Teachers - you're 'avvin a laugh aintcha?

[mholdall]

Kids recently had a week off - half term. They were back this week then, guess what - teacher training day. Seriously, what I want to know is this: is there ANY other job in the country where you get:

• 13 paid weeks holiday a year
• Good pay
• Good pension (believe me, you do compared to people who do proper jobs in private sector - if you dont believe me, try it)
• And yet you still need these extra days to do some training. Training for what, exactly? Seriously, for what???? And how am I, as a parent, supposed to factor childcare in here.
• Oh, and you still do nothing but moan about pay, pensions etc
• Rant over

Maybe Shiney because most people don't start threads saying 'AIBU to love and respect teachers and the great work they do.' Teachers are usually defending the work they do.

Well try harder feenie not pissed off yet. It was a genuine question.

Excellent effort, roundtable!

I love my job, and never complain about the hardships, and don't brag about the perks. I teach english to 11-18 year olds.
my day on friday:
7.20 - meeting with the head
8am - quickly set up classroom for p1
8.15 - whole staff briefing
8.40-10.40 - teach yr 7 then yr 11
10.45 - form time- form of 30 mixed year group
11.10 - break. Photocopy resources for next lesson
11.30 - teach yr 8
12.30-1.05pm - lunch. Lunchtime detention, so can't leave classroom. Eat cupasoup
1.15-3.15 - teach yr 13 (a level group)
3.20 - faculty meeting
4pm - leave fac meeting early, as i am playing guitar in school xmas show, and there is a rehearsal until 5pm
6.15pm home. Have tea, bath ds, put ds to bed
Saturday:
Woke up at 7.30. From 8.30-11am dh took ds swimming. I have been marking. Still have year 11 and year 12 to mark for monday morning. Will prob do that tonight.
Tomorrow:
Am running a cross-curriculur project on space. Sunday i will plan my resources, and do the budget for an 8am briefing with other staff
Monday: teach all day
the summer holidays that have just gone, i ran summer school for two weeks, spent a week marking summer school work, and then went in every day of the last week to reorganise the new classroom i had been moved into.
the first two days of the xmas hols, i am running study sessions for years 10 and 11 for their january exams. Then i intend to have two weeks off with my own son.
as i said- i LOVE my job. Everything about it. But don't you ever tell me that I have 13 weeks off, or work short days. My training days include learning new demands from the gov't, learning how best to work on attainment, and the last one was training for specific sen of a new starter (wheelchair user, mainstream school) oh yes, and then we planned the delivery of this half term's curriculum.

And i have to say- this is a normal, easy day. Other jobs are more demanding, other jobs are less demanding. But mine is certainly not "cushy"
Sorry for epic post.

I love teaching (secondary maths) and cannot honestly see now how I would be happy doing anything else.

I love being able to inspire self-belief and self-worth in children. I love watching children find that 'aha!' moment. I love working with children who don't trust/respect you and getting them to work with you because they realise that actually, you do care about them as an individual and want them to do well for themselves. I love getting challenging questions that show that they are thinking and not just doing blindly. I love making mistakes on the board (referencing another thread, sorry) and having them pointed out because it shows that we all make mistakes and it's not being 'thick' if you do so. I could go on.

I hate the long summer holidays and would much prefer a more even split across the year - I believe that I and the children would have much more energy if this were true. I hate the constant changes in emphasis that don't allow you to embed things and assess them before moving onto the next initiative. I hate that some people think it's OK to not try your hardest and be 'a bit rubbish' at maths and undermine what you're trying to teach their child without even realising they're doing so. I hate that some parents don't care or realise how much we care.

9-5 just wouldn't work on lead up to exam times (as one example). After school exam revision wouldn't work without teachers being prepared/able to do this without funding for other specialists to take over. Same for other clubs/activities.

I don't think my job is necessarily harder/easier than many others but it is an emotional journey each and every day and this can be what drains you more than the hours. I would never dream of saying that I have it hard and woe is me to some random stranger, but I won't let that random stranger tell me I have it easy either.

Have to go feed DD

Genuine answer, shiney.

Shiney I agree that teachers should be more positive about their job, however you do see threads in which teachers share their love of their job. Posters on this and the parallel thread have done so.

One of the reasons I am looking for another career currently is because my annoyance at the workload is coming close to my total adoration of my job. I do not em want to become of the grumpy sods in the staff room who did not get out in time

@Feenie

NB: not saying it'll always pass the deletion test, though

Sounds like a challenge to me

Oh Lord, what have I started?

'Why do teachers so seldom talk about the great days at school? It's 9/10 Our school days are so awful, the children are so ill behaved, the parents are all deluded about their childrens potential and or/aggressive. The pay is shite etc etc You do not make it sound appealing. The picture you present is that of a very uninspiring environment, that is NOT improving despite all the worthy input by great teachers over the years.

So why should anyone else have a positive view of what teachers do? You rarely present one yourselves.

I don't hear such a bleak picture presented by nurses, doctors or anyone else, they have an occassional moan and you commiserate with them, but I have to say with the teaching profession it does seem all rather bleak. Why is that?'

Might as well ask 8/10 posters on MN why they bother to be in a relationship or have children. All they do is complain and rant.

I love teaching, the best bit is the children and the teaching part.
I wouldn't have stuck with it for almost 30 years FT if I didn't.
Rather like my marriage in fact.

That was a great post inwiththecrowd

Thank you Feenie

Now will it cut it with MNHQ?

shiney I am willing to be corrected, so please find and link a relevant thread if you can, but I am pretty sure teachers don't moan and whinge about their jobs willy-nilly. What we do do is defend ourselves when we are attacked for having an easy job. Then we will tell you the truth - and if you choose to read everyone's whole posts you will see how often we talk about how we love our jobs.

I don't know anyone who starts threads on here saying 'I just love my job - come and hear about my fab day!' and neither do you hear teachers start threads saying 'I hate my job, it's bloody hard, come and sympathise with me and tell me I'm wonderful' (unless you can find me one)

We just respond to the attacks levelled at us.

O.K. pissed off now feenie

Just wanted to post this link to which I referred to earlier.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8860761/Schools-acting-as-surrogate-parents-says-Ofsted-chief.html

Might as well ask 8/10 posters on MN why they bother to be in a relationship or have children. All they do is complain and rant.

Indeed. It would be as daft a question.

Genuine question, shiney - really? Or just piling in with teacher bashing after 400 odd posts?

The Primary Education board often has posts which present a positive view.

Lol, i'm no teacher but i can think of one similar. Train drivers and staff on underground. They strike over pay a lot and yes, work unsociable hours but a friend of mine works on the platform and she gets:

56 paid days a year, some of which can be carried over

• Good pay, starting on 30k for staff on platforms, even the very quiet ones
• Good pension
• free travel for themselves and sometimes family members
• A union which is sly, cunning and likes to shaft the public

To be fair their 13 weeks are unpaid, though their wages are higher and the pensions are again being reworked despite a promise after an initial reworking not to do it anymore. And a pay freeze. And lot of red tape and beurocracy and having to put up with a lack of discipline due to regulations (they can't even X a wrong answer in soem places!). My friend also works as head of year 6 and is making until half ten every night, so really i always say to her that if they spread out the schooling a bit and took away the long holidays giving only the normal Annual leave days then they'd be working the same as the 9-5's

I wish it to be known that I have never shopped at Waitrose.

13 weeks are unpaid. In that case the hourly rate must rival our friends the bankers.

Let's see: