I would recommend anyone who cares about kids to get into teaching.
I haven’t thought about it in hours before; ultimately, a teacher works 24/7. Scenarios: I’m at the mall and, hey, there are some students and their parents, and I better not be wearing and/or doing something inappropriate in public, because I’ll hear about it later and so will my principal and the ENTIRE SCHOOL. Oh, I’m partying at the bar; hey, there’s an underage student and I now need to tell the bouncer this information because it’s required of me by law. Oh, my upcoming cashier at Walmart is one of my students; maybe I should take out some of these items or go to someone different, now that I think about what is in my cart and who is going to see it…
In regards to specific work, it always varies depending on what you’re teaching, what you’re doing each day, etc. Let me just say that the majority of the hours outside of my teaching day are spent doing teacher-related things: marking, prepping, reporting, etc. I have had to specifically carve out time for myself and my family this year, otherwise I won’t do it.
It’s all about balance, and it gets easier with time. I am entering my 5th year of teaching; things got a bit easier in the last year, but I am teaching brand new courses next year with a lot of new prep.
I wouldn’t change my profession or what I do AT ALL, though. I love it. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t spend all this time on it and just do boring lessons and projects. I want to have fun in my day, so I have to do a lot of work to make it fun for me and the students.
If teaching interests you, volunteer in some schools or with after-school programs, and see if you enjoy it. Talk to some teachers you know personally about their workload and if you can handle it.
Good luck!
Teaching In Real Life 