Having had a chance to experience elementary school for 30 years and then high school for 5, I will take high school any day. The differences are incredible. High school during exams that is all you do and if you have a day or part of a day when you are not teaching you do not have to stay in school. That is why I have time today to post on the blog. I do not have exams until Monday when I start for three intense days. If I were in elementary, there would be no time off and the teaching loads are very different. The first issue is that you do not teach more than 175 students. I often had over 400 students and I taught everyone, there was no choice on the part of students or me.
Teaching load in terms of classes is very different as well. High school, you have a period off and this period is 70 minutes and a lunch, elementary you were lucky if you had a period off each day and it would not be 70 minutes. Lunch was not 70 minutes and sometimes you had lunch duty. All of this a challenge. Band, choir and any other groups are not part of the teaching load in elementary, in high school they count as part of the teaching load.
The report cards are also an issue. I completed two classes in about 10 minutes. In elementary it would take about an hour at least and generally more. Why are they not using the same systems, it does not make sense.
If elementary understood the differences, I am not sure that people would be so eager to teach the young. It can be fun but the loads are not equitable.
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