What is it exactly that you DO for those 80 plus hours a week?
Why should I bother telling you? Honestly, you know so very little about what goes on in education, you would not understand anyway. But here is my typical week.
I arrive at school at 7 am at the absolute latest every day. Class starts at 8 and I teach until 3pm. That's 40 hours a week right there. I tutor three days a week after school for my students. That's 43 hours. I grade papers for at least 2 hours each day, sometimes staying at school until after 6 pm. We'll be generous and say that I don't stay late on Fridays, so we will add another 8 hours, so we are up to 51. Each night I write my lesson plans and that takes about 2-3 hours because I teach 3 separate classes. Because we have no textbooks, I write SmartBoard presentations, edit worksheets for their classwork/homework, and then make up handouts containing notes and formulas we use. We'll go conservative and add another 10 hours. That's 61 hours. I also have to do a book study for my new teacher orientation classes because I am new to this district, despite having taught 20 years. That's a few hours a week, We'll add three for that so we are up to 64 hours. On Sundays, I have to watch professional development videos to get my required 24 hours in this year, so we'll add another 2 for that. That's a total of 66 hours. Oh, BTW, because my district held their professional development in the summer before I was hired, I paid nearly $200 out of pocket for the video courses that I am using.
I also sell tickets for sports events at school as part of my other assigned duties. I watch the restrooms between classes, which is about the only time I get to use those facilities. I do not have my own classroom because we are building a new school on-site and I am the new kid on the block. I push a cart with all of my instructional materials to 4 different classrooms throughout the day. Our teachers lounge contains two copiers, a refrigerator, a microwave (donated by yours truly) and our mailboxes. There are no chairs or desks. My planning period has me sitting at my desk/cart near an electrical outlet in a hallway so I can use my printer (bought and paid for by yours truly).
That's as a teacher. Now imagine being an administrator and having to supervise all of the after school sports and other activities,
Now, how about those apples?
You knew all that you are whining about the day you decided to teach in a government school.
You made the choice to ignore all of the sacrifices that teachers make, dismissing them as union pawns who don't care about their students. I find your ignorance of reality very disturbing.
You're wrong.
I have great respect for teachers in government schools. I have no respect when they start whining and belly aching about how hard they have it when they KNEW, GOING IN, DAY ONE, what they were signing up to do.
I empathize with them that their job and responsibilities are miles away from what they were fifty years ago. Nonetheless, they know this going in which is why I hold them responsible for doing the same thing expecting a different result.
Primarily the government, teachers unions, and local school districts are responsible for the massive failure.