One of the earlier posts in this thread claims teachers use the same lesson plan every year. That to me makes sense. Your post states the average teacher leaves after 4 years. One of the things I find strange about teaching, is that they start on a full workload. Surely the first year or two they need a reduced workload because during that period they're experimenting (or should be) with what works and what doesn't in terms of teaching certain pieces of material. A lot of time needs to be spent outside classes developing lesson plans. Once that has been established they can reuse material each year, apart from where the curriculum has been altered. Seems teachers are becoming overwhelmed with work very early in their careers because they're not given time to develop strategies to teach during that period, which should make the job easier in later years.
