Hey! What are you doing this summer? You working?

Yea. Full-time. No pay.

Here's what is "expected" of me this summer... (a.k.a. work that I have no choice about doing or not, even though I am not on a summer-salaried job):

* The school ordered a new two sets of class novels, one for grade eight, one for grade seven.
Assignment: slowly and critically read the novels, marking the margins with commentary, create units on the novels, anticipatory sets for the novels, supplementary activities for the novels, chapter quizzes and final tests for the novels, make keys for all of the activities, sets, tests, quizzes on the novels.

* The school needs to prove its curriculum accreditation.
Assignment: put together a list of all the writing assignments that are done throughout 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, write your own example "key" of each, create rubrics for each, prove that writing on each of the 5 levels of intensity is done in each grade level.
Assignment: get together with the elementary and high-school teachers to match up what they require with your requirements so that students build their writing skills over the course of their entire education
Assignment: after meeting together, revamp and re-do what you have assigned for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades concerning writing

* You have been assigned an additional course, "Yearbook", for the following school year.
Assigment: read over the course outline, plan out the calendar of due dates, work with the yearbook publishing company to network out prices, figure out how on earth you drag a yearbook into a year long course???

* Keep your teaching license up to date so that it is "legal" for you to be a teacher again the following fall.
Assignment: take a five credit course with a final paper at the end proving your integration of skills into your curricula; this follows hours of videos, tests, and papers on curriculum-planning

* Next year you will be teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade grammar, reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
Assignment: go through three ENTIRE textbooks and create keys, supplemental activities, teach yourself the material so you are ready to teach the students the material, create tests, quizzes, worksheets, keys for all of these, AND find a way to incorporate "fun!" activities for each of the levels of "Communicative and Language Arts."

* Some students earned failing grades in your classes, so you need to put together a summer curriculum for each individual student so that they can "pass" the summer term and move on to the next grade level.
Assignment: figure out each child's areas of weakness, communicate with parents to get work to them and from them to grade over the summer, "write out" lessons that you would be speaking/lecturing to the children during the school year

* Every year you notice what worked and what didn't work in the classroom for that year.
Assignment: go through every activity, test, lesson, whatever, etcetera, that you completed in each grade for that year and analyze what could be improved and what went great. re-write your lessons, re-write your worksheets, re-write your tests, re-write your rubrics, re-write your keys, and re-do what you could have done better.



How can you expect teachers to get a summer job when they have a summer job? A required-but-not-noticed job? An under-the-table-don't-know-about-it-unless-you-wedded-a-teacher job? An unpaid, unappreciated, important-to-the-future-generations-of-our-Nation job?

That's right. NOW try and tell me teachers have it slack-easy in the summer.

I don't say all of this to complain. I love my job and would do this for volunteer work ANYday! But people need to understand that "time off" and "summer vacation" as a teacher is not the summer vacation they knew in their childhood as a student in-between school sessions. Teachers don't get paid enough.

And teachers do not simply work 9 of 12 months of the year. Sorry, guys. You've been mistaken.