>>And here in Ontario, they have maybe the best pension and benefits plan of any career in the country. That's not a dig. They have it due to some of the smartest investing anyone has ever seen.
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>>I have a friend who was a teacher and he gets very angry when he hears teachers complaining about how they have to work late marking papers etc. When he taught, he used his off periods, or dead time in class to do that stuff and never had a problem. Most of the teachers, according to him, spent their off periods hanging out in the teachers' lounge doing nothing productive at all.
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>>So add to your list, lots of time off to waste during a normal day.
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>I don't know about lots of time. Keep in mind that for much of the day, the teacher must stay in the classroom and if he needs the bathroom, too bad--gotta wait for the end of the period. Teachers mostly don't have telephones to the outside world on their desks.
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>I'm related to a few teachers and know a lot of more. I've done some college-level teaching myself. I'd say that a teacher who can get all his grading and planning done in his free periods and so-called "dead time" (I assume that's when students are doing problems or something) may not be doing the best job in the classroom. Rote work can be graded quickly, but student work involving creative thought takes a lot longer. In addition, so-called free periods are generally also intended for meeting with students, calling parents, meeting with colleagues, etc., etc.
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>Tamar

Unfortunately, what they're intended for and what they're used for may be two very different things. I'll buy the 'meeting with colleagues' part of it. Of course, things may have changed since he quit teaching. They may have changed dramatically since I was in high school too, but if so, I haven't heard about the changes. When I was in school, for example, we had a math teacher who would come into the class, scribble a bunch of problems on the board, and disappear to the teachers lounge for a smoke break that usually lasted for most of the rest of the period. The big pool at the time was to bet on how little time he would spend in the classroom.

Then there was the English Lit teacher who'd put on a record of some Shakespeare play, stand up the folding record cover on her desk, and fall asleep behind it.

Free periods spent in the teachers' lounge don't lend themselves very well to meeting with students. Do your teachers in your public schools have to remain in a classroom during free periods?