Do you actyaully know any teachers who have the summer off? (bluestateguy)

[TexasCop]

Preface....this "intellectual elite" really FUBAR'd the word "actually", not me.....

bluestateguy (1000+ posts)             Fri Mar-04-11 12:49 AM
Original message
Do you actyaully know any teachers who have the summer off?
   

 
I can say that I only knew one, and that was because she had a rich husband and she had otherwise already earned her stripes in the profession.

Every other teacher I have known continues working in the summer in one or a combination of the following jobs: community college instructor, coaching a sport, tutoring, teaching driver's ed, teaching summer school, teaching SAT or ACT prep courses, taking graduate level courses to earn a Masters or postgraduate degree, attending teaching conferences, and working on peer reviewed publications for professional educational journals.

This crock about teachers getting the summer off is about 99% bullshit.  

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x554229

Yeah.....my wife.  We've been married for almost 18 years and she has taken EVERY summer off.  I make it on a COP salary....not a rich man's take.  99% bullshit, huh?  Perhaps in your make-believe world.  
 
Do these DUmbasses actually research anything before they post it???  

[Celtic Rose]

Whether or not teachers decide to work on there vacation is irrelevant.  The fact of the matter is that their salary is based on a shortened work year, which is closer to 9 months "in the office" once vacation is taken in to account.  So, they get their salary, and then they have the opportunity to spend two months a year working in a different job to increase their annual salary.  And I'm supposed to feel sorry for them?    I wish I had two months a year to go back to school, work in a different job, or travel. 

And yes, I do know teachers who take the summer off, and no, they aren't wealthy. 

[TexasCop]

My wife has never said she is underpaid.  She always says, "I get 2 months off in the summer, a week off in the spring and two weeks off around Christmas....what other career does that???"
 
She makes $54k a year.  If you count the time she gets off in the year, she believes she's doing pretty well.  She's not like these idiots in Wisconsin claiming to be grossly underpaid.

[diesel driver]

My brother.  He's teaches the Auto Mechanics classes at the Vocational School and is an assistant football coach.

Uses his time off to bale hay for his cattle.

[Karin]

My mom always took the summer, and so does my sister. 

attending teaching conferences

  There's a whole lot of partying going on at those things.  Trust me.

At any rate, it's interesting the different POV at play here.  DUmmy thinks in terms of liesure time.  We know that this 2 months off is an opportunity to make some extra cash, without being burdened by your main job.  My German teacher made a ton off of construction work each summer. 

[Rebel]

Yes, every single one of'em except the ones that get a part time job out of convenience to save a little more money. My neighbor and buddy worked at Academy Sports last summer just to get a little extra money. He didn't get the job out of necessity.

[NHSparky]

A couple of my neighbors were in education--he was a teacher at Huntington Beach HS where he also doubled as the surf team coach (yes, Virginia, there IS a high school surf team) and she was the principal at A.B. Whitney HS in Cerritos (and still is).  Both brilliant, but both made a good chunk of coin as well.

[MrsSmith]

My husband teaches online classes during the summer, and takes classes himself.  He also teaches a couple killer intersession classes, a semester packed into 2 weeks. 

On the other hand, except for the 2 week period, he sleeps late all summer, travels to visit family, and constantly complains because I can't just take 2 months off myself.   

The only other teacher I've known well took the summer off every year, and went home to Mom and Dad to help on the farm...and eat Mom's cooking.   

[thundley4]

I know some teachers extend their school year by teaching summer school to help students that may have failed classes. They get paid extra for it, though.

[BlueStateSaint]

A pretty, young 2nd grade teacher living a floor below me spent her first summer as a teacher by coaching girls' basketball and going to Saratoga Race Course.  So, she wasn't working the whole time.  That music teacher I've referred to works at a local Target in the summer months.  So, there's both sides of the coin there.

[Airwolf]

I have family and friends that teach here and in other parts of the state and they get the summer off. last year one of my nephews thats a teacher had to paint houses for some money and for something to do.

[ReaganForRushmore]

I have two sisters and brother that were teachers. The sisters married professionals, one married a CPA who has an audit firm, the second, married a pipeline engineer. They both use their summers to recharge
and reformulate class material and educate themselves to be current. They loved teaching and it showed with their students. Oh, they worked for piss poor school districts that the most they made based on their years of service was $36,000. They used books that were out of print, chalk boards instead of over heads,
and took very little crap from students. They told their students that they had better pay attention because
it was going to be fast and furious....and the kids loved the challenge.

The brother made a fortune in holding summer camps for football, basketball and baseball. It was his choosing. He called it his retirement plan. I guess it worked. He's retired to holding full time sports camps.

[diesel driver]

A couple of my neighbors were in education--he was a teacher at Huntington Beach HS where he also doubled as the surf team coach (yes, Virginia, there IS a high school surf team) and she was the principal at A.B. Whitney HS in Cerritos (and still is).  Both brilliant, but both made a good chunk of coin as well.

California high schools also had motocross teams back in the 70's.

Here, in Virginia, we had Gary Bailey.   

[seahorse513]

Preface....this "intellectual elite" really FUBAR'd the word "actually", not me.....

 

Yeah.....my wife.  We've been married for almost 18 years and she has taken EVERY summer off.  I make it on a COP salary....not a rich man's take.  99% bullshit, huh?  Perhaps in your make-believe world.  
 
Do these DUmbasses actually research anything before they post it???  

It's up to the person that teaches. Taking a second job in the summer is optional. Some do it for extra money, some like to do some traveling, some like to recharge. Some like to do something constructive with their time off. It is always good to have a backup job, just in case....either way nothing is wrong with either....

[jtyangel]

Whether or not teachers decide to work on there vacation is irrelevant.  The fact of the matter is that their salary is based on a shortened work year, which is closer to 9 months "in the office" once vacation is taken in to account.  So, they get their salary, and then they have the opportunity to spend two months a year working in a different job to increase their annual salary.  And I'm supposed to feel sorry for them?    I wish I had two months a year to go back to school, work in a different job, or travel. 

And yes, I do know teachers who take the summer off, and no, they aren't wealthy. 

Exactly! Those that work during the summer CHOOSE to work during the summer at professional development, hobbies, another job, or to spend time with their families. The rest of us poor slobs gotta do all that AND work during the summer in order to keep our jobs! I'll cry them a river when they outlay the 1500 I just paid for summer camp for my two youngest that still leaves me 4 weeks short of the 11 week break the teachers have. My income doesn't go up over the summer compared with the rest of the year either so while a teacher can go and BOOST their income by a couple grand or use what I just paid on summer camp for a family vacation, my standard income goes down and my kids lose some of what they learned during the summer. Yeah, I feel real sorry for the teachers.

[TexasCop]

Yep, my wife CHOOSES not to work during the summer.  She enjoys the time with our kids.  Most of the teachers we know make the same choice.  We only know a handful that work during the summer.

[jtyangel]

Yep, my wife CHOOSES not to work during the summer.  She enjoys the time with our kids.  Most of the teachers we know make the same choice.  We only know a handful that work during the summer.

And I totally don't begrudge what teachers do with their summers off, but it's, as you know, the DU idiots who try to insinuate that their optional choices are required when the rest of us have no optional summer choices. It's this outrageous comment at DU that really chaps my hide. Most teachers I know, would never insinuate they are underpaid(especially after years of tenure at their districts) or that they HAVE to do anything over the summer(with the exception of required professional development every couple of years). I have a couple of my kid's old teachers on facebook and I don't see any one of them not enjoying their summertime however they CHOOSE to use that time. I don't see a bunch of professional adults forced to do anything when I see summer or breaktime status updates there.  It's not begrudged them, but unlike the DU comment not a one of them behaves ungrateful for the benefits their chosen profession offers them or pretends liek said benefits don't exist.