A Czech Teacher's Life

As a Fulbright Scholar, I only teach part-time in the Czech Republic, which is roughly fifteen hours a week. The rest of my time is filled with lesson planning, grading, volunteering and experiencing all-things-cultural about this lovely nation.

So what does a typical Czech teacher's week look like?

In general, Czechs do not commute very long to work. Those who live in one of the surrounding villages of my town often complain about their "dreadfully long" twenty minute drive or bus ride to school. If you're one of the lucky ones, such as myself, you live in town and have a short walk to work. My current commuting time is ten minutes walking.

Teachers start their work day at different times according to their schedule, however, one must teach at least twenty-one lessons per week to be considered full-time. The earliest start time is 7:00, but teachers can start their day as late as 9:30. Czech teachers hardly come to work early. They usually show up merely ten or fifteen minutes before their first lesson starts.

Similarly, a teacher's day will end as soon as their lessons are done for the day, which can be as early as 11:30 or as late as 3:45. The majority of teachers leave as soon as their last lesson finishes. Czech teachers tend not to linger in the building any longer than necessary.

Aside from the twenty-one lessons, teachers are also responsible for having some sort of duty one period per week. This can include supervising the school canteen for one lunch period or monitoring the computer lab before school starts for children who need access to work on assignments. It is relatively easy work, yet still mandatory.

There are plenty of ways to earn extra income as a teacher.

It is quite usual for teachers to teach more than twenty-one lessons. Currently, there are some teachers that teach up to twenty-seven lessons per week. Each extra lesson is compensated.

There are about twenty head teachers who supervise, and are in charge of, one class, for example 1.0, 2.0 1.A, etc. Head teachers make announcements, attend to the students, plan class field trips, and monitor the fundraising process for prom, among other things.

Each class has a designated classroom where they decorate the walls by putting up pictures or artwork of their own. This is similar to making bulletin boards, except for the fact that the same work tends to stay up from the beginning of the year until the end, and it's for fun rather than the teacher's responsibility and a form of teacher accountability portraying student work.

Lastly, there are teacher advisors for the school magazine and choir. Basically, any work outside of your twenty-one lessons plus one duty period grants you additional income, which in my opinion, is greatly necessary. If you only teach twenty-one lessons, you only make an equivalent of $1,000 per month!

Teachers spend a lot of time at home grading and lesson planning. Czech teachers can teach up to seven classes in one day, and all seven lessons may be completely different, which requires seven different preps. However, each lesson is only planned in one way. It's a fight or flight system, where students either get it or they don't.

Additionally, many Czech students work out of workbooks and textbooks. Czech teachers rarely use handouts and they make copies sparingly. Czechs are not paper wasters. Students get one copy of something and one copy only. If a handout only takes up half a page or a quarter of a page, the paper gets cut so that every inch of that paper gets used at some point. It really makes me think about all the paper that is wasted in America and how many copies we continually hand out to students. I will definitely be more frugal in the future.

On the other hand, American teachers have no more than two or three preps per day though they typically teach five periods. We have to deal with IEPs and ELL students, differentiation, and technology integration. We have mandatory tutoring sessions per week as well. All of this extra work definitely adds up.

Moreover, Czech teachers hardly ever call, write, or meet parents/guardians, which takes up an equivalent of an entire day per week for me back home. We have to keep logs of parent interactions, guidance counselor recommendations, and administration interactions. We have to report incidents, which are weekly, and compile data of student progress and growth throughout the year. There is so much paperwork on top of lesson planning and grading.

American teachers also have frequent professional development conferences and meetings to get better at our profession. These meetings are about upcoming events, technology integration and the newest fads, teacher evaluation systems, school report cards, and school quality reviews. We have weekly horizontal (same grade level) and vertical (department teachers of each grade) meetings. We have to compare student data, aline multi-subject curriculum, and discuss the possibility of field trips for students. There is tons of teacher collaboration. We have faculty meetings that can last up to an hour once a month as well.

One of the things I do love about the Czech Republic is the fact that there's no teacher evaluation systems. The administration tends to stay in their offices, or even teach a class or two, but they do not walk in on, monitor, or evaluate teachers as they are teaching. They trust the people they personally hired to do their job.

Another thing I love about the Czech Republic is that the education system is not geared towards standardized tests. There are two: one at the end of primary school and one at the end of secondary school. They do not bombard their students with test after test after test. Sure, students are given exams such as quizzes, chapter tests, and unit exams, but these are not uniform state tests.

Despite the vast differences in our education systems, student lifestyles, and teacher lifestyles, our main goal as educators is to teach children, help them grow and excel, and prepare them for the real world socially, emotionally, and mentally. Our job is ultimately to help these students become competent adults who will shape the future of our world, hopefully for the better. Yet, teachers are severely undervalued and underpaid in the majority of countries throughout the world while the schools are completely understaffed...