Teaching
Doghouse – Education
Non-teachers often underestimate the work of teachers; the profession merits greater support and funding.
Recently, I participated in a Facebook conversation with computer science educators (mostly grade school) about how many courses they were teaching and how many of them require preparation time before they walk into the classroom. In case you have never taught, good teachers prepare their lesson before going into the classroom, present the lesson, and then develop and grade the tests. If the material is new to the teacher, and a difficult subject, the teacher might take four, six, or eight hours for one hour of presentation. If the classes for the course are three one-hour presentations a week and the teacher needs four hours of preparation for each hour of class, that is 15 hours of work for each course. Add another hour per week for answering questions and grading tests, and you are up to 16 hours. Three courses brings the total to 48 hours a week of work.
Some of the teachers I spoke with were teaching six courses (or more) at a time and feeling "a little burned out." So I answered:
Will you please allow me to be outraged for you? I do not know the exact situation you are in or what level you are teaching, but five preps plus teaching a sport? In a way I can understand teaching the sport. It is probably the one thing that helps you keep your health and sanity.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Reaches EOL
Linux kernel 6.16 has reached its end of life, which means you'll need to upgrade to the next stable release, Linux kernel 6.17.
-
Amazon Ditches Android for a Linux-Based OS
Amazon has migrated from Android to the Linux-based Vega OS for its Fire TV.
-
Cairo Dock 3.6 Now Available for More Compositors
If you're a fan of third-party desktop docks, then the latest release of Cairo Dock with Wayland support is for you.
-
System76 Unleashes Pop!_OS 24.04 Beta
System76's first beta of Pop!_OS 24.04 is an impressive feat.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.

