4 – the rough number of hours I see my students for on any given week. This doesn’t include time lost to public holidays, excursions, assemblies or any other inconvenience.
40 – the number of weeks in a school year. At four hours a week, this means I have 160 hours to improve the abilities of my students.
1,739 – the number of full time students at the high school where I work (as at Semester 1, 2016).
85 – the number of students I currently teach. These are across 4 classes (I have one less class than most staff because I am in a semi-managerial position).
180 – the rough number of students I taught in my first year at my current school. This was 6 classes of around 30 students each and doesn’t include students who changed classes throughout the year.
12 – the years I’ve been teaching.
1,500 – the amount of students I have taught over this time. This is calculated at 12 years teaching 5 classes with an average of 25 students. It’s not a perfect calculation for a number of reasons but it’ll do for the purpose of this post.
2.5 – the minimum number of pages I expect my Literature students to write per hour in any given exam/test. I think the average in my current class is just under 5 pages, I have had students consistently write 8-9 pages and I think the most produced in one sitting was 12 pages.
3 – the number of hours in the Literature exam.
20 – the minutes it takes me to mark many of these responses. Depending on the task, marking takes me between 8-45 minutes per response.
6 – the number of different year groups I have taught while teaching full time.
17 – the number of English teachers in my office. There are 2 other staff also teaching English that are housed elsewhere in the school. As an Associate Dean (2IC) I have some responsibility in ensuring that these people feel supported.
6 – the number of EAs we share an office with.
2 – the hours (on average) I’m at work before and/or after school each day.
5 – the days per week I have to do some work (marking/planning) at home.
12 – the number of weeks holiday I get per year.
20 – the hours of professional learning I must undertake per year to “maintain the currency of his or her professional competence” (TRBWA).
64,854 – the starting salary of a teacher in Western Australia.
98,084 – the highest possible salary a teacher in Western Australia can earn without seeking some form of promotion.
bartopia 
Great post. It really puts things in perspective for me as a graduate English teacher with 5 classes including an ATAR 11 cohort. Thanks for sharing!
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🙂
I could now also put 4, as in 4 consecutive days of marking for at least four hours and I’m still not finished. I totally understand why some schools give English teachers only a 0.8 teaching load.
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