For thousands of New York City educators, the workday doesn’t end when the school day is over. The work teachers do to plan, prepare and deliver quality instruction to students often takes place outside the classroom and on their own time — and the Department of Education is placing more and more of its own demands on that time.

So on March 30, as part of their fight for a fair contract, educators across the city set out to make that workload visible to their school communities and to the city. During a citywide grade-in, UFT members took to the streets — and to parks, coffee shops, libraries and other public spaces — to demonstrate their expertise and their commitment to their students and to demand respect, autonomy and improved working conditions in their next contract.

“We come in early, we stay late, we work at night, we put in hours during the weekend,” said Mary Belostocki, a 3rd-grade teacher at PS 183 on the Upper East Side. “I don’t think people really know the amount of work we put in because we really love our students and we want to make sure they get the best from us as their teachers.”

Belostocki and her colleagues — fortified by a portable pot of coffee — headed after school to St. Catherine’s Park, where they set up their grade-in at a table adorned with student artwork that read “Teachers at Work” and “Teachers Rule.”

At Athens Square Park in Astoria, Queens, PS 17 paraprofessional Agueda Espinal carefully placed a sign that said “Educators want what students need” into the outstretched hand of a Socrates sculpture while Chapter Leader Niki Pappas handed out fliers to local parents.

“We want families to see that we care about their children,” said Espinal, who, as a third-year para, is experiencing her first contract negotiation. “A fair contract is going to keep us encouraged to give children the best education we can.”

Many schools joined forces for larger demonstrations around the city at landmarks like the Charging Bull statue near Wall Street and at Union Square, both in Manhattan; the Barclays Center in Brooklyn; and even the food court at the Staten Island Mall.

In Washington Square Park in Manhattan, students from PS 3 accompanied a crowd of educators in a call-and-response chant of “Who are we? UFT!” next to the park’s famous arch.

Sandy Wong, the chapter leader at PS 30 in the Bronx, said it was important to bring attention to the burden that excessive paperwork and test administration places on educators — a sentiment echoed by Michael DeShields, a teacher and the chapter leader at PS 3 in Greenwich Village.

“Redundant assessments and paperwork are taking time away from our ability to plan adequate and engaging lessons,” he said.

At PS 398 in Jackson Heights, Queens, educators filmed a montage of themselves planning lessons and grading student work while pushing strollers, sitting in on their children’s dance classes and bottle-feeding babies one-handed.

“We have families, too, and I have to tell my son all the time, ‘Sorry, Mommy’s working,’ ” said Delphine Nguyen, a special education teacher at PS 17 in Long Island City, Queens. “We’re hoping this helps the city realize how hard teachers work, and we need a fair contract that recognizes that.”

— Anna Haynes and Cara Matthews contributed reporting.