Do teacher trainers have holidays?

The title of this blog entry actually modelled after Paul Sze's one blog post written in July. He talked about whether teacher educators or those working at tertiary level had 'holidays' in summer. The story he wrote was quite interesting and illuminating for those who are particularly hardworking like you or those who have contracted 'workaholics'. My response was yes and no. When I worked in school as an English teacher, I did have regular holidays such as Chinese New Year holidays and Summer Vacations though the latter lasted only around for 3 weeks because most secondary teachers in Hong Kong are caught up with some administrative commitments. Of course, students can enjoy a full summer holiday.

Having worked in the tertiary sector, I realized that I didn't have a real break in summer. Why? In theory, there is annual leave and I can take leave as long as I have no teaching duties. However, the nature of my work is ongoing and the schedule is very packed as well. For instance, when I finish a module, I will mark students' assignments. Then, if I was assigned to teach a new module in the coming academic year, I need to do some readings and research in order to prepare the course well. In my case, it takes me about 1.5 to 2 months to prepare a brand-new module with 30 contact hours. No doubt, the preparation time could be flexible and it depends how familiar I am with the subject knowledge of that module. Apart from marking and teaching preparation, I may continue my research project in summer. I have to do a review of literature, prepare the manuscripts, analyze and write up the findings and so forth. More than that, I need to take some library courses to upgrade my research skills and read some books to enrich my knowledge. Lifelong learning is equally important in the field of teacher education. Virtually, I have no real break. Therefore, I'm planning for a break later next month when I finish part of my teaching in this semester.