Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Teachers and the Teaching
Profession in the United
States
By: Sally Lubeck
Ms. Williams, an eighth-grade math teacher, arrives at school at approximately
7:30 a.m., 30 minutes or so before school officially begins. The school building,
which includes grades 6–9, serves approximately 650 students. It is a two-story
brick structure, which includes classrooms, offices, a cafeteria, library, gymnasium,
and auditorium. Ms. Williams has her own classroom and personalizes it by deco-
rating her bulletin boards and displaying students’ work.
The school day is divided into 55-minute ‘‘periods.’’ Ms. Williams teaches during
five of these periods each day and has lunch and a planning period. Bells signal
the beginning and end of each period, and students have 5 minutes between peri-
ods to move from one classroom to another. Most of the time, Ms. Williams re-
mains in her assigned room, although occasionally she teaches in another room.
She has a brief advisory or ‘‘homeroom’’ period, but students typically talk softly
or study during this time.
At lunchtime, Ms. Williams eats in the school cafeteria. Teachers are allowed to
go to the front of the cafeteria line—or they bring a packed lunch from home.
Many eat with other teachers, but some prefer the solitude of their own class-
rooms and use this time to read or to prepare for the next class. Once or twice
a week Ms. Williams meets with her ‘‘team’’ during the lunch period. During her
‘‘prep time,’’ she stays in her room and grades papers or goes to the teachers’
lounge to talk informally with other teachers. On occasion, she also has super-
visory duty, making sure that students behave in the lunchroom or get on or off
the buses in a timely fashion. One afternoon a week she tutors her students who
are having difficulty, and occasionally she attends faculty meetings or a parent
conference. More often than not, she leaves the building at 4:00 p.m. in the after-
noon, approximately 1 hour after her last class. Most students have vacated the
building by this time. The exceptions are students who play on athletic teams or

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who participate in after-school clubs or work on the school newspaper or year-
book.
Ms. Williams takes schoolwork home with her and spends an hour or so in the
evening grading papers or preparing for class the next day. She also does some
work on weekends. At the end of each grading period (four times per year), she
will spend considerably more time on schoolwork outside of school time. She
teaches during the ‘‘school year,’’ which is 180 days long, typically running from
early September until some time in June. Her salary is for the 9-month school year,
although it is paid over a period of 12 months. She has time off without pay for
the Christmas holidays and other school holidays and for the time during the sum-
mer months when school is not in session