Calling all teachers!

I'm going to officially be a teacher next fall. But I will only be teaching one class, so I will not get an AWESOME burn from it, just a mediocre one.

Hey y'all!

So I teach middle-school Spanish and I spend a good amount of time on my feet everyday. I call foul play on this "lightly-sedentary" rating that MFP has bestowed on the profession!

Who else is a teacher here? What grades and subjects? (Or Elementary Ed, that's cool too!)

Do you all feel the burn during the day? My feet always hurt after coming home!

Feet may hurt due to poor shoe support. You may be on your feet all day, but that doens't mean your calorie burn is high.

z

I used to teach 4th grade. Now, i'm an at home mom/childcare provider to a couple of little boys (2 and 4)--my boys are 13, 4 and 5. Teaching is certainly not sedentary--at least not if you're doing it right!!! When I left teaching 5 years ago, I was pregnant and having bp issues and even though I had months to go, I left with two weeks remaining in the school year because my body couldn't handle it!

Hi! I'm a science teacher in elementary and sometimes teach physical ed too. I bought a pedometer to keep track of my walking/standing activity in school. I usually log about 3,400-3600 steps a day. Though I'm always standing up or going around the classroom and school grounds during discussions and activities, its more really like going around in circles in a limited space during the whole day. The steps I counted already includes the brisk walking I have to do during my afternoon commutes going home. At home it was easy for me to log 8,000 steps or more, especially during days where I had to run errands. I actually gained weight when I started teaching! So, I guess that the light to moderate rating is probably spot on. Keep in mind though that we have a small school. If you have a bigger school, and you have to go around the grounds, you might be covering more steps. I suggest you buy a pedometer to "keep track of your tracks", so to speak. Good luck!

I am a retired special ed teacher. I never sat, never. I taught the little ones for 17 years. They had a lot of concerns and I had to take care of them. The last 12 were in a High school with emotionally involved teenagers. Much of the day was spent breaking up fights or taking down violent students. I worked my *kitten* off. I didn't gain till I retired. Oh yes and I wore skirts a lot and heels.

Hi skool englush.






But seriously, my room is carpeted, but it's carpeting over a concrete slab. As I lost weight and my "back chain" got stronger (one very serious yearlong cutting/bulking cycle) many of the minor aches and pains of a hard day went away. I disagree with the light-sedentary category because so much of my job is not constant stress, but interval stress. In the course of my day I could be:
moving a classroom of desks
breaking up a fight
dealing with a kid having a seizure
enjoying a 79 degree classroom during state testing (measured this one myself)
playing Jenga in my classroom with 300 cases of fruit that showed up a two days early for a fundraiser (I'll never eat cantaloupe again)
...or any one of a hundred other physical issues that can happen with high school students. Even dealing with textbooks ain't no joke- the Glencoe British Lit books are five pounds apiece. Let the public say what they will about teachers, one thing we all are is moving! My friends rib me about my choosing to wear athletic socks instead of dress socks, but I tell them to get bent.

I'm a middle and high school music teacher. I don't have my own room, so in addition to teaching I'm also walking to another part of the building every 40 minutes. I always wonder if I'm clocking some mileage throughout the day. Thanks to everybody's posts, my thoughts are validated!

special ed is indeed special. i can imagine the energy expended in order to keep everything running smoothly. congrats for lasting all those years (in skirts and heels to boot)! in my case, its pants and flats most of the time, since we move around a lot ( I have to, especially with all those kids), and at the end of the day, i really have to put my feet up for a while. that's why i bought a pedometer, because i was wondering how many mileage i was getting moving around. sadly though, as i observed, it really wasn't much.

I teach elementary music. I don't have a room so I'm on a cart and walking all over the building. We also dance a lot! So I average 10,000 steps just in the school day. Before I got my fitbit I didn't realize how many steps I was taking every day! Wow! I had to change my activity level from lightly active to active and this has helped me lose weight.

I teach high school math. I don't really count my movement throughout the day as exercise. I am on my feet a good period of the time. I do have some feet issues so I wear sneakers now. I never could wear flimsy sandals, heels, etc... but now all my work shoes hurt my feet. I have bunion pain in one foot and plantar fasciitis like pain in the other after my weekly long run. Neither is very painful... Just "there" I've decided to wear sneakers exclusively.

I'm a reading teacher at an elementary school. I teach small groups of kids who need extra help in reading, which means walking around the school every thirty minutes to pick up groups. However, we're all sitting around a table for the actual teaching part, so not as strenuous as other teaching jobs I have had where you're on your feet all day. However, during the three times a year testing times, I am walking non-stop back and forth to get individual students to give a brief reading test to!

I teach high school math. While I am on my feet a lot - walking around my classroom and around the building - I think that the lightly active is okay for me. One of these days I will get a pedometer and see exactly how active I am. Play with your settings and see what works for you!