Angela Watson's Truth For Teachers

The job of a teacher is not designed to be completed within 40 hours a week. It’s assumed that teachers will provide additional labor by coming in early, staying late, and bringing work home on a regular basis….all without compensation. So, how can we change this norm? One way is to amplify the work of teachers who have resisted that pressure to be the last person out of the building each evening, and who are willing to talk openly about how they have streamlined and reduced extraneous expectations. You can hear this in a secondary teacher’s story in episode 250 (about lesson planning), in episode 256 from four different educators, and now in this elementary teacher’s story. To be clear: you may not be able to work exactly your contractual hours (depending on your personal teaching context and workload. This does NOT mean you’re doing something wrong: it means systemic change is needed. A realistic goal for you might be to reduce the amount of time you spend working on nights and weekends as a starting point.