'clock (or whatever time school ends). I am constantly on the phone with parents, meeting with students to help tutor them, helping out with my own extra curricular activity or attending meetings... not just weekly staff meetings but also meetings with parents/principal/psychologist to discuss a child who has a learning dissabiltiy or just conferences with parents who are concerned or just like to chat.
I absolutley love teaching and would not choose any other job than this. However, I am working harder now than ever before and I was a crazy person in college who even took 29 credits in one semester. I know what it's like to work hard, but this is a entierly different type of difficulty than I've ever had to experience.
Good luck as you decide what career path to pursue. Teaching is SO rewarding and defintley worth all the work!!!

Answer 2

I can't speak for all teachers, but here's my schedule for today (by the way, I teach at a university in Asia):

Arrive at school 8:30 and do final preparation for my morning classes.
9:00 - 11:00 teach two writing class
11:00 - 11:30 eat lunch at my desk
11:30 - 1:00 lesson plan
1:00 - 3:00 teach two oral skills classes
4:00 - 5:00 participate in an after school activity with students
5:00 - 6:00 take the train home
6:00 - 6:30 take a shower and get changed
6:30 - 7:30 say "hi" to my wife and eat dinner
7:30 - 8:30 lesson plan and mark papers
8:30 - 9:30 watch TV
9:30 - 10:00 read a book, then go to sleep

Next morning: get up at 6:30 and do it again

Once a week I attend a general lunchtime meeting with other staff.
Once a week I have a meeting to discuss curriculum development (and work on that for a few hours on the weekend).

Not a terribly nasty schedule, but sometimes I work even more - it keeps me busy enough.
I do envy people in other professions that don't always have to take their work home with them.

I'd say teachers and students both have to work pretty hard.

Answer 3

As a music teacher, I definately think that I work more than the average student. A regular music teacher often has to prepare and teach 5 or 6 different classes a day, in addition to having to correct any work we assign (which can be more than you think). We do extracurricular ensembles as well, usually at least a jazz band and a show choir. We give sectionals and lessons. In the spring or fall, we at least help with the school musical or play. On top of that, we have to keep up with the most current methodology in our field, which can mean several hours of reading and research, as well as practicing our own primary instruments, piano, conducting, and other instruments that we might need to demonstrate to a class. Other teachers do similar amounts of work, especially in subjects where there is a lot of grading to be done, as well as creating lessons and testing experiments and activities. In this sense, teaching is the equivalent of two full-time jobs.

This is in contrast to the average student, who may do 6 or 7 hours of school a day, followed by a few hours of homework (if they put effort into it) and one or two extracurricular activities (which don't really count, because teachers do those too on top of all the other stuff that they are required to do). You may have a heavier than normal workload on account of things that you do to excell in school, but the average student is not going to do nearly as much as a teacher. Just think: The entirety of your work that you hand in must be corrected by a teacher multiplied by a hundred (conservative estimate). When this is correcting essays or papers, and giving insightful comments, this can take days. I kid you not.

Answer 4

A teacher's work isn't only in the classroom. Lessons needs planning, that takes time, there are meetings to attend, administrative work to do, then there's the marking of test paper and essays and homework, most times these are taken home to be finished as there is not enough time during the school hours. New technology has to be learned (computer, digital videos etc).
Then as an adult, a teacher also has a family to look after, their own hobbies, all these must be crammed and squeezed into the few hours not dedicated to school.

Answer 5

As a former teacher who was once a student, I have to admit the job of the student is more rigorous than the role of the teacher. They may both put in the same number of hours, if you consider that teachers do plan lessons, grade papers and prepare for class outside of school hours. What makes a difference is that the teacher controls the schedule.

I advise students at the college level to expect to spend three hours outside of class for every hour in class. Some need less time, others need more, but that is a good estimate.

Answer 6

Teachers were once students, too. They already went through school and college and sometimes graduate school. They had to do the same things that you are doing now...

When you are a teacher, you have a lot of other things to do other than grading papers. They have to deal with problem students, annoying parents, faculty meetings and obligations, family obligations, etc. They also have to fill out paperwork like your report cards, progress reports, and your notes to parents.

Some teachers are in charge of the extracurricular activities and some do the afterschool help programs or detention.

Out of all the jobs that my friends and family members have, I think that teachers have the most take-home work. What do your parents do? How much time do they spend after they get home from work doing "homework?" Think of it that way. Compare teachers to other professionals. They cannot be compared to students...

Answer 7

If you want to be a teacher because you think it is easier than being a student I strongly suggest that you consider another profession. It may not seem like it to you but if your teachers are doing the job the way it needs to be done they are putting in a lot more time than you can imagine. No, you cannot get all of you work done at school. You really don't know what the job entails.

Answer 8

Yes!!!!!! Absolutely...I totally agree....I DO NOT think it's fair that we're in school for a MASSIVE long period of time and then..come home 2 do more work concerning school...I'm n my senior year and I just wanna quit skool....ASAP! It's like now that I've got accepted to a college I feel like I'm done..I've done the hard part...so why still strive to be of the best??? No ONE CAREs nemore!!! However, I know I can not because too much is riding on my education...I have 2 many family members that'll be dissappointed n me...HELL!! I'll b disappointd n myself....I want 2 b rich....I want 2 much!! (lq2m)...COLLEGE is what I've been doing all this homework, classwork, projects, etc. for...so I MUST GO!!! I dunnoo...Imma still do what I gotta do....my best....I mean that's all I can do neway...right??

Answer 9

Teachers vs. Students is a poor way to think about the relationship; indeed, the main reason good instructors are often so demanding is that they work very hard to help their students learn a subject and hopefully find some enjoyment from it. High school (and beyond) isn't a boxing match, with the teachers in one corner and the students in the other, the school bell literally ringing when someone get's knocked out. I understand that high school is demanding for a dedicated student. However, college will be more demanding.. and rest assured, your instructors are working every bit as hard if not harder than you. You complain about having extracurriculars.. I dream about the days when I had time for them! I'm not saying you are lazy at all, only that your perspective is not yet complete because there are too many parts of other people's lives that remain "hidden".

I think you're trying to compare apples to oranges. I once thought like you did, that teachers work from 8 - 3 and then it's all over. Then I started teaching. Oh, it wasn't so bad when I was a substitute teacher; I worked 7 - 3! I showed up, reviewed lesson plans before school, used the break periods (that'd be your 10 minutes in the hallway and lunchtime) to get "ready" for each coming hour... and left a pile of papers for the regular teacher at the end of the day. All that "work" that I didn't have to do would have added 3 or 4 hours to my day.

Then I went back to graduate school, and while maintaining a full-time courseload AND doing my graduate research, I began to teach university-level courses. My first experience teaching wasn't as a TA, it was as an instructor. I had a syllabus to plan, lectures to prepare, quizzes to post online, exams to write, assignments to grade, labs to plan, materials to order, weekly demonstrations to practice.. it all added up pretty fast. My students would typically come in and listen to lecture (hopefully attentively) three hours a week, then go home and do their homework. If they followed my advice, they spent 9 hours a week on studying/homework for my class. I spent 9 hours a week just preparing for lectures, not counting the other duties involved with teaching, because I had to carefully read through the material, consider how best to convey the messages students needed while anticipating their biggest problems, prepare my overheads and find images and examples outside the textbook that would best help the students understand the concepts.

And I fell flat on my face regularly. If student evaluations of teachers were grades, my class gave me a B- that first time. Why? I was just learning to communicate with my students. In the subsequent years, I've lectured many classes and taught and designed labs. I still find it a struggle. Just to do the work involved with teaching a 2-credit laboratory this semester, I find myself routinely working 20-30 hours. I'm expected to understand the lab thoroughly, regardless of whether I have any experience with that particular experiment, obtain training on instruments that I've not used or infrequently used, prepare all solutions for my students (not just mixing them, but often performing time-consuming and exact calibrations), obtain all lab materials, make sure equipment is in running order prior to lab, develop teaching materials, and grade lab notebooks written by people who've never had to keep accurate records. I have to be available for questions, and for some reason my 2 hours of "office hours" each week aren't enough, and I have a constant stream some days of students coming in "just for a moment", a continual barrage of interruptions when I have research to do as well. I'm glad they come to me with their questions, but if even 5 people come in with questions that take 10 minutes, I've spent 50 minutes answering questions in a day!

All in all, I'd have to say that although I was a bright and dedicated student, I never worked so hard as when I took up sharing my education by teaching.

Answer 10

Teachers, Teachers have worked Years before you were born. Then they work all Summer planning,gathering materials
for lessons. training, work shops. doing lesson plans and so on..... Not only do they teach,reteach and teach again. Make tests, grade test, record test scores. and teach again, Then there are the parent conferences, after school meetings. Many have various duties such as hall monitoring, bus duties,cafeteria duties, playground duties. and so on ..... It might appear easy but it's not. You add it up.By the way did you know that teachers have been right there where you are sitting in those long classes period after period? Remember when you go home we are still there working. When you get there we are working.