Teachers, i want to teach but the schedule seems tough. Any advice?

Question

How hard is the first year of teaching? Also, how many hours of sleep do you get? lol

Answer 1

Someone once told me, "if the first year hurts, the second one works."  The first year is tough and it's important to recognize that--but it is totally managable.  You will spend a lot of time planning and creating materials.  If you have good teammates they can share ideas with you and help you out a lot.  But after the first year you become familiar with the curriculum.  You can reuse some lesson plans or modify them.  Even if you don't reuse the same plans, you are familiar enough with the curriculum that you can quickly come up with something that will work (as opposed to spending lots of time developing something that you have no idea will work or not).  It is my 5th year teaching.  I generally work 9-11 hours a day.  I typically do work at home 1-2 nights a week.  I generally get 5-6 hours of sleep a night--but I've always been like that.

Answer 2

The first year is very hard.  You will work harder than you ever have.  That being said, it does get easier.  The second year and so on you can use the same lesson plans you had from last year, just modify them a bit to fit the current class.  I get about 6 hours of sleep per night during the school year.  I work about 11 hours a day.  It's hard, but I love it.

Answer 3

i agree with the others (although my first, second, and third year hurt...year four is finally working!)

just remember that whatever you put in is what your kids get out.  the more practice you have, the better it gets.  the first few years are about you finding out what works and what doesn't work.  

i work from about 7am to 5pm and then take work home.  my husband bugs me to get a summer job, but i tell him that the summer is the time i get to catch up on the lost hours during the school year.  the summer is the reason i won't be retiring after year 5.