The Ministry of Education is organizing a study to identify teachers' work tasks and the time they require, and to develop recommendations for keeping teachers' workload within the legally mandated working hours. The study is planned to cost €70,000.

I looked up a completely ordinary September week from my diary from my first year at a new school. I wrote down what I did on those days and how much time it took.

Here is my teacher working‑time study. Completely free.

Monday

I arrive at school at 8:30 to print worksheets, start up the computer and smartboard, and move the tables and chairs so students can sit in groups of four.

Class begins at 9. We start with review, because I still do not know what the students know and what they do not. It is my first year at this school.

I quickly realize that the students have forgotten quite a lot or have not fully mastered some topics from last year. Already during the lesson I am mentally reorganizing the lessons for the next few days. I also notice that the students are very closed off and do not want to talk much. In a language class, that is a serious problem. I need to figure out what activities and tasks will get them talking more.

I'm grabbing lunch with a coworker during our break. She tells me how difficult things are for her right now and that she is even thinking about leaving the school. I try to help her as much as I can. I share my materials and presentations, give advice on how to handle certain students, and try to reassure her that things get a bit easier with time. At the same time, I know exactly what she means. For first-time teachers, the heavy workload can quickly become overwhelming, driving the workweek up to 60 hours.

During the break some students come to me. They want to talk about last week's work and get more detailed feedback.

Classes end at 14:40. I stay at school to fill in Stuudium. For each group, I must write in detail what we did in class, what we learned, and what vocabulary we covered. I add worksheets and links, homework, and check absences and tardiness.

This is not documentation for its own sake. It makes the learning process traceable, the information can be used by a new teacher if needed, and absent students can study independently at home.

At 15:30 I shut down the computer. I have been at work for seven hours and have not even started preparing the next day's lessons.

I go home and collapse on the couch. I've used up all my words for today. I feel like I have nothing left to give. But at home I have a two‑year‑old who also wants my attention. I cook. I take the child outside.

Around 20:00 I open the computer again. Tuesday will be especially tough, with classes back‑to‑back from 9 to 16. Of course I have materials and ideas from previous years, but a new school means new textbooks and new students. Since today's lessons showed that students do not understand even basic phrases needed in a language class like "Please repeat" or "What does that mean?", I create a worksheet for them.

I think about how to get students to talk about themselves and help me get to know them better. I come up with an assignment: each student creates an "instruction manual" about themselves. I look at my slides. They are so boring and plain white. I want something nicer and more Spanish‑themed. I search online for slide templates. I finally find one. Then I notice that the pictures in the 10th‑grade presentation are wrong. They do not match the new textbook. I look for new ones. I cannot get everything perfect, but it is 22:15 and I cannot do any more.

Today's working time: about 9 hours and 15 minutes.

Tuesday

A brutal day. I arrive at school at 8:15 to review a few things in the presentations and print worksheets. I teach straight through until 16:00. I cannot really rest during breaks, because I try to quickly fill in Stuudium and enter all the necessary information.

When the last class ends, I am honestly completely exhausted. A squeezed‑out lemon. I have spent the entire day explaining, talking, listening, and answering questions. At 16:10 I sit in the teachers' room and stare at the wall. I cannot move. I cannot even go home. My brain feels like it has shut down. My head hurts terribly and I take Ibumetin.

By that point I have already worked a little over eight hours, but I still have not started preparing the next day's lessons or dealing with other ongoing tasks. I finally go home. It is 17:00.

I do household chores and at 19:00 I open the computer again. I check Stuudium and then remember that in October I need to hold parent-teacher conferences. I need to arrange suitable times with the parents of 17 students. I am not going to write to each parent individually. I come up with a system: I create available times in a calendar and each parent can choose what suits them. I start creating the calendar but do not finish.

Next, tomorrow's lessons. I want to do something interesting. Maybe a video or a song? But which one? Does it use vocabulary relevant to the lesson? Is the language level appropriate? Is the content suitable for a school class? I ask ChatGPT. I get a bunch of options. I start reviewing them. One does not fit the level, another does not fit the content. Time passes. I give up on finding a video and start reviewing my older materials to find something I can use tomorrow. At 21:30 I shut down the computer. I cannot do anything more.

Today's working time: over 10 hours.

Wednesday

Today my first class starts only at 10:20. I arrive at school at 9:30 to print materials and review the lesson presentations once more. Classes end at 16:00. Then another half hour of Stuudium. Meanwhile, I get an email looking for teachers willing to monitor weekly school-wide make-up tests. Oh dear. I cannot take that on right now. I will not do any more work at home today. I have no classes on Thursday or Friday and I want at least one work‑free evening.

Today's working time: 7 hours.

Thursday

A day without classes. Sounds almost like a "day off." It is not. From 9 to 12 there are two meetings. After the meetings I go to a café to work. First I need to finish the registration calendar for parent-teacher conferences. It takes much more time than I expected.

I need to check when I am available, when students do not have classes, and at the same time I do not want to schedule all parent-teacher conferences in the evenings after the workday. I manage to place most of the times on Thursdays and Fridays. I do not have contact lessons on those days. Then I start grading assignments. I add individual feedback for each student in Stuudium.

In between, a student writes asking whether I would be willing to supervise their research project. Fine. But what exactly does that mean in a new school? What are the requirements? What do I need to do as a supervisor? I add another item to my mental list: look it up later. When I check the time again, it is 14:30. That is enough for today.

Today's working time: about 5.5 hours.

Friday

A day without classes. Today I do not even have to go to school. But Stuudium still needs subject information, grading guidelines, course descriptions, and objectives entered. I have to deal with that. In September, when teaching a new group for the first time, it is quite difficult to predict where we will end up by the end of the school year and how quickly the group will start learning. I still try to put together an initial plan.

At the same time, I discuss next week's lessons with a colleague during a work call. We exchange ideas, I send her some of my earlier materials, and we try to get everything aligned so that we teach on the same basis and the groups reach roughly the same point. We also discuss a meeting with the Spanish Embassy. They have written to the school and want to collaborate with us.

Then I respond to parents. One parent's registration link for the parent-teacher conference does not work. Another registered a time but realized it does not actually fit. A third wants to have the conversation online and needs a separate link.

Then absent students write, saying they have not been able to give their presentations. When could they make them up? I check the calendar. Probably during breaks. Then I write to students who have not added their parents to Stuudium, because a minor must have at least one parent's contact listed. And without noticing, four hours have passed.

Today's working time: 4 hours.

Saturday

In the evening I still open the computer. I have two students whose Spanish level is noticeably higher than the rest of the group. Regular assignments are too easy for them and they need differentiated instruction. Fortunately, we talked at school about what is difficult for them and what they want to practice more. Based on that, I look for separate materials for them.

I remember that one set of quizzes is still ungraded. I think I will finish them today so I have less work tomorrow. I grade the assignments and write feedback for each student in Stuudium.

Today's working time: 3.5 hours.

Sunday

I start preparing next week's lessons, but then remember that in spring there will be a language trip to Barcelona. For that, I need a parent questionnaire through which a child can be registered for the trip and the necessary information entered. I create the questionnaire. At the same time, I am again talking with a colleague about Monday's lessons. We go through the activities and conclude that some of them need to be rethought.

I look for materials. Games. Videos. I review my old materials. I adapt. I change. I plan. At one point I check the time. Five hours have passed again.

Today's working time: 5 hours.

Week

Adding everything together, I worked at least 44 hours and 15 minutes this week. Besides, I was on a 0.9 schedule this school year... If a teacher's full-time load is 35 hours a week, a 0.9 load should be 31.5 hours. I put in 13 hours of overtime this week. Who's compensating me for that?

But for me, the total number of hours is not even the most interesting part of this diary. What is more interesting is looking at what those hours were spent on.

This one week included teaching lessons, preparing lessons, creating learning materials, adapting existing materials, printing, preparing the classroom, determining students' prior knowledge, differentiating instruction, grading assignments, giving individual feedback, documenting lessons, marking absences and tardiness, creating course descriptions and grading guidelines, organizing development conversations, communicating with parents and students, supporting a colleague, joint lesson planning, meetings, familiarizing myself with supervising a research project, discussing international cooperation, and planning a language trip.

Some of these tasks are very visible. A teacher stands in front of the class and teaches. A large part, however, is not.

No one sees the computer open on Sunday evening. The half hour spent searching for a suitable video that ends with not finding one. The break when a student wants feedback on their work. The lunch break when you support a colleague. The message to a parent. The new worksheet you make because you realized in the morning's lesson that students are missing something. The two stronger students who need separate materials because otherwise they have nothing to learn in class.

These are small things. Individually, most of them do not take very much time. But teaching consists largely of hundreds of such small things. And that leads me to an interesting line of thought.

The state has described teachers' tasks quite thoroughly in professional standards, qualification requirements, legal acts, and other documents. We know that a teacher must plan instruction, teach, assess, give feedback, take learners' differences into account, collaborate, communicate with parents, support students, develop themselves, and contribute to the school's development.

When is a teacher supposed to do all of this? If a teacher is at school seven to eight hours a day, when does she prepare the next day's lessons? If a day without classes fills up with meetings, grading, documentation, and organizing development conversations, is it really a day without classes or simply a day when the teacher is not standing in front of the class?

If two students need differentiated instruction, does the teacher skip finding suitable materials because her working hours are already full?

If a student wants feedback on their work during a break, does the teacher say, come tomorrow, because this is my rest time?

If a colleague says at lunch that she cannot cope anymore and is thinking about leaving teaching, does the teacher reply, let's talk another time, because this is my lunch break?

If a student asks for supervision for their research project, does the teacher say, "Sorry, my working hours are already full"?

One of the goals of the study commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Research is to find ways to fit teachers' tasks within the legally mandated working hours.

I cannot wait for that answer.

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