TEACHERS: what does your daily schedule look like?

HS Science Teacher + XC/Track Assistant Coach

5:30-Wake up

6:30-2:15 School

2:30-5:30 Practice (I usually run with the kids, then add on some mileage after if I want to do more)

7-9ish Prep/Grading about 3x a week

10 Bed

It's definitely hard to seriously train during the seasons I coach. Missing school for meets adds to the prep work, but you're getting home much later so it's more challenging to find the time for that. If you're not coaching though, it's not hard to find the time in the evenings to put in the miles.

mine:

wake up 6 am, drive to work

teach till 3 pm

drive home

grade and lesson plans till 7 pm

phone calls to parents of delinquent kids until 9 pm

drink heavily till 3 am

cry myself to sleep

quit, find new job

6 wake up

7-3 teach

3-5 coach or run

6 dinner

7-9 grade/lesson plan (time spent varies every night)

10-11pm go to bed

I admit that I got it good. I teach PE and coach xc & track. My main responsibilities and time go into coaching. They have me teach a few classes to justify my salary. I make 65k which is about 10-40k less than most teachers in my area but I got a good gig that is essentially mostly being a coach so I am ok with that.

Wake at 7 am.

Morning Practice 7:30-8:30

Break 8:30-10:30. I run for up to an hour. Do coaching stuff after I shower (we have one in our office).

Teach 10:30- 2 pm.

Coach 3-6.

Go Home

wake up at 5 a.m

arrive at school at around 6-6:30

first class at 7:30

school is out at 3:15

planning, grading, tutoring from 3:15-5

arrive home at 5:30

eat dinner, watch TV, unwind until 7

7-9 plan, grade, get ready for next day

9-10 check emails, facebook, surf internet.

go to bed by 11

I teach 3 levels of Spanish so I must prepare 3 different lessons every day. I also advice a club, and use my weekends to work on my Masters/run/socialize/go to church

PMS Teacher wrote:

6 wake up

7-3 teach

3-5 coach or run

6 dinner

7-9 grade/lesson plan (time spent varies every night)

10-11pm go to bed

This is about accurate for me.

everyone really wakes up at 4 or 5am and go to bed at 9pm?

somehow I doubt this.

I wake up at 7am and think that's early.

asdfe wrote:

[quote]the clarifier wrote:

That's because most of this is done during the plan period once you're past your first few years of teaching.

Yes. It's so easy to evaluate and comment on 200 essays in ninety minutes.

Every time graduation requirements change or a school adopts a new evaluation model, old stuff goes out the window.

Other reactions and random thoughts:

As for those days off: furlough days are becoming more common. Teachers are expected to teach full curriculums with as many as ten semester days off. You do the math.

43 in AP or IB classes is common.

Anecdotally: teachers are spending more time dealing with parents than they have in the past. Worst part of this is a growing trend toward student feelings (supported by parents) of entitlement.

As in any occupation, one can point to "bad" members of the professional community. It is sad that many choose to malign the profession based on bad information or poor personal work habits.

I will second the statement of either be a competiive runner or a coach, both doesn't work.

In all honesty your first years you will be tired from the job. Teaching is not physically demanding, but it will drain you.

I have been teaching for over 2 decades, and still manage about 40 to 50 miles a week. I used to do doubles, but now seem to need the sleep more than the run.

4:45 AM - Wake up

5:00 AM - morning run w/ girlfriend

7:15 AM - arrive at work

7:45 AM-2:40 PM - teach

3:00 PM - leave work

3:30 PM - afternoon run

5:30 PM - girlfriend arrives home from work, we eat dinner, walk dog, hang out, etc.

9:00 PM - go to bed

I teach seventh grade English, so I do not have as many papers to grade as a high school teacher. My planning period is right before my lunch break, and I work through lunch, so I have a solid hour and fifteen minute block in the middle of the day to grade and plan. I don't coach either, so that saves me a ton of time.

I would agree that you need to make a serious choice between working and training to Race well or working and Coaching and just running for general fitness. While the additional cash from coaching can be tempting, I personally would put off getting into coaching until I was done with my serious running goals.

I was a head coach for 10 years and during that time I was never able to get to where I wanted to be running wise. I found it frustrating that I would start to approach good fitness just as the season was starting. Then it became too challenging to training at a high level and devote time to coaching a successful team.

My last two years I groomed an assistant to take my place and I politely stepped down after an undefeated season and a third consecutive Conference championship. I felt I left the team in good hands and was not abandoning them.

I was able to have 4 really good years of running after that, but I try not to regret the lost decade.

HS Math teacher/Cross country coach - private school

I'm a 2:26 marathoner and average 90-100 mpw. I don't know how some of you wake up at 4:30 or 5:00 to run - I apparently don't have as much motivation.

We have classes from 8:00-3:05, but we have a rotating schedule where our classes meet at a different time each day. Because of that I don't start teaching until 9:00 one day each week, 10:00 on another day, and I finish at 1:05 on another day.

This allows me to run two weekday doubles each week without waking up super early. I can also do a long run or long workout before practice during my free afternoon. I run with my team during practice and usually run after practice too.

Because I choose to spend my free classes running, I have to take a lot of work home with me and usually do schoolwork from 7or8-10 each night.

At my last school, I taught 8-3 without any breaks. I only ran one double a week (maybe) because I have a hard time getting up really early in the morning. I ran with the cross country and track kids while I was coaching and ran on my own when out of season. I didn't run as much back then, but had plenty of time to average 55 mpw.

You know, starting today my schedule looks like this:

9:00am - wake up

9:01am - start doing whatever I want to do

11:00pm - crash on the couch

F y'all. I earned it... my schedule looked very different than this for the past 9 1/2 months.

I teach a real class, not PE or Social Studies.

Typically, I am up around 6.

Arrive at school between 7:30 and 8.

Classes begin a little after 8

Teach 5 classes with a half hour lunch and a 45 minute planning period

Classes end a little after 3. Coach from end of school til 5 or 5:30, during the season.

Evenings are family or me time, with preparing for the next day and getting in a run

Let me tell you that if you are looking to teach for the easy schedule or just to be able to coach, pick another profession. Only teach if you have a (masochistic?)desire to help kids be their best. There are far too many that teach for the other perks and do not really like kids.

mid career teacher wrote:

You know, starting today my schedule looks like this:

9:00am - wake up

9:01am - start doing whatever I want to do

11:00pm - crash on the couch

F y'all. I earned it... my schedule looked very different than this for the past 9 1/2 months.

I hear ya!

I'm a teacher, there's no way all these folks spend 2 hours per night doing extra school prep. Not on a regular basis.

I'm not saying teaching is easy, but a lot of people on here are trying to make it look like they work harder than they do.

Mtn Dew wrote:

I'm a teacher, there's no way all these folks spend 2 hours per night doing extra school prep. Not on a regular basis.

I'm not saying teaching is easy, but a lot of people on here are trying to make it look like they work harder than they do.

I teach at a school with many low income children who require a lot of extra help. I spend usually 1-2 hours every evening preparing for the next day. My schedule in the fall and spring are different. In the fall,

7:30 Arrive at school

8:30-3:00 Teach

3:00-3:30 return/send emails to parents, conference, etc.

3:30-4:00 commute home

4:00-4:30 take out dog, start laundry, etc

5:00-6:00 run

7:00-9:00 prepare for next day, eat dinner

9:00-9:30 shower

10:00 bed

2 evenings/week I attend grad. school 5-8, so obviously my schedule is different on those days.

Spring

5:30 wake up

7:00 tutor Math or English in order to prepare for state tests

8:30-3:00 Teach

3:00-4:30 more tutoring

5:00 arrive home

6:00 run

7-9 prepare for next day

9-10 watch tv, shower, etc.

10 - bed

late riser wrote:

everyone really wakes up at 4 or 5am and go to bed at 9pm?

somehow I doubt this.

I wake up at 7am and think that's early.

I wish I didn't have to get up so early, but there isn't much of a choice if I want to be well prepared for class. We start class at 7:10 each morning. Since I coach immediately after school to coach, any work that has to be done at the school that I didn't finish during my prep (setting up labs, running copies, etc.) has to be done in the morning before the buses drop students off at 6:50.

mtndew - for what its worth, most of the teachers have not said 2hrs prep each night. I prep for about an hour before school, and then using my planning periods to plan. With the push for more formative assessments, long term planning is pretty much out the window.