Student Astounded: Teacher Does Not Get Summer Break!!

This post should have a tag on it called JoDee’s Tiny Rants.

Before the end of the semester I had a student ask me in passing what I was going to be doing with my free time this summer. I told him (with a tiny laugh) that I would be teaching. He looked at me shocked and then proceeded to ask why I just didn’t take the summer off?

So why don’t I take the summer off?  I mean I could just lay around all day eating chili cheese fries by the pool that I have at my gigantic mansion overlooking the ocean.  Maybe I should be spending my summer traipsing around Europe looking for just the right door handle to buy for my front doors. After all isn’t that what all teachers do?

I do not take the summer off because if I do not work then I do not get paid. If I do not get paid I cannot afford to live. This is a fact that most of the general population does not understand. A lot of people think that teachers during the summer get paid to do nothing. As far as I know in order for a teacher to get paid during the summer they have a two choices:

Have your pay for the normal teaching year divided up in such a way that you will see money in the summer.

Teach during the summer or get a different summer job.

If anyone knows any other legal ways of getting paid during the summer that does not involve a rich relative with hand outs let me know.

Sometimes I do not get a teaching job during the summer. If that happens it does not mean I get my summer to pursue navel lint excavation. There is still work that has to be done for the fall and I am pretty sure my K-12 friends understand this but I do not think most of the general public understand this. Therefore, general public here is a partial list of what teachers do during the summer pro bono:

• Professional Development
• Learn or Create New Curriculum
• New assessments and programs to go through.
• Creation of new lessons.
• Plan for the upcoming year.

I am pretty sure that no other job has their employees take a mandatory almost 3 month lay off and they are still expected to do work.

Moral of the story: Do not ask me or any teacher why we do not just take the summer off. I guarantee if we did you would be yelling that the education you are receiving was substandard.

  Featured Image Hermosa Beach by SameerKhan