Are You Sleeping on The Job?
December 2, 2008http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/09/23/tm_sleep.h20.html
It’s the end of the semester; you’re administering final exams, completing progress reports, meeting with parents for conferences, and because you’re an English teacher, reading, revising, and grading papers. With so many educators trying to bustle between work, home, and even educational courses, getting the proper sleep can be a serious issue. According to the reasearches from Ball State University, they report that “43% of teachers say they sleep six hours or less” and “one fourth of educators said that their lack of sleep has effected their teaching skills.” I have my reasons, (I’m averaging roughly about five-six hours per night), what’s yours? Am I tired and sluggish the next workday in my classroom…sometimes! For me, I’m trying to find balance in work and taking Master’s courses at Wayne State University. It is not intentional that I cannot go to bed before twelve midnight; after an eight hour workday plus an additional two-three hour course, homework doesn’t begin until eight or nine o’clock at night. The last thing I care to be is another statistic, but until I’m finished with my State Certification and Master’s degree, I guess I have no choice.
Sleep? Whats that. I have had problems sleeping in the last past year. I cannot find the time to do so anymore. I go to school full time and work at a Sports Grill that turns into a bar at night with a dj. When i get home at 3 in the morning after hearing the music and such for a couple of hours, i am too wired to be getting any sleep. So i can’t sleep at night and i can’t wake up in the morning. When i become a teacher i will be estatic that i could get more than 5 hours of sleep. I believe once i am able to finish school and could get a real job with real “daytime” hours, i will be the happiest person ever.
I liked your article because it speaks to all those people that I hear say teachers have it so easy. They get summers off, and so much vacation time. Ha! People dont realize that a teacher’s job isnt over when the bell rings. There is always work to take home. It isnt like a lot of jobs that you can leave and not think about until the next day. It stays with you. As the daughter of two teachers, I know first hand how time consuming being a teacher can be. My parents always work in the summer. Not only that, but since Sunday is lesson planning day, they really only get 1 day off a week. At the age of 55 my dad got a second job that he worked on the weekends during the school year. Teaching is wonderful and rewarding and I cant imagine doing anything else with my life, but it is by no means a cake walk.
Sleep is for the birds!!! I never realized what limits I could pushmy body to until this year. Here I am working on my Master’s degre and Teacher Certification, taking a full load (with three methods classes) and raising a busy (very, very busy) One year old…oh I forgot to mention that I am married too. I don’t sleep anymore. There is never time. I always have something to do. Right now I am lucky to get four continuous hours a sleep at a time. I actually noticed how much I was staying up the other day when I realized that three days in a row I was just making it to bed as my husband was getting up and ready for work. I think it’s funny though that people think that we (teachers) have it so easy. When I hear people complain about how tired they are — after a full nights rest– I can’t help but to laugh out loud and think to myself ..if only they knew. y=I mean, yeah we get the summers off and school breaks, but that’s because we NEED it. If we didn’t have that time to recuperate, we would seriously lose our minds!!
Sleep is for the birds!!! I never realized what limits I could push my body to until this year. Here I am working on my Master’s degree and Teacher Certification, taking a full load (with three methods classes) and raising a busy (very, very busy) One year old…oh I forgot to mention that I am married too. I don’t sleep anymore. There is never time. I always have something to do. Right now I am lucky to get four continuous hours a sleep at a time. I actually noticed how much I was staying up the other day when I realized that three days in a row I was just making it to bed as my husband was getting up and ready for work. I think it’s funny though that people think that we (teachers) have it so easy. When I hear people complain about how tired they are — after a full nights rest– I can’t help but to laugh out loud and think to myself ..if only they knew. I mean, yeah we get the summers off and school breaks, but that’s because we NEED it. If we didn’t have that time to recuperate, we would seriously lose our minds!!