Eric Buffington's Blog, page 4
November 20, 2017
Teachers get off 185 days a year...
I was on vacation and bumped into a man who asked me what I do for a living. I told him that I'm a High School Math teacher and an author and he said something to the effect of, "Oh, so you get 185 days off each year. Must be nice." Implying that teachers have more than half the year off.
My initial reaction was to get upset, but I was on vacation and chose to ignore him. Now that I'm back I'm over being upset, but I do feel an obligation, as an educator, to explain some math to him and anyone else who thinks this way, including people I know who call teaching a part-time job. (You know who you are!)
Let's start with how he got that number. 365 days of the school year and students need to attend 180 days.
365 - 180 = 185
But there's a pretty big flaw to this number; students go to school for 180 days, not teachers. Oops! As a teacher, I start school two weeks before students and stay two weeks after students. So if you count those work days that's four weeks times five work days which is another 20 days.
185 - 20 = 165
If you're with me so far, please send a friendly thank you note to the teacher who explained arithmetic to you. :)
Next point. of those 165 days we get off there are 52 Sundays and 52 Saturdays. I know not every job gets out for the weekends, but most white collar jobs do, so let's just count that up front.
165 - 104 = 64
Holidays are also days that teachers get off, Christmas, New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, Easter Monday, President's day, MLK day, even Columbus day. Again this schedule is similar to most white collar Americans. My school calendar has about 16 days of holidays (not including weekends because I'm not double counting, and not including spring break, because that's not a national holiday.)
64 - 16 = 48 (Are you still with me?)
While talking with this man on my vacation, I asked him what he does for a living and he is a bar tender. Well that brought up several other important points. Let's address the obvious one first: How many hours a day do bar tenders work? In order to make sure I'm comparing apples to apples, let's just drop the bar tending angle for a moment and consider other office jobs.
An 8 hour day with a lunch and some break times makes about 7 hours of work per day. As a teacher I work with students for that time, and I have grading and preparation when I go home, making my day about two hours longer than a standard office job. But you might say an office job also requires some prep time before going in, and I'll concede that point. In an effort to be fair, I'll give the teachers an extra hour per day of work, although I know for many it is much more than this. This is when the math gets fun. If each of the 180 days of school when students are present, a teacher does 1 extra hour of work that is 180 extra hours. If an average work day is 7 hours of work time, that means teachers do 25.7 extra days of work over the course of the school year.
48 - 25.7 = 20.3
Did you catch that? I did that math error on purpose. If you did catch it, good work! You probably had a great teacher somewhere along the line.
48 - 25.7 = 22.3
In addition to this, teachers have in-service days that are worked into their schedules throughout the year. Students enjoy those days off, but teachers don't. While some of that is worked into the four extra weeks before and after students arrive, some days are in the actual schedule. It's not many additional days, about 6 per year.
22.3 - 6 = 16.3
So we're down to 16.3 days off per year more than the average white collar worker. That's about 3 full weeks of weekdays. Not bad, and how much time do you get for paid vacation each year? Teachers probably get less.
Two more points to consider here and I'll be done with my rant.
1. Education level: To get considered for teaching, in most cases, you need to have a 4 year college degree and agree to get a master's degree (or equivalent) within the first five years of teaching. That is about 7 years of post-secondary education almost half of it being done in those 16.3 days off for the first five years of teaching at their own expense. Also some schools send teachers to specialized training during those summer weeks to better meet student needs, and some teachers choose to spend large portions of their income and their time during the summer months preparing for what they will do the next school year, which often involves taking courses or classes, purchasing school supplies and classroom tools.
2. Impact: Teachers train up the future generation. That's a pretty important job. Sometimes jumping through an increasing number of political hoops, teachers go to work each day and make a difference. I met a man who lived in Guatemala City, had an SUV and modern conveniences in his home. When I asked him how he was able to have wealth in one of the most impoverished countries in the world, he responded without hesitation: "Education and opportunity." We all owe some of our success and accomplishments to those people who have chosen to go into the field of education. I think you would be hard pressed to find many jobs that are more important than teachers.
If that man I met ever has children of his own, I hope he will see the value in what the their teachers do for them. I hope they are fantastic teachers who look at his children as precious and go above and beyond to help them reach their potential. And I sincerely hope he never marginalizes them by speaking to them the way he talked to me. But if he does, perhaps some educator along the way can do a quick math lesson with his son or daughter, who can then go home and help him get his numbers straight.
My initial reaction was to get upset, but I was on vacation and chose to ignore him. Now that I'm back I'm over being upset, but I do feel an obligation, as an educator, to explain some math to him and anyone else who thinks this way, including people I know who call teaching a part-time job. (You know who you are!)
Let's start with how he got that number. 365 days of the school year and students need to attend 180 days.
365 - 180 = 185
But there's a pretty big flaw to this number; students go to school for 180 days, not teachers. Oops! As a teacher, I start school two weeks before students and stay two weeks after students. So if you count those work days that's four weeks times five work days which is another 20 days.
185 - 20 = 165
If you're with me so far, please send a friendly thank you note to the teacher who explained arithmetic to you. :)
Next point. of those 165 days we get off there are 52 Sundays and 52 Saturdays. I know not every job gets out for the weekends, but most white collar jobs do, so let's just count that up front.
165 - 104 = 64
Holidays are also days that teachers get off, Christmas, New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, Easter Monday, President's day, MLK day, even Columbus day. Again this schedule is similar to most white collar Americans. My school calendar has about 16 days of holidays (not including weekends because I'm not double counting, and not including spring break, because that's not a national holiday.)
64 - 16 = 48 (Are you still with me?)
While talking with this man on my vacation, I asked him what he does for a living and he is a bar tender. Well that brought up several other important points. Let's address the obvious one first: How many hours a day do bar tenders work? In order to make sure I'm comparing apples to apples, let's just drop the bar tending angle for a moment and consider other office jobs.
An 8 hour day with a lunch and some break times makes about 7 hours of work per day. As a teacher I work with students for that time, and I have grading and preparation when I go home, making my day about two hours longer than a standard office job. But you might say an office job also requires some prep time before going in, and I'll concede that point. In an effort to be fair, I'll give the teachers an extra hour per day of work, although I know for many it is much more than this. This is when the math gets fun. If each of the 180 days of school when students are present, a teacher does 1 extra hour of work that is 180 extra hours. If an average work day is 7 hours of work time, that means teachers do 25.7 extra days of work over the course of the school year.
48 - 25.7 = 20.3
Did you catch that? I did that math error on purpose. If you did catch it, good work! You probably had a great teacher somewhere along the line.
48 - 25.7 = 22.3
In addition to this, teachers have in-service days that are worked into their schedules throughout the year. Students enjoy those days off, but teachers don't. While some of that is worked into the four extra weeks before and after students arrive, some days are in the actual schedule. It's not many additional days, about 6 per year.
22.3 - 6 = 16.3
So we're down to 16.3 days off per year more than the average white collar worker. That's about 3 full weeks of weekdays. Not bad, and how much time do you get for paid vacation each year? Teachers probably get less.
Two more points to consider here and I'll be done with my rant.
1. Education level: To get considered for teaching, in most cases, you need to have a 4 year college degree and agree to get a master's degree (or equivalent) within the first five years of teaching. That is about 7 years of post-secondary education almost half of it being done in those 16.3 days off for the first five years of teaching at their own expense. Also some schools send teachers to specialized training during those summer weeks to better meet student needs, and some teachers choose to spend large portions of their income and their time during the summer months preparing for what they will do the next school year, which often involves taking courses or classes, purchasing school supplies and classroom tools.
2. Impact: Teachers train up the future generation. That's a pretty important job. Sometimes jumping through an increasing number of political hoops, teachers go to work each day and make a difference. I met a man who lived in Guatemala City, had an SUV and modern conveniences in his home. When I asked him how he was able to have wealth in one of the most impoverished countries in the world, he responded without hesitation: "Education and opportunity." We all owe some of our success and accomplishments to those people who have chosen to go into the field of education. I think you would be hard pressed to find many jobs that are more important than teachers.
If that man I met ever has children of his own, I hope he will see the value in what the their teachers do for them. I hope they are fantastic teachers who look at his children as precious and go above and beyond to help them reach their potential. And I sincerely hope he never marginalizes them by speaking to them the way he talked to me. But if he does, perhaps some educator along the way can do a quick math lesson with his son or daughter, who can then go home and help him get his numbers straight.
November 16, 2017
Book Review: The Eye of Tanglewood Forest
The Eye of Tanglewood Forest by Sam FergusonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Great conclusion to the story! All loose ends are tied up but there are some threads that can lead to future adventures in this world and in Ferguson's other realms!
My favorite character, and the one I feel is honestly the main hero is the Captain. I almost feel like he should be the title character of this book, or have the prophecies about him as he really does drive their story. He also gets an amazing sword that has some great magical powers, while Jonathan gets a bow that does... I don't know what. (And did he lose that one too? Never really says)
My biggest complaint with book 2 in this series was the lack of a good ending and this book wrapped that up for me. I still think it could have been put together into one longer book, but either way it was a nice conclusion for the trilogy.
I highly recommend reading this trilogy. Book 1 can be read as a stand alone, books 2 & 3 need to be read together. I read it at the same time as my son and he loved it too. It was great to have a clean fantasy book that I felt I could have my son read and it gave us something to chat about that is a mutual interest.
View all my reviews
October 25, 2017
Fall Time
Does eating half a dozen Pumpkin Spice English Muffins count as my vegetable quota for the day?
October 2, 2017
New Release: E Gerald's Memes
I'm proud to roll out the second, and probably final book in the 'This Book is Random' series.E Gerald's Book of Memes: This Book is Random Volume 3
That's right the second book in the series is volume 3. That's what you're signing up for when you open up this book! A fun quick read book that is sure to make you laugh, smile, or perhaps reconsider being friends with me. :)
So download or order now the thrilling sequel to: This Book is Random.
Volume 3 is 144 pages of random memes, some dad jokes, fun short experiences (most of which are fictional) and a Parent vs. Child Dictionary that has entries like this:
Snuggle
Child: (verb) The act of climbing into bed with mommy and daddy and squirming around until they finally agree to get up and make me breakfast.
Parent: (verb) The sweet moment when active kids slow down enough to just hug and cuddle…with their knee shoved in your throat.
We tested this book by reading it aloud with a group of people to have a good laugh. They were a captive audience as we were in the car. It made the trip a blast! In fact you should definitely order a copy for anyone you know who will be going on a road trip in the near future.
Hope you enjoy it, and I have a deal going that if you order a physical copy, you can also download the kindle version for free!
September 29, 2017
Magic
My house is covered in white dog fur. No matter how much we vacuum, sweep, groom or pick up. But I have a solution to never see it again... Close my eyes.
September 25, 2017
Book Review: Brothers Haymaker
Brothers Haymaker by Sam FergusonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The brothers Haymaker is a fun clean fantasy adventure that follows a group of adventurers chasing clues to save a member of the 'Ghosts' a group of warriors from the Troll wars. It is a good read for young readers, I read it with my 11 year old son and we both enjoyed it!
It is fun to follow them through the different places that they adventure, and see the types of people they encounter. It is non stop action from the start which kept me turning the pages wondering what adventure or challenge they would face next.
I really enjoyed that the characters were vulnerable. *Spoiler Alert* not everyone survives. And many of the characters who do survive sustain some serious injuries which makes the adventure seem real and adds to the excitement.
My criticisms that drop this to a 4 star instead of a 5 star are just two things:
1. It seems like half of a story. While they do finish part of their quest, it's not a satisfying ending in my opinion. I like solid endings.
2. I compared it too much to the first book. The first book had a very different feel to it: One main character vs. a team of characters. One quest/purpose vs. multiple mini-missions. I just really loved the first book and this one, in my opinion, was not as good as the original. Still very enjoyable!
View all my reviews
September 22, 2017
September 13, 2017
Review: Dragon God
Dragon God by Ava RichardsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The cover art captured me right away! I was very interested to see this dragon in action. The title also gave away that someone would eventually ride a dragon. I was a little surprised at the twist and who ended up riding which dragon (no spoilers here). Just something that I thought was well done.
I liked the story. The world had some complicated politics, which I also like to see. The writing style was good and kept me reading.
I enjoyed the character development of this book at the beginning, and I liked the writing style, the characters were fairly believable, in that there were some things I liked about them and some things that drove me crazy (like real people).
The one thing I found difficult about this book was that the pacing felt a little lopsided at times. What I mean by that is there would be a long segment where very little seemed to happen other than meeting the characters, then the build up to the climax seemed like a lot happened in a short amount of pages, and it ended abruptly.
The End
View all my reviews
September 7, 2017
Sale on The Troven!
It's SALE time again! The Troven is on sale September 8-13. If you loved it, tell your friends! If you haven't read it, grab a copy!Sale in the US
Click Here
Sale in the UK
Click Here
The Troven
For centuries, young men in their eighteenth year have been sent away from the small village of Dungan for a year-long exile as they begin their journey into manhood. This traditional exile, the Troven, was instituted so that young men may find themselves, find their purpose, and find their place in the world. When Kaz Kinsley and his three friends leave to begin their Troven, all they have on their minds is getting to the first sign of civilization and finding a way to survive on their own. Fate has more in mind for these young men, though. Stone Seekers are on the move, sent by the evil sorcerer Mordyar to find six magical stones, each with the power to enhance one of six gifts every person in Denall is born with. When Kaz unknowingly comes into possession of the Sight Stone, he and his friends become part of the story of the Stones of Power, and their Troven suddenly becomes something much more.
August 14, 2017
Prayer
I've come to learn that prayer is less about me trying to convince God to do the things I want Him to do and more about me recognizing the blessings God has and is pouring out on me.
