Teaching is no easy job.
If you work in education you’ve most likely heard the usual snide remarks from people who work in other sectors, like..,”you only work part time”, “look at all the holidays you get”
If only these people know. We had a visit from someone quite high up, many years ago, who referred to us as “Glorified Babysitters.” Glorified babysitters. At first, we were so insulted. Then I sat there and thought, ok, if we are ‘babysitters’ – pay us like them! So, let’s do some sums.. these are rough estimates of course.
The average wage of a teacher in the UK is between £23,000 – £27,000. In the US the average is around $43,000. But this differs a lot through different states, years of service etc.
Now, the average wage of a babysitter is around £8-10 an hour, or $13 in the US per child.
In my school we average 7 students in our autism confined classrooms. And around 15 in our special education confined classrooms.
Let’s price it up..
First, let’s price up the 7 students.
7 students x £8 = £56 an hour. We typically work 30 hours a week with our students for 39 weeks of the year. So, £56 x 30 = £1680, £1680 x 39 = £65,520.
Then, let’s price up the 15 students.
15 students x £8 = £120. £120 x 30 = £3600. £3600 x 39 = £140,400
Now, I don’t know about you. But if they’re going to call us ‘Glorified Babysitters’ – I’ll happy take that in exchange for a babysitters wage!
These people have no idea what we do. The time, patience, energy, devotion and love that goes into our work.
Honestly, teaching assistants don’t get the recognition that they deserve. In many of our schools, if the teachers go on strike, the school can still open and be run by our teaching assistants. But, if the teaching assistants go on strike – the school closes. What does that tell you? And this is not against teachers. You speak to any teacher, and 99% of them love their assistants. And they will tell you that they couldn’t do their job without them.
A lot of people think working in a school is lovely and we play all day. But the reality is, we’re not just teachers. We are;social workers, therapists, confidence boosters, nurses, counsellors, police officers, dentists, librarians, custodians, decorators, dieticians.
When your child starts school, we comfort them. If they’re missing home and their family, we help them to settle. We build relationships with them. And, we get to know them on a personal level. We work hard to gain their trust. Treating them as we would treat our own children. We help them write their name, and to read. And we push them to achieve the best they can. But above all, we believe in every one of our students.
But, what do teachers do?
You may think that we only work 9-3.30 for 39 weeks of the year. But, the reality is, we’re at our school from 7/8am, prepping for the day. We’re getting everything ready. And we’re setting up activities that provide so much engagement and fun for your children.
When we wave goodbye to our students at 3.30, we go back to our classrooms and we start to tidy up. We put everything back the way it was, we go through our planning for the next day. Then, we reflect on the day for what went well, what needs changing. We prep for any meetings we have coming up – and note we don’t get paid for any extra time.
When we go shopping, we’re looking for stuff we can use in our classroom. For stuff that our students will like. We buy items to decorate our classroom with, how to make it more fun and homely for our students.
We spend hours looking on the internet for fun activities. Especially those fun science videos/experiments you see on Facebook and Pinterest. Did you find us on Facebook?
Don’t worry, we’re not on there to socialise. Around 80% of our posts are tagging our teacher friends in ideas. Usually for what we can use in our classroom, sharing what’s happening in other schools. When we go to bed at night, we’re already planning for what’s happening the next day. Those 13 weeks holiday we have a year? It’s spent; planning, making resources, setting targets, making displays for our classroom. Actually, you’ll find some of us in our classrooms setting up through our holidays.
I’m not saying this for you to feel sorry for teachers – we don’t want that. We do all this because we love our jobs, we love our students and we want the best opportunities for them.
So, why can’t we get paid the amount that warrants us being able to work just our one job. Without having to find side jobs. Can you imagine doing all that? Getting home to your own family and then having to go to another job? They say 1 in 5 teachers have a second job. Although I’m not sure if that’s accurate and if it’s more or less than this. But I think 1 in 1 teacher is too many to have a second job. Don’t get me wrong, some teachers like having a second job, especially tutoring after school. Once you’ve been in this position for a few years, your planning and resource making times will lessen. This is because you have a lot of that already done. So, you do get some evenings, weekends and holidays back. A lot of this comes with experience and years of devotion.
They say 1 in 5 teachers have a second job, although I’m not sure if that’s accurate and if it’s more or less than this. But I think 1 in 1 teacher is too many to have a second job.
Don’t get me wrong, some teachers like having a second job. Especially tutoring after school. And once you’ve been in this position for a few years, your planning and resource making times will lessen. This is because you have a lot of that already done. So, you do get some evenings, weekends and holidays back. A lot of this comes with experience and years of devotion.
But, if you’re a teacher who is really struggling for money each month, there’s a few things you can look at doing ..
- Tutoring – although, please check your contract. You may not be able to tutor students in your school. But, you should be ok to tutor students from other schools.
- Babysitting – many parents just feel that bit more comfortable having a teacher babysit for them. Many of them might be friends – especially through school holidays who are in work.
- Sell your lesson plans/resources.
- Blogging – many bloggers actually get sent free things to show to their followers. This could get you some great stuff for your classroom. I don’t do this, so I’m not sure of all the logistics. But, I’m sure a quick google search will probably get you what you need.
- Go through your things – can you sell anything? Us teachers can be hoarders.
- Are you creative? Good at drawing? Give it a go and designing and selling your own clipart.
- Tutor online – I’ve seen many great reports about websites like VIPKID. Many teachers find easier to find into their lifestyle routine and they are earning some great side money from this.
- Get paid to shop – have you seen those mystery shoppers? They’re usually looking for new people to sign up. And us teachers are great at writing up reports, so it’s a great fit for us.
- Be a guide for local tour guides or museum tours. We are a wealth of knowledge and are usually natural public speakers.
- Open an Etsy shop – many teachers are naturally creative and make the most beautiful things. So, why not make some up and give it a go selling them?
- There’s also many websites now where teachers can write articles on different subjects and get paid for them!
- And of course, direct selling jobs. There’s a huge variety of different direct selling jobs now. You can find out lots of information about them online – or even on facebook groups. Be sure to find out what’s already in your area. Look for something new and exciting that you can bring to your area.
So, what do you think about teachers or education professionals having to work 2 jobs? Do you work 2 jobs? How does it make you feel? I’d love to hear from you.
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