Ben Taylor

Ed 2500

February 9th, 2016

Journal #3
After discussing the working reality of a teacher with my assigned
practicum teacher, the realities of how much a teacher works became
clearer. Teachers often tend to work long into the evenings, whether it be
marking, lesson planning, or prepping materials for following exercises. Often
these tasks are carried into the weekend, when teachers are technically off
of work, and much of the teachers summer holidays are devoted to lesson
planning.
After this discussion with my teacher, a few concerns came to mind for
the issues with time management. The first of which being whether or not I
would be able to coach any school sports during my first few years of
teaching. From my conversation with my teacher I understood that the first
few years of a teachers job are the busiest because they have to start their
lesson plans, classroom arrangement, and material gathering from scratch,
whereas an experienced teacher may need to slightly adjust lessons, and
already has a grasp of how to get the most out of their classroom. If the first
few years are as busy as they sound it may mean Id have to hold back on
coaching fulltime until the workload is more manageable.
The second question I had was to what extent does the profession
effect the task of raising a family? As someone who hopes to someday start a
family, I have wondered how much the teaching load takes away from
spending time with a family, especially during the early years of a childs life
when the child requires the most time. I know that if I were to need it I could
apply for maternity leave if that was the best option for a family, but I
wonder how the process of the maternity leave works, and what long term
effects it has on a teacher.