Summer break has rolled in for most school districts by now, and students around the country are celebrating. Teachers too, no doubt. After a long year, they deserve to take a beat and get some rest before gearing up for a new crop of students in the fall. But, do teachers really get summers off? The answer may surprise you. Here are some things to keep in mind about teachers and summer vacation.
(Photo Credit: pavlinajane/Flickr)
1. Teachers aren’t compensated for the summer months.
Even the teachers who don’t work in the summer aren’t really on vacation the way some think they are. Teachers are paid, and contracted, for the months that school is open. It’s part of the reason that teachers make less than other professionals. In other words, teachers aren’t enjoying a paid vacation in the summer; instead, they have a job that runs nine months a year.
2. Working in a profession that runs on this kind of schedule is actually pretty inconvenient.
Imagine if your job only ran nine months a year. Now imagine reducing your salary by 25 percent. Would that be enough to live on? Would you take those three months off, or would you need to try to find another job? Most teachers find that they do need to fill their summer hours with other employment, but this isn’t always easy. Finding employment for just three months at a time is tricky – especially when you have to arrange for it during a busy school year.
3. Teachers are expected to further their education and training over the summer.
Most districts require teachers to attend classes, workshops, etc., in order to stay current in their field. Many teachers opt to do at least some of this work over the summer so that it doesn’t take away from their focus on the classroom during the school year.
It’s essential that teachers have some time built into their year where they can dive into their professional development goals. It’s challenging to do a ton of this during the year, so most embrace the chance to dig in over summer.
“I personally enjoy the academic rigor of a course [and] I like learning new things,” says Joe Elorriaga, a special education teacher from New York, at US News. “And then there’s another element that as an NYC DOE teacher, if you acquire 30 or more credits above your master’s degree, you get a pay increase.”
Whether continuing their education comes with a pay increase or not, most teachers feel it is their duty to never stop learning and growing. Many occupy a great deal of their summer hours in pursuit of this goal.
4. An overwhelming majority of teachers work second jobs during the summer.
In order to make ends meet, most teachers DO work during the summer. About half work in the field of education in some capacity, and the rest find something different to do. Some work in the restaurant industry, or do seasonal work like getting a job with a lawn care company or doing house painting. The point is, although teachers do get summers off from their teaching jobs, most can’t afford to stay home during those months. Instead, they work second jobs to supplement their teaching salaries.
5. They have to prepare for next year.
When you’re a kid, you don’t really stop and take the time to consider everything that goes into making the magical world of school happen – but, it take a lot. Coming up with a theme for the year, decorating, organizing, and restructuring the space to meet the needs of the next class, learning new technologies, recording, developing, honing curriculum … so much time and planning is required to make the school year happen. And, teachers do a lot of the prep work over the summer.
So, when you run into your child’s classroom teacher this summer, or when you see your friend who is an educator, please don’t say, “Oh, you’re so lucky you get summers off – must be nice!” Instead, show them that you know there’s a little more to it than that.
Tell Us What You Think
Are you a teacher? How do you spend your summers? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.
Ummmmm, my wife is a 6th grade teacher in Iowa and she gets her summers (for the most part) completely off!!! She draws unemployment for the summer months which is only figured in to be about $100 less each week than what she normally gets paid!!! Not too bad for not having to “basically” do anything for a couple months each and EVERY summer. Plus the multitude of paid holidays and misc days off she gets throughout the school year!!!!!… Read more »
This is completely false in my case. I guess it depends on where you teach. I am a first year teacher in GA and in my district, our salary is divided evenly into 24 payments meaning, I get paid every two weeks including during the summer. I will be relaxing on the beach, stress free and getting paid this summer. Toodles.
this is such a dishonest article. back up your data before writing an article about how teachers live.
I read these with envy, and I will say disbelief. Unemployment and housing allowance? Kind of hard to believe. For most teachers here in Ohio, you sign a contract, and your pay is bases on a scale with increases in seniority, degrees earned, and extra curricular duties earning a higher total amount. That contractual amount which is the same for every teacher with the same years, duties, and degrees will them be divided into 26 equal pays and the pay… Read more »
Not true. I’m a teacher and get paid all through the year, and NOT for nine months distributed into 12 payments. Suggesting otherwise to the teacher below is quite patronising, as you’re suggesting they don’t know their contract. Additionally, I also get a housing allowance that also runs through twelve months of the year. Completely incorrect article that makes sweeping comments. May be true for some teachers… But I’ve yet to meet such a teacher myself and I’ve attended many… Read more »
This is not true. Many teachers are paid throughout the year. I work in NYC and we enjoy a paid summer vacation.
Teachers in Ontario get paid a salary and that is divided up into payments over the whole year. Yes they teach for 9 months, get three weeks of at Christmas, one week in march and another eight to nine weeks in the summer. Any teacher that needs to work a second job to make ends meet is living above their means. Figure the average salary in Canada is $62K and the average teacher salary is $82 or 87K (elementary/secondary). That’s… Read more »
As a teacher who has worked in Alabama and Oregon, I appreciate the perspective of this article. I’ve been teaching for 12 years and have not yet broken through the 50k salary ceiling, despite often earning praise for my teaching practices. I would much rather earn a livable wage (in Portland, OR) than have my summers off. I work second jobs during my summer, go to a conference for a week, and plan for the next year because my curriculum… Read more »
This is a lie! In NYC we get paid ALL YEAR ROUND! Even Paraprofessionals get paid all year round whether you work the summer or not! Whoever wrote this, CLEARLY didn’t do the necessary research.