This Is What a Teacher Does

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1. William Berkson says:

   April 2, 2022 at 6:14 pm

   This seems to be the lady in the video: http://www.katiepeters.org

   Reply
2. Joel says:

   April 2, 2022 at 6:20 pm

   Okay I doubt any teacher did that all in a day or most days . Perhaps in a week which would still say a lot about most of those who go into the profession. A profession that has been under appreciated and under assault by ignoramuses and elites for a long time. .

   Reply
   • Laura Taylor says:

     April 2, 2022 at 6:30 pm

     And, this kind of response is exactly why teachers feel the way they do. Why in the world would you doubt her? SMH

     Reply
     • Joel says:

       April 2, 2022 at 7:55 pm

       Laura Taylor

       Very touchy and I thought I was being complementary.

       So lets look at what she did during the school day.
       1) She helped a kid find safe housing .
       2) She found a winter coat to wear for a child that did not have one.
       3) Located a back pack that was missing for another child
       4) Secured another computer that we assume was missing from the back pack .
       5) Gave cash to one student (very nice)
       6) Made sure that a different student had meals for the weekend.
       7) Listened to a story about a puppy .
       8) Dealt with a student with cramps.
       9) Provided comfort for another who had their first break up.
       10) Repaired a project for another child.
       All in the 6 hour regular school day.

       Now as a supervisor for 35 years I might have been tempted to ask whether my employee had time to do any of their assigned work during
       the day. After all it would seem if she spent 4 hrs creating lesson plans each night that is an awful lot teaching that is on top of all of this social work.

       But I guess we don’t have to “Wait For Superman” any longer because we just found Wonder Woman .

       Now keep in mind the overall tone of my comment was an acknowledgement that teachers are under appreciated and under assault. Just call me a little skeptical about the video representing a typical day.

     • gitapik says:

       April 3, 2022 at 9:59 am

       I had a LOT of days like this, Joel.

       I retired on 1/2/20. It was, at first, very difficult for me, as I was used to doing so many different and important things during the day. Both teaching academics and helping people in so many different ways. Students, teachers, and admins.Then lesson planning at night.

       But I’ve since gotten the hang of retirement. And I’m subbing.

       I went into teaching at age 40. People I knew at my corporate job sneered and said I was going to join the ranks of the slackers. Summers off was a big point they’d bring up on a consistent basis.

       Teachers aren’t politicians who are pandering for a vote. Beyond a shame that we’re treated with such distrust and disregard.

     • April says:

       April 4, 2022 at 12:57 pm

       I applaud this dear lady and all the teachers who work so hard during, before, and after school. Let us not forget the other staff she might have referred these students to: the school nurse, counselor, cafeteria staff, school secretary, principal staff, family resource worker, and perhaps other students. Don’t do it all yourself or you will burn out. You are a team.

     • dianeravitch says:

       April 4, 2022 at 2:08 pm

       April, well said!

   • John Martin says:

     April 2, 2022 at 6:38 pm

     don’t doubt it. My wife does that

     Reply
     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 2, 2022 at 10:35 pm

       My response as well. Common, this.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 2, 2022 at 10:36 pm

       And it’s equally common for administrators to be clueless about the myriad things that their teachers did during the day.

   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 2, 2022 at 10:35 pm

     Joel, I’ve had days very like this. I think that EVERY good teacher has. That there were so many good deeds in this day is probably what prompted the creation of the video. I do not doubt for a moment what she says here. As I say, been there, done that, seen it time and again from colleagues. And four hours of lesson planning in an evening is not unusual. I OFTEN did this. Doing research. Preparing a Powerpoint or handouts or tests. She doesn’t claim to have done this EVERY night, but it’s quite common, especially for those of us who refused to teach from the terrible textbooks were were handed. I have Gigabytes worth of lesson plan materials on my computer from my last few years of teaching.

     Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 2, 2022 at 10:37 pm

     How long, Joel, do you think it took me to create this:

     Film

     Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 2, 2022 at 10:38 pm

     or this:

     Thirty-Four Suggestions for Composing the Frame

     Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 2, 2022 at 10:39 pm

     Or this:

     Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Notes Introducing a Debate Unit on Transformative Technologies

     Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 2, 2022 at 10:39 pm

     Doesn’t happen in ten minutes after dinner, that’s for sure.

     Reply
     • Joel says:

       April 3, 2022 at 10:12 am

       Bob Shepherd

       Bob I acknowledged that teachers are under appreciated for what they do. My point was that this was an inspirational video and a little bit over the top. Laura took it as an assault on teachers which it was not intended to be. You yourself acknowledge in your responses as much. . Certainly good teachers do not spend only ten minutes after dinner . Neither do they work 60 hour weeks every week . Nor do they preform social work daily . Yes ,teachers may have days like that. I doubt they are typical .

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 10:44 am

       Joel, my school day started at 8:30 and ended at 3:45. I typically arrived at school at 7:15 each morning because I had to list on my white boards, for EACH of my FIVE preps, the Essential Question, Vocabulary, Higher-Order Thinking Skill Questions, Standard(s) Covered, Bellwork, Assessment(s), Exit Activity, and Homework, in addition to doing any photocopying necessary for the day’s classes (handouts, tests). The school day ended at 3:45. Then, I would have half an hour of carline duty, followed by meetings with whatever students I was coaching for an extracurricular. This doesn’t include IEP and 504 meetings, which generally took place after school, and meetings with individual students for coaching, again after school. So, at least ten hours a day, in addition to getting to and from work. So, that’s a baseline of 50 hours BEFORE adding lesson planning and grading. So, 60 hours a week was typical.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 11:12 am

       Other required after-school activities: department meetings after school (each about an hour) every two weeks and all-faculty meetings once a month (again for about an hour after school). And then we would have afterschool test prep sessions prior to testing season. And in-service trainings on a slew of topics. And all this was on top of required professional development online. 300 credits for required ESOL certification, including 120 during the first year, for all English teachers and endless hours during the first year for TIP (teacher induction plan documentation) and IPDP (individual professional development plans) every year. All this was on top of preparing 3-page lesson plans (required) for EACH CLASS to be taught the following week. These lesson plans had to be submitted by email AND to be photocopied and available at any time for inspection in the classroom. That, alone, took at least 5 and often as much as 8 hours every weekend.

       As an upper-level executive in publishing houses, I typically worked 55 hours or so per week, but I had to work FAR MORE as a teacher just to meet the minimum requirements. And administrators would continually act as though all we teachers had was free time. We were continually getting memos asking us to do something in addition: Make a list of all computer equipment in your classroom, with model and serial numbers, and submit this by Monday. Make sure to update your bulletin boards and word walls and data walls for inspections that will take place during the coming month!

       I have barely scratched the surface. A complete list of the required extra-classroom work for teachers would run for pages.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 11:15 am

       So, during the school year, I basically slept and worked.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 11:16 am

       It was ridiculous. Like some sort of absurdist dystopian play.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 11:27 am

       Not to mention maintaining a teacher website for each class with all assignments posted there, onboarding all students and parents onto those websites, and entering all grades into both a paper gradebook and into the online grade reporting system. I could go on. I’ve barely started listing all the time-consuming requirements. Insane.

     • Joel says:

       April 3, 2022 at 7:31 pm

       Bob Shepherd

       Judging by the frequency of your comments here and your devotion to sourcing and detail, I am certain that you were above average. Certain that there are many dedicated teachers who also put in long hours. I also feel that many teachers are probably under compensated for their level of education as compared to other educated workers.

       But that said here is what I found to be a fair minded research article on the subject.

       https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/06/12/do-teachers-work-long-hours/

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 7:38 pm

       Joel, all teachers at my school worked under these requirements.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 8:38 pm

       The American Time Use Survey on this this “data” is based is extremely flawed, as it depends on telephone surveys (how much time did you spend working yesterday?) that are extremely unlikely to yield the sort of accurate information about time on task that would be revealed by, say, wearing a monitor that beeped on occasion and required the user to report the current activity. Here’s why I think those numbers utter BS, Joel. First. the average school day in the US is 6.64 hours, or 33.2 hours per week. So let’s add some extremely conservative figures to this. 1.5 hours a week for grading. 4 hours per week for lesson planning. Half an hour per week on average for department meetings. A third of an hour per week for faculty meetings and trainings. 1/2 hour per week answering emails from parents, students, and administrators. 1/2 hour per week posting grades and other materials online. OK. That’s already 40.53 hours, and we have not even started to add extracurriculars/coaching, parent nights and other special events, paperwork such as IEP and 504 forms, professional development and additional education required for ongoing certification, after or before school tutoring, event chaperoning, after and before school meetings with parents and administrators, classroom decoration, preparation of data walls and word walls and other required postings, and a lot of other stuff that I’m probably not thinking of right now.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 8:40 pm

       If I had a nickel for every time I’ve received an email from an administrator that started with some variation of, “We’d like you to take a little time to______,” without any freaking consideration of the extreme time requirement already in place, I could buy a MIG to send to Ukraine with my own money.

     • Bob Shepherd says:

       April 3, 2022 at 10:48 pm

       So, here’s an example of the incessant mandates. In my last year of school, we were informed at the beginning of the year that we had to take roll in each class and record absences in our grade books. No big deal. Standard stuff. In addition, in homeroom, we had to list absences on a sheet of paper and send these to the office. So, a few weeks in, we were informed that in addition to this, we had, after school, to confirm the absences by signing (and making any necessary additions and deletions) an absences list that would be posted in the teacher’s mail room. Then, a few weeks later, we were told that we had, in addition to taking roll and recording absences in our grade books for each period, to post these absences to a website. Then, at the end of each marking period, we had to turn in the grade books with the absences marked. But, in addition to that, we had to record the absences for each student, based on what was in our gradebook, on bubble sheets. I typically had about 190 students, so this took hours. Then, we were to turn in the gradebook and the absence bubble sheets. So, we would record or confirm the exact same information FIVE separate times. Why? Because whether we were wasting OUR time was of ZERO concern to administration.

   • Lenny Rothbart says:

     April 3, 2022 at 1:57 pm

     So that’s what a “back-handed compliment” is!🤔🙄

     Reply
   • Jillian Caci says:

     April 3, 2022 at 2:20 pm

     Unless you are currently teaching (which I strongly doubt from the doubling down in your replies), you need to suspend your disbelief and amend your skeptical tone. This is a normal day for me and for many, many teachers, especially those of us in under-resourced districts and high poverty districts. These are only a sampling of the things we do in the course of of doing everything else. I used to waitress, and I feel I’m right back there trying to grab plates from one table on the way back from taking the order of another table and refilling a coffee at a third table. We called it saving our steps back in the day. You, and anyone else not currently in a classroom, have no idea what most of us are dealing with, which is exactly why she needed to make this video. Yes, planning takes that long now, since we have to do everything twice to make sure we are ready to “pivot” to remote instruction at the drop of a hat. Your sarcastic reference to Wonder Woman is inappropriate and disappointing and not worthy of a teacher or a reader of this blog.

     Reply
3. sallyo57 says:

   April 2, 2022 at 6:25 pm

   She’s a motivational speaker – and teacher of course. She is on Twitter @kpintoledo and has a website. http://www.katiepeters.org/

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     April 2, 2022 at 7:12 pm

     You are right. It’s Katie Peters.
     https://www.today.com/parents/parents/teacher-shares-classroom-viral-video-rcna13516

     Reply
4. David Schultz says:

   April 2, 2022 at 6:53 pm

   This looks to be her TicToc address. https://www.tiktok.com/@kpintoledo?lang=en Thank you for thanking her, Diane. 🙂

   Reply
5. leftcoastteacher says:

   April 2, 2022 at 7:40 pm

   Thank you.

   Reply
6. James Young says:

   April 2, 2022 at 8:08 pm

   Greetings!   Thanks for recognizing what teachers do from day to day.  I am a fifty-year educator.

   Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 2, 2022 at 10:28 pm

     Welcome, James! And thank you for your service!

     Reply
7. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   April 2, 2022 at 9:45 pm

   I taught for thirty years 1975-2005. Before that, I was a US Marine, fought in Vietnam, and went to college with assistance from the GI Bill (I still had to work part time jobs and take out $7k in student loans).

   I was 15 when I started my first job working after high school and weekends washing dishes at a major department store coffee shop. The Marines and Vietnam followed high school

   After earning my BA, I worked in corporate America in middle management for a few years.

   Then I went back to school to earn a teaching credential and ended up in the classroom where i stayed thirty years working harder than I had ever done in my life. I taught about 200+ students a day in five to six classes 25 hours a week but worked a total of 60 to 100 hours, never less than 60 hours every week for thirty years.

   Weekends and holidays were not days off. They were catch-up days. Catch up correcting student work. Catch up calling parents, Catch up planning lessons, et al.

   Even summers were not vacation time because I didn’t earn enough as a teacher to survive without working during those 10 weeks off during the summers when I wasn’t paid by the school district.

   So, I taught summer school, did landscaping, and worked other part time jobs. For a few years, during the school year, i also worked nights and weekends as a maître d in a restaurant-night club. I was still teaching and working 60 to 100 hours a week on that job and working 30 hours a week in the part time job. There were many days during those
   years where I survived on 3 to 5 hours a sleep a night.

   In 2005, when I retired from teaching my first thought as I drove off campus for the last time, was, if somehow the teacher’s retirement program went bankrupt, I’d rather volunteer to strap explosives’ on my body and martyr myself by blowing up some terrorists than return to a US public school classroom and teach. NEVER AGAIN!

   The US Marines was easier. Combat was easier. Being shot at didn’t stress me like teaching did. But I’m too old at 76+ to return to the Marines and combat if I had to get a job again to survive.

   Teaching was the hardest, most stressful, most demanding job I ever had during the 45 years I worked from age 15 to 60. The only part of teaching I enjoyed was working with my students. The rest of it was crap: the useless high stakes rank and punish tests, the filthy lying politicians (may they all rot in hell for eternity), the lousy pay, the endless blame games, the demands, and even most of the management.

   I haven’t had the privilege of running into some fool that thinks and says to my face that teaching isn’t a job. You know the ignorant, dumb-ass idiots that say, “If you can’t do anything right and keep a job, teach.”

   If that happens to me before I die, I might have a violent flashback from my Marine Corps days in boot camp and Vietnam and dismember that moron, starting with their eyes and tongue and then working my way down to their toes.

   Reply
   • dianeravitch says:

     April 2, 2022 at 9:51 pm

     Lloyd, I think you are serious.

     Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 3, 2022 at 12:08 am

     Lloyd, first, thank you for your service. Second, didn’t work anything as hard as a high-level publishing executive as I did as a teacher, and I thought that that management job was stressful and demanding. I had no idea. Teaching today is just nuts. Takes really special people who can put up with a lot of bs, rise above it, and go on because of the importance of the job.

     Reply
8. Montana teacher says:

   April 3, 2022 at 12:04 am

   Great to hear her explain these loving actions we do every day! A nice treat after getting home having spent ten hours in my classroom on a Saturday in order to give students the best environment, lessons, experiences, and personal feedback that I can.

   Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 3, 2022 at 12:08 am

     xoxoxoxox!

     Reply
     • Montana teacher says:

       April 4, 2022 at 2:40 am

       Thanks, Bob!

9. valeriepientka1211 says:

   April 3, 2022 at 6:44 am

   “It’s always going to beat your ugly” will go down in my book as one of the best teacher lines I have heard in 41 years in education. Blessings on all teachers during this difficult time in history.

   Reply
   • Bob Shepherd says:

     April 3, 2022 at 10:11 am

     yes!

     Reply
10. mrscolacchio says:

    April 3, 2022 at 8:36 am

    I have never responded here before, but this video and the comments have prompted me to express how thankful I am to teach alongside people like those who have responded above.

    My “free” periods are spent listening to and responding to the 20 LGBTQ+ students who eat lunch in my classroom because they do not feel safe anywhere else in the school.

    Teaching them content is easy, helping students with life is the hard part of teaching.

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      April 3, 2022 at 8:51 am

      Thank you for responding, Mrs. Colacchio. Have your students discussed the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill? What was their reaction?

      Reply
      • mrscolacchio says:

        April 3, 2022 at 10:20 am

        My students have responded by saying the word “gay” as often as they possibly can:) In all seriousness, I think that it has made them grateful to live in New York. Other students may mock them and they feel feel alienated at times, but at least our elected representatives have not attempted to erase their existence.

        The Board of Education in two nearby districts have banned the book, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, so it is just a matter of time before we have to fight this in our district.

        Thank you for the work you do and for listening to teachers. I am not burned out, but I am heartbroken.

      • dianeravitch says:

        April 3, 2022 at 11:51 am

        Thank you.

    • Bob Shepherd says:

      April 3, 2022 at 8:48 pm

      Thank you so much, Ms. Colacchio, for the work that you do!!!! No compromise, no relenting, until every person is free to be who he, she, they are! Blessings to you and your students!

      Reply
11. retired teacher says:

    April 3, 2022 at 8:53 am

    “Nobody gets motivated by ugly.” But that’s the point. Those that want to destroy public education seek to demoralize the teachers so they will quit. It is all part of a bigger scheme to privatize public education.

    Reply
12. Martha Borkowski says:

    April 3, 2022 at 9:14 am

    You nailed it! The truth of what you described brought me to tears. Two of my lovely,caring daughters live this reality each work day with grace and strength. But they are very tiired. Thank you for shining a light on the situation 📚

    Reply
13. Mamie Krupczak Allegretti says:

    April 3, 2022 at 9:42 am

    Good morning Diane and everyone,
    Stories like these always kind of get to me because I’ve been there. Anytime a person is burned out, demoralized and ready to quit his/her job, something is wrong. It’s not just that something is wrong with the way the institution is run (which there are many), but there can also be something wrong with the way the person is approaching the job. Many teachers have what I call “Mamma bird syndrome.” They spend they time driving themselves into the ground giving and giving until they are exhausted. People commend them for outstanding work but inside they are tired and resentful. If you want to be a teacher, it doesn’t seem that the craziness of the institution is going to change anytime soon. So if you really want to teach, you have to find ways to protect yourself, conserve and pace your energy, and lead a balanced life. There are 3 rules to live by: 1. let go, 2. learn to say “no,” and 3. prioritize what you value. What I am really getting at here is learning to create boundaries for yourself. Let go of things and situations over which you have no control and are not in your job description. Sure, there are days when you may be able to do more, but monitor yourself and your energy. Learn the boundaries of your energy and then decide what you are willing to give. Learn to say no to extra duties and requests. Prioritize what you value. If you value excellent lesson plans, put your energy into that. But know that if you try to do it all, something will give and it will most likely be your health – mental and/or physical. Your school day ends at a certain time. Keep to that time. If you have to work at home, set a boundary of say 45 minutes. You need to remember that this is a job and you need to have a life outside of school. It sounds hard-nosed to say that, but it is the truth. If they had their way, the school district would want you to work 24/7. So it’s up to you, the teacher, to set boundaries. Teacher duties have increased over time because teachers have accepted them. But think about it. Would you ask your doctor or lawyer to do things that were outside his or her job? We now want teachers to be parents, friends, therapists, mentors, counselors, mental health experts, financial helpers, etc. to students. So, I’m not saying that teachers should never go above and beyond at times but when fatigue, resentment and a desire to flee show up, something in yourself needs to change. I think these are the biggest lessons young teachers (and even old) have to learn.

    Reply
    • RageAgainstThe Edumeddlers says:

      April 3, 2022 at 10:23 am

      Best comment I’ve read here in a very long time.

      Great teachers rarely spread themselves too thin or spend time self-promoting.

      Reply
    • Bob Shepherd says:

      April 3, 2022 at 10:24 am

      Good advice! Seriously.

      I used to give myself this advice and then promptly ignore it, alas.

      Reply
      • Montana teacher says:

        April 4, 2022 at 2:47 am

        Me too. Hard to set boundaries when six of my students have committed suicide. I will do nearly anything to help my students and prevent more of this tragic loss of life.

      • Bob Shepherd says:

        April 4, 2022 at 3:13 am

        !!!!

    • dianeravitch says:

      April 3, 2022 at 11:41 am

      Thank you, Mamie, for your sage advice.

      Reply
    • Bob Shepherd says:

      April 4, 2022 at 2:57 pm

      So wise, Mamie!

      Reply
14. RageAgainstThe Edumeddlers says:

    April 3, 2022 at 10:52 am

    Totally off topic but well worth a close read:

    From
    The Atlantic

    The SAT Isn’t What’s Unfair

    MIT brings back a test that, despite its reputation, helps low-income students in an inequitable society.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/mit-admissions-reinstates-sat-act-tests/629455/

    Reply
15. leonie haimson says:

    April 3, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    She was on the today show here: https://www.today.com/parents/parents/teacher-shares-classroom-viral-video-rcna13516

    Reply
16. Kadee Anstadt says:

    April 3, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    We are the lucky ones to have her and hundreds of other dedicated teachers pouring into the lives of our kids! And for the commenter who doubted her…I am her superintendent. This is a very typical day for KP.

    Reply
    • dianeravitch says:

      April 3, 2022 at 6:56 pm

      Kadee,

      Katie’s enthusiasm is contagious!

      Diane

      Reply
    • Bob Shepherd says:

      April 3, 2022 at 8:50 pm

      Thank you, Ms. Anstadt!!!

      Reply

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