Dear All,
Next week are midterms, and I'm frantic - I need grades! So, I'm grading. That's one thing that flies - time.
One day I'll talk about the mathematical formula for teaching. Actually, it's not a formula. I just added up the hours a first-year teacher works, on average, and it came up to, well, maybe I should put it here. I think I shall declare an official "Revere a Teacher" day in honour of all teachers around the globe who are involved in one of the hardest jobs there could be.
For one, teaching is not predictable. For another, it is never predictable. And for another, it is rarely predictable. I wonder if I got my point across. I am getting so used to asking for feedback, I just may slip some in my writing one day ... so if I write, "predictable... now what does predictable mean? Look at the context of the sentence, do you have any clues? What could it mean" ... if I do that, you will have a glimpse of my classroom, and, if you get a flash of insight as to why my students sleep in class, besides staying up all hours, please do let me know.
Back to my point. My mathematical problem: and indeed it is.
5 classes x 5 days x 1 hr of prep time each class = 25 hrs
5 classes x 5 days x 1 hr of grading time each class = 25 hrs
5 classes x 5 days x 1 hr of teaching time each class = 25 hrs
correct me if I'm wrong, I am rather sleepy as I write this, and "rather" is an understatement (what do you think understatement means?)... :|
If you've added them up, and I assume you did even before you read all my sentences, that calculates to a rough average of 75 hrs a week. How many hours are there in a week anyway? That's where my Sundays go! Now I know.
Another thing that flies - away that is - and that is energy. Even my students are asking for energy during prayer request time. That is sad. I tell them they're too young to get so tired, but what does that make me? It makes me wonder at least.
And yet another thing that flies - or, well I wish could and would, is myself! This picture was taken at the tea plantation / zoo area and one day we will merge it with another picture of one of us pushing another teacher out of the other side, and we will photoshop a scary background in there. But why am I telling you this? I'll spoil it! That's another thing that I have discovered takes wings and flies, and that is common sense and memory, when you lack sleep.
So good night, and until next time,
- R
Aaaaaaa, you look like Mary Poppins, about to take off! There are 144 hours of working time in a week, total, and that includes sleeping and eating time. So if you're spending 75 hours on class (and knowing you, it's probably higher than that!), it leaves you with an average of 11.5 hours a day to sleep, eat, walk to and from class, etc. Whereas the person who works a 40 hour week has 17.3 hours each day to do those things. I'm SORRY!!! Hopefully the grading part will get easier (hmmmm, maybe try prepping for class in class? oops, you're the teacher, never mind!)
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