To think that YES, you can have reasonable hours and a good work/life balance as a teacher

[WistfulForTravel]

I'm 22, a 3rd year Primary Education BEd student, I love my degree and every assignment and placement cements the fact that teaching is my vocation and is what I want to do as a career.

However, I've been getting a lot of negative comments from my aunties and neighbors about how I'll never have a life again, how most of my waking hours will be consumed with thoughts of work, how I'll never even have one day to truly relax during the 13 weeks off, how it'll be a 7am - 9 pm job, etc.

I know teaching is more full on than some jobs, but is it really this intense? I am friends with a few teachers and they seem to have a healthy work/life balance (time for guys/sports/hobbies, at least one full weekend day off, out 1-3 nights a week) They have no kids though. I imagine it would be very different when you have kids.

Is it possible to practice effective time management + work very hard during the week so you can have the weekend off?

As much as I've enjoyed my course and look forward to my first class in September (eek!) my philosophy is more a 'Work to Live' not 'Live to Work'

OP is a 22 year old childless student though, so she should be able to live the dream for a few years.

Limited amount of contact with parents and resolving friendship issues too.
And at least if you have a child who is a challenge, in Secondary they are not yours every day for the year. Different challenges in both areas.

LeP - that can depend on the size of the school. I teach in a pretty small state comp. As a form tutor, I am the first port of call for patents and am expected to make contact about all manner of issues. As a subject teacher, it's up to me to contact home if I have issues with homework, attitude or attendance. We have 1 HOY for yrs 7&8, 1 for yrs 9&10 and 1 for yr 11 & 6th form. All are also subject teachers.

Can I suggest that you hold back on the assertions of "how it is" until you're a little more experienced? As a PGCE student you will not have a full time timetable and will not have responsibility for a tutor group, let alone for anything else.

A question for secondary school teachers. Do you get sessions in the day where you don't have a class? Is this your ppa or is it bonus time?

EvilTwins I'm only discussing and speculating from my experience and in effect replying to the OP -- I'm certainly not stating I know "how it is" at all! I'm just stating how I've found it so far on the course. I am perfectly aware it will get harder, but I see some of my friends working pretty much constantly now on their PGCE and I do wonder how they will cope with an increased workload during NQT if they are already working so hard on planning and evaluating etc.
I definitely don't think I can speak for anyone except for myself or comment on anything except my own experience.

That's PPA. It's 10% of the teaching load, so if you have a two week timetable of 50 teaching periods a full time teacher would get 5 frees periods per fortnight.

That's interesting about pastoral responsibilities being dependent on the size of the school etc.

It's common sense... Fewer teachers in a smaller school but the number of things that have to be done remain the same.

Thanks Evil. I don't know how anyone begins to time table secondary school days. Especially when it gets to the gcse years and you've got to make sure all children can be in all lessons.

Yes, it's common sense.

EvilTwins

Just saw your post to me earlier which I must have missed.
"LeP- if you're on a PGCE and you're doing "minimal planning" and marking in lessons, then I don't really think you're likely to be doing a terribly good job."

Yes, SOMETIMES, when you've got good subject knowledge, it IS possible to teach a lesson with minimal planning as a PGCE student and still do a good job. If I have the SOW already laid out from planning during previous lessons and I know the topic inside out, it is perfectly possible to simply collate my resources and go in there and teach it. I've received outstanding feedback from lessons which took me 10-20 minutes to prepare. I've had feedback though that I'm a "natural teacher" or a "born teacher" from different people on several occasions though so perhaps I do find it easier than some other people to teach a decent lesson with only minimal planning. Of course I'm no where near as good as teacher as those of you who have been teaching for years, but I refuse to accept that each and every lesson has to be planned to a meticulously detailed degree. And when my university tutor visited me recently he told my mentor that I am the best student they have on the course. So, actually, I reckon I am doing a decent job.

Try working in a small primary, I'm Maths leader, RE leader, PE leader, assessment leader, school council leader, Healthy schools coordinator and several other things I can't recall off the top of my head!! And class sizes aren't any smaller, I have 34 in my class, with no shared planning as there is no one to share with!!

And it's actually seen by some as good practice to add written comments to work while you are giving oral feedback - it reiterates what you are saying and helps the students to go back and redraft or improve in light of your feedback.

spanieleyes, that sounds quite tough!

How do you give oral feedback to 30 children at a time?

You're right Pample, it doesn't. My school requires a digital stored copy of the scheme of work and medium term plan. Beyond that it's entirely up to us. I don't write short term plans. I look at the objectives I need to cover, find or make any resources I need and just teach it, no planning required.

Sorry for typos and mistakes in my messages - on my phone.

Oh dear. Pride comes before a fall. Good luck with the rest of your career.

spaniel I don't! I will give feedback to a few children during the lesson whilst others are working on a task.

Thank you manicinsomniac, I try to copy teachers who work like you do.

I'd forgotten that bit, spanieleyes!
I did 4 years in a tiny school, around 120 pupils. I co-ordinated science, history, geography, RE and school grounds/ecology stuff. Before the internet, so no shared resources and links to double-click and download.
Very cozy.

EvilTwins Haha! Thanks. I'd never obviously be so 'proud' or share such comments with my friends on the course but in response to your assumption that I must be a shit teacher because I have a social life, I thought it pertinent to share those comments with you.

I think, LeP, that you're going to have a bit of a shock when you're no longer living the sheltered existence of a PGCE student, with the support you get in that role. For a start, the criteria for judging a student teacher is not the same as OFSTED criteria, so your good/outstanding lessons may not be good/outstanding when you're fully qualified.

As a PGCE student you are unlikely to be writing full schemes of work. As a class teacher with full responsibility for a class, you will be responsible for the progress of individuals, covering a range of ability and vulnerable groups. Differentiation, when done properly, takes planning. It's not just about subject knowledge. Even "natural teachers" (a term which makes me want to vomit) find classroom management an issue when they are new.

Certainly in my area, primary teachers don't tend to have schemes of work. We write a medium term plan each holiday to list what we will cover during the next half term. Then we have weekly planning which has to be done every weekend as it depends on what has happened the previous week! We need 5 pages for English, 5 pages for Maths and 5 pages for the rest. Marking has to be done every evening ready for the next day, at least 90 books a night-we have two stars and a wish for every piece, together with assessment on the planning or every lesson-who achieved and who didnt. it keeps us busy!!

Just brace yourself LeP, and choose your first school very carefully.
Many are run in an autocratic fashion and would not be impressed by an NQT deciding that the current practice in their school was not for her.
By all means try and suggest more efficient ways of doing things, but your prime objective is to pass the year, isn't it?

Out of interest, LeP, do you have a job for September?

Even "natural teachers" (a term which makes me want to vomit) find classroom management an issue when they are new. Yes!
Or you can be sailing along nicely for a few years, then a really challenging class comes along and you end up feeling at a total loss and completely de-skilled when all your strategies fail. It exhausts you and grinds you into the ground as you have to reinvent and implement strategies that work in your classroom but that also follow the advice of behaviour support service, PRU, etc.