To ask if anyone became a teacher for the holidays?

[DamnYeToHell]

Because I know two people who are planning on doing this. I've had to NC as my other posts make me identifiable and a lot of people know I use MN.

My MIL told me that SIL is planning on doing a PGCE as she has just had her first child and thinks becoming a teacher would solve future childcare issues. A friend of mine is planning on doing the same. Neither has much interest in their chosen subject nor any real desire to impart knowledge. They have admitted as much.

Yes I know it's none of my business. Am I being naive about the reasons people teach? My other SIL is a teacher and she loves it and works hard. She has said the holidays are a bonus now she is a mother but was not a reason in the first place.

I certainly remember a big difference between the teachers who genuinely wanted to be there and those who were, quite frankly, a bit shite.

I'm romanticising aren't I?

I'll get my own hard hat

I don't know anyone who became a teacher for the holidays but I know lots of people who became teaching assistants or similar for that reason. As a teacher myself that annoyed me as they wouldn't have considered it before having children.

In my romantic wee world people become teachers for the same reasons I did - passion for the subject, love kids and it felt like a true vocation. When I first started I was in for a massive shock that not everyone feels this way. I tell myself it's too tough a job to do if you don't live and breath it. At heart though, I know that there are some who tick the boxes and nothing more.

I use the holidays to explore new methodologies, new ways of doing things etc. I have never lied and said I work all hols and there is no doubt that when mini-passme arrives the holidays will be a bonus.

However, as an NQT she is going to get an enormous shock at the hours she will need to work just to get by - let alone be the shining example everyone will expect her to be as an NQT. Indignance shared - YANBU

It's a bloody shame I can't show her this thread since it's blatantly about her!

They'll never last :o

Holidays are good but totally inflexible. Not looking for sympathy but it is a genuine PITA when you really want to go somewhere and you can't because you cannot get out of work full stop, for anything. Also every holiday costs a frigging fortune when we're off.

Anyway half the teachers I know keep their kids in creche for the summer so they can get September work done / have the occasional rest to stop them keeling over and dying.

I know lots of people who have done this.

There was research some time ago by the then Teacher Training Agency that found that people's reasons for entering teaching (self reported, three years or so after qualifying) were not correlated with early retention or performance.

Humph. My last line makes no sense no I have gone back and read your title. I suppose YANBU to ask the question if I wanted to rescue my post

Well, it was one of the reasons I went back to teaching after a 5 year career break, rather than moving into a new area as I had considered.

I am interested in my subject, but could use it in other ways.

I'm pretty good though...

Oh and yabu.

You don't need to be holier-than-thou-committed to be great at a job.

I don't miss the assemblies / sports days / nativities ... i just ask the head for a few hours unpaid leave ... am secondary though so probably much easier to arrange!

Anyone who goes in to teaching for the wrong reasons eg the holidays will no doubt be eaten alive when they step into a room of 35 teenagers - i imagine that anyone who goes into teaching who's not of the right temperament will be in for a very hard time indeed!

Also anyone who thinks the school day is short is in for a rude awakening!

It is 100% true though. Both taught from their 20s to retirement.
Both were also home before 5 every night, in fact they would make DH make his own way home from twice weekly rugby training as it finished at 6.30 and they were not prepared to hang around that long.

We actually got married in early august just to fuck them up

I love teachers. I have many as friends and they work unbelievably hard doing a job I couldn't. But it never rings quite true for when some claim that all teachers work equivalent hours to any other profession. Not after watching that for nearly 25 years

I have a kind of grudging admiration for them to be honest. They are like pigs in shit

dozer I totally agree. I am a complete teacher-bore and I know others who teach fabulously and don't let it consume them. To do that, though, you need experience. Just getting to grips with your class/classes in a way which ensures you meet the ASN of every one as quickly as possible takes hours of extra time.

I hope she loves it and is fab - it's sad for the kids (both pupils and the those of unhappy teachers) otherwise

I do love teaching, but I don't understand how anyone can coast in it.

Unfortunately, there are also major downsides. I'm still sporting the bruises from breaking up a massive fight before the holidays. A fight which started because one boy said he was better at something on the x-box than another and ended with one of them punching me because I was 'in the way'. If I didn't love the job I don't know how I'd have gone in the next day.

I mentor trainee teachers, and my limited experience would fit with the idea that motivation does not predict performance as a teacher.

The whole teaching as a vocation thing - well...

I love that it is an important job. I teach in an area of high deprivation, many challenging students. It's not an easy job, but it certainly makes a difference to be a good teacher in my school. But the passion does not in itself make a good teacher. I had someone in my department who had a passionate desire to educate, loved the kids, etc etc. She was a very poor teacher indeed. She is no longer in my department...

Why dont they try to get an non teaching term time job? I know a few people who work term time and non in schools.

I was tempted to become a maths teacher because I love maths and it annoys me when people say 'what's the point in algebra you never use it in real life' (like I did at 14). Then I remember I don't like most kids.

Well they're both nutters then. I doubt they are going to very happy in their chosen careers

I disagree that you have to have the right motivation to be successful.

You just need to be good at the job.

You won't be eaten alive by year 9 if you are a good teacher, even if you only went into it for the holidays.

I've worked with competent (not brilliant) teachers who were in it for the holidays.

I once worked with an absolutely inspirational teacher who changed to that as a career for a slower pace of life.

He had worked in the City before teaching and having a job that was important and creative and fun really made him happy. You should have seen the hours he put in - he did about 3 separate extra-curricular activities a week.

The students adored him.

And he really loved his holidays every summer.

I don't think you can say that being motivated partly by generous holidays means someone will be a bad teacher.

One of my friends did this after she had kids. She actually found she quite enjoyed it though, so it doesn't always have to have a negative ending.

Ah Dozer I believe you! I suppose it saddens me in the same way some people think I became a police officer for the pay and pension

I'm a sucker for the idea of a Dead Poets Society type of teacher. Plus I have a friend who worked her fingers to the boneas head of biology and ended up off sick. I admit I felt indignant, in a somewhat groundless fashion, that this is why someone would choose to teach.

I've been lucky to have had some great teachers. I chose history A level partly because of one of the teachers. I get all weird and passionate about it

DH can never see school plays, assemblies or sports day. He can never help out if one of the DC are sick during term time. Can't help out when DC have an inset day. There is more holiday but no flexibility. Thankfully my job can provide the flexibility.

I think it is nigh on impossible to be a float along kind of teacher nowadays, there is just so much pressure.

The holidays are good for parents, that is true, but to never get to a sports day, nativity, concert etc. kind of balances that one out I think.

fallenmadonna I have lived that - excited as a puppy in Build a Bear but no plan to speak of. Makes for a lesson! However, for the amount of prep required - certainly in the early days - surely motivation must make a difference. If someone is only thinking about the next holiday the 12 weeks between one and the next must be tough going.

I think teaching breeds or encourages martys. I hear colleagues talking about being in school from 7am until 7pm then working more at home. That's fine if it makes you happy but in my experience it doesn't. Kids need you to have some energy left over. I am sure the martyrdom comes from much of the teacher-bashing which gets bandied about. I suppose we should be delighted there is anyone left over who still fancies a shot

I look at my friends who have to struggle to find 6 weeks worth of childcare during the summer, and actually I think it does outweigh missing sports day.

"it annoys me when people say 'what's the point in algebra you never use it in real life'"

You could say that about an awful lot of stuff in schools. Point is, we're not just animals who learn only the tasks necessary to survive, or machines being programmed to supply "useful" products and services. Education for its own sake is one of the things which makes us human :)