How many preps do you have? If you have only one or two, do you get bored? If you have many, do you feel overwhelmed? What is the perfect number for you?
In special ed, we can have as many preps as we have students. At this time, I have 5 different preps during a 4-block day. Not too bad at this time. One of my co-workers in spec ed has about 9-10 different preps. Very overwhelming. It helps to have a 4-block schedule.
This year, for the first time in 21 years in the classroom, I've only had one prep. To be honest, it has been boring. I prefer 2 or even 3. I've had 4; that's the other extreme.
I have three: 7th math, 8th math, and religion. It has been fine for this year. Next year will be harder though because I will still have three but two will be completely new courses - we are starting a pre-algebra and an advanced algebra, and I will be the only one teaching (and therefore planning) both courses. Hopefully I will get most of it done over the summer! Three seems like a good number in a "normal" (what is that?) year though.
Next year I have three. This year I only had two. The real tough part is we are often asked to give up our prep period to cover another class. That has made it hard to have everything ready in time (like getting those labs set out!)
I have 3.... Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and Geometry. Our pre-algebra and algebra used reformed curriculums so we cover much of the same stuff
I have 2 - pre algebra and a 7th grade enrichment/review math. 2 takes me plenty of time to prep and grade. At work, we seriously reconsider when someone has 3 preps. Or, we just give them to the newest teacher. db
I agree with you, Aliceacc..I usually prefer multiple preps or I get bored...this year, and for most of my teaching years, I have 4 preps ...two years ago, I had 5 preps - and of those 5, three had new textbooks!!! (Talk about the year from you-know-where!!)
As a first year teacher, next year I'll have three preps: nineth english, speech and composition, and yearbook. I'm very excited, though!
Oh boy, I have two and I'm complaining... I have no life with two, given that I know and am a professional in Biology that I teach to 8th graders, and know (remember) nothing about Earth Science that I teach to 7th graders.... I asked for 1 prep next year. I don't want to teach anything else but BIo...
Student taught highschool English and had 3 preps (which was frightening, horrible, but so worth the work during stud. teach). But now I have a LA position for 7th grade, so only 1 prep. And even though I still spend a lot of time with my lesson plans, it is definately less time though, days are quite boring!! When I'm giving an exam or something, it is nice to have a full day to work on your own things while they are busy. But when you teach the same thing over and over, with different types of student groups, it can be exhaustingly tedious.
Covering classes during prep period Do you get compensated when you cover another class during your prep period? If so, how?
This happens to me a lot - especially on Fridays at the end of the year when no sub wants to work in a middle school. We get our extra duty rate per hour, rounded up. I think it's about $35 per hour. db
Wow! $35! Last year I taught secondary and when we had to cover a class, we got $5! Of course being a private school with no contracts, we didn't really have a choice, but do it! We joked that by the time taxes came out, our $2 was a "lovely bonus!" lol! $5 makes me feel so under-appreciated!! Like, is that all I'm worth to you? Especially since I went out of my way to do this when it was my only free period that day!!!! Glad those days are over for me! (Now I'm in Elem.!)
$5! why bother? When I taught self contained classes, we would absorb other teachers' students when they were out. One year we were short one teacher, so we got $35 extar every day for a year. Was a nice bonus.... db
Wow, this has been an interesting thread. First, I had 2 preps this year (regular sophomore and honors sophomore English, no overlap really though), and as a new teacher, that was great! More than that would have been overwhelming - I agree with Alice, the first year is so overwhelming anyway that loading rookies up with lots of preps sounds awful! I was so blessed to have an awesome team teacher who REALLY helped me with planning for honors, as well. As for covering for other classes, here we get $19 for one class. $35 would be nice, but I agree, for $5 it's not even worth it!
I am confused. In my area, a "prep" refers to a period during the day when one prepares his/her lessons. Does a prep also mean the types of courses you are teaching?
Around here it refers to both. MY prep period is 3rd period this year. But I am preparing for only one course this year (and I still can't believe that ) so I have only one prep. I'm assuming that next year I'll have at least two.
Usually we have one prep period, and most have one class they teach several times per day. For several years we all taught one grade level--four classes per day--and had two planning periods. My first year I had no planning time and four preps at two schools. I had 12th grade English, 11th grade English, and 9th grade English at the high school and then went across town to teach 7th grade reading at the middle school. Technically my "prep" was in my travel time. My house happened to be between the two schools, so I stopped by and grabbed a sandwich at home most days. For several years I taught 3 7th grade and 3 8th grade LA classes with one prep. I like teaching the same class all day long. I don't get bored because each class is still slightly different, so I'm sort of doing something different each time.
No Preps Believe it or not, I just finished my student teaching in a district where this particular school was the ONLY one WITHOUT a prep. yes you read that right. Something got really messed up with their contract at this particular middle school way back like 10 years ago, and the school board is just now getting around to SLOWLY make changes. it was ridiculous. I can't imagine you teachers who have more than 1 prep.
Alice how long is that prep period? At our school each teacher gets one 85 minute block for planning, the department chairs get 2-3 85 minute blocks, well except me of course.
We're not on block scheduling. On a "normal" day (no assemblies or mass or anything) each period is 38 minutes. Depending on which special schedule we have, they can all shrink down to 29 minutes. We also have an "on call" period each day. If it's not our turn to substitute for someone who is out, that period is also free. You can't always depend on it though.
I teach 2 double periods of LA and one period of Social Studies. I have 2 planning periods and 1 team period each day in addition to my lunch period. I'm gosh darn lucky, it seems!
I'm pretty sure I'll wind up with 5 preps this fall: World History, US History, Geography, Civics, and American Government. Should be interesting...
Good luck, in all my years of teaching I have never taught that much nor been in a High School with Government Course or Geogrpahy.
Misunderstood I apologize. I misunderstood the question. I thought you meant how many prep periods as in free periods that you're not teaching. But what you meant was how many different types of classes did you have to prepare for is that right? see my response from June 2nd
We are on a block schedule, which consists of 4 85-minute class periods (which meet every other day) plus one 45-minute early bird class(which meets daily). I teach the early bird and 5 regular blocks. Last year I had 3 planning preps, and this was the perfect amount for me. 3 planning preps amounts to about 6 hours every two days.
Oh, and if we're talking about how many classes I have to prepare for, then it's 3, kind of 3.5. Latin I Latin II H Latin III H And since one of those Latin II H classes meets daily, I have to organize it a little differently.
Latin is super fabulous, and it's also the fastest growing foreign language in our high schools today! I think a lot of people don't know how popular Latin is, especially in the East and South. There's a huge student organization called the National Junior Classical League for students interested in Latin and the Classics. It's one of the biggest clubs in the country, right behind the Boy Scouts.
This past year I had four preps. 7th and 8th grade social studies, 9th grade geography and 12th grade government. Next year I will have 6,7,8 grade social studies with 6,7,8 grade literature.
