Monday, June 4, 2012

How Many Hours Does a Teacher Teach

As an experiment, I decided right before school started this year to start keeping track of the hours I spend on school.  I wrote about this earlier this year to celebrate the half-way point, and I'm writing now to celebrate the end of school.

I will say that results didn't surprise me, and I'll give a basic rundown after I post the chart below.  I am happy to note that I improved as the year progressed--in that I spent less time working on a weekly basis and I made a concentrated effort not to work during breaks so I could be a decent member of my family.




Month



Hours Worked

Normal Salary Hours



Difference


August


290.18


184


106.18


September


258.15


168


90.15


October


230.78


168


62.78


November


188.69


160


28.69


December


127.32


160


-32.68


January


222.61


160


62.61


February


211.69


168


43.69


March


261.12


176


85.12


April


195.36


168


27.36


May


192.23


184


8.23


Total


2178.13


1696


482.13

Overall, I worked around 12 weeks more than I should have worked over these past ten months (that's right, teachers work ten, not nine, months), and of course didn't include anything I got paid separately to do (SATs, one of my professional development opportunities) or random side projects that are education-related but not exactly class or class recruitment-related (i.e. this blog).

The "Normal Salary Hours" represent all the hours someone might be expected to work as a salaried worker during those ten months.  These include spring break, fall break, and winter break hours, all of which have been counted into those totals.  The problem with that comparison, though, is that those are actually not the hours I have been paid to work.  I have been paid to work 188 days, or 1504 hours.  This is clearly stated in my contract, which also lists my daily pay rate and my yearly total pay (which equals my daily pay times 188 days).  Therefore, I have actually worked 674.13 hours more than I was paid to work.

So, what does all of this mean?

From August 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012, I worked 2178.13 hours.

This is 482.13 hours (or 12.05 weeks) more than a normal, salaried, 40 hour week would entail.

It is, moreover, 674.13 hours (or 16.85 weeks) more than I have actually been paid to work.

And, though the hours should only slowly accumulate now that school is out, I'm not done.  There's still June and July.

Amazing.  Again.