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'

Actually, thinking about it, after I've been teaching for years I sincerely hope it never takes me 2 hours to plan a lesson. The head of department at my current school teaches amazing lessons and only plans using a notebook and a few bullet points.

You haven't mentioned it to me, I haven't read all of your posts.

It's a bit like all those women who decide exactly how things will be when they have children; and what will and won't happen with behaviour and food and sleep, and how their life will be raising a baby, toddler, child teenager etc.
And people who have practical experience try and point out that it might not work out like that. But most prospecive parents have to believe that it will, or most would never get pregnant.
It just ends up as a series of polarised arguments.

'Yes - teachers needing to research the subject before writing the lesson plan just isn't great in many ways.'

If it's basic knowledge, I agree, If it's how to interpret that subject to a class with varying ability levels, how to break it into steps then that's different.
Or if you are teaching to an exam curriculum, you need to research what are the key points and areas to focus on.
I know my Chaucer, and my Shakespeare. I'd certainly research if I was teaching them to a class.

Yes Goblin, but if you were researching from scratch, it'd take a lot longer wouldn't it? Having that foundation of subject knowledge on Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc, surely makes it easier for you to do your research and then easily decide what you are going to focus on in your teaching. If you didn't have that subject knowledge it would be a near-impossible task.

There is nothing wrong with taking time to plan lessons sometimes. This year I am teaching a new GCSE spec. I took a long time planning the lessons for how to introduce the external assessment element. It's complex, it's new and I wanted to ensure that my students knew exactly what was required of them. 6th form lessons sometimes take a long time to plan. I have excellent subject knowledge but that doesn't mean I know every play that has ever been written.

You're doing English, right? Have you got a good working knowledge of every book and poem written ever?

I agree LeP. It's why the new primary curriculum will hold fewer terrors for me, with my knowledge of pre-Norman history and my interest in Mayans.

MsFiremanSam, I have had experience teaching in a school for EBD pupils, I'm not full of it, and I'm not naive. At least, I'm only as naive as your average enthusiastic student teacher.

EvilTwins I suppose I probably am not counting the time I spend reading the books on the spec as part of my lesson planning - you're right, in that case, it does take longer.

Gosh, LePamplemousse we had an NQT much like you last year. Agree re: 'cheap and cheerful and confident'.

In 5 years' time, you'll either have had some of the nonsense knocked out of you & be a competent practitioner, or (40% likelihood) you'll be doing something else, & a terrible waste of all that expensive training it'll be too.

Your planning would emphatically not pass muster in my school. Now, I could teach just as well without quite a lot of the guff & you possibly could too, although experience does help with that, but I'm required to provide evidence that I know what I'm doing, & my HOD is required to produce evidence that she knows that I know what I'm doing...& so on up the foodchain.

The Schemes of Learning I write in the holidays are where that process starts - I won't list all the things I have to include, as previous posters have already clarified it for you. I do find it quite surprising that you've got this far through your PGCE without having your planning scrutinised, to be honest - you've had an easier ride than most!

And no ET I haven't got a good working knowledge of any poem or play ever written but I have a developed understanding of literary theory and how to analyse a text, which obviously helps me and makes teaching English easier than it perhaps is for some of my friends. They are excellent in other ways and many of them are better than me in various ways -- but I do think that lack of subject knowledge can really hold people back.

I'm just trying to say that I accept it's probably easier for some of us on the course to plan lessons quickly than it is for others.

I really don't understand why I'm annoying everyone so much! I've REPEATEDLY said I know I've got a lot to learn. I did mention my gradings and feedback, but only in response to people assuming I must be doing badly on my PGCE. I certainly am not 'full of it' and I know that anyone posting on this forum who is a qualified teacher will doubtlessly be a better teacher than I am. However, I do have an opinion.

What's wrong with being cheerful and confident? And I can't help it that I'm cheap.

"Your planning would emphatically not pass muster in my school. Now, I could teach just as well without quite a lot of the guff & you possibly could too, although experience does help with that, but I'm required to provide evidence that I know what I'm doing, & my HOD is required to produce evidence that she knows that I know what I'm doing...& so on up the foodchain."

Yes, but is this right? I think it's totally wrong that you are expected to do this.

I have my planning scrutinised all the time and it's always been fine. I write SOWs in the holidays and then write more detailed LPs and sort out resources on a lesson-by-lesson basis.

You might have had experience in a challenging school, but 'experience' isn't the same as having full responsibility for those classes with slt breathing down your neck asking why 80% aren't on c grades despite 60% attendance/constant poor behaviour/inadequate literacy etc.

I think I'm a good student teacher, NOT as good as a qualified teacher who has been teaching for years - obviously. I'm not remotely full of myself and of course have lots of self-doubt, like any teacher.

Absolutely it's not, MsFiremanSam! Where have I implied I know what it's like to be a qualified teacher? I have only spoken from the perspective of a PGCE student.

In the title of the thread?

Got to go out now.
LeP, there is nothing at all wrong with being cheerful and confident, however sometimes it might irritate others. That's life, isn't it?
Good luck, and I do hope that things work out well for you.

Wistful, old teacher with 36 years experience here.
You have youth and energy on your side and no other commitments outside of your job. That should help you somewhat in your NQT year which will be extremely hard work and all consuming. I remember my first year very clearly even though it was back in 1978. I worked at school until about 5, came home, had my tea, did a bit more work and was asleep by 9pm every night. The pay was so low then that I also had a Saturday job and did more school work on Sunday mornings.
Totally unmanageable at that level for me once I had my first child.
If you are determined you have chosen the right vocation though, best of luck to you, I have enjoyed so much of my teaching career.
Not the last 5 years though, hence early retirement and on the supply list of a few local select schools!
I can not see new teachers clocking up a long career of 36 years anymore, it has become far too exhausting ( and nonsensical). Or maybe that is just an observation of a late 50's teacher.
Us oldies can not put everybody off teaching though, as their will be none left to teach our precious grandchildren/future grandchildren!

MsFireman - LeP is not the original op.

LeP - I know that I said I wasn't going to comment any more but I would like to offer you some advice; whilst it may seem that there some of us who maybe cynical sometimes - we are experienced and therefore our points are valid and worth listening to rather than dismissing them after 7 months of training on a limited timetable with no responsibilities.

If you only take one thing from this thread - please take this "listen and learn from a range of experiences"

'Yes - teachers needing to research the subject before writing the lesson plan just isn't great in many ways.'

I sometimes spend an hour or two planning a single lesson. Our exam texts for IGCSE and sixth form change regularly - increasingly frequently to texts/writers that I haven't heard of before. I have an extensive knowledge of English literature and good working knowledge of American literature, but not so much with African or Asian literature. So, this involves me researching not only the text and writer's history, but also the history, politics and sociology of a particular place to draw links between the context and the writer's intentions.

I would be concerned if teachers didn't do this when teaching new texts.

For texts I have taught before, I look for expanding my knowledge of the context / finding more exciting/challenging extension tasks / finding links to current events (the more recent the better) etc.

I'm constantly learning. I would worry if any teacher thought that they knew everything about their subject and how to teach it.

Goblin, I'd rather irritate others by being cheerful and confident than by being the opposite.
cricketballs I'm absolutely not dismissing advice and I have taken lots of it on this thread particularly regarding the fact that NQT will be a big shock in terms of workload. I absolutely bloody love teaching though and this has been the happiest year of my life so I'm hoping that my enjoyment of teaching will carry me through though. I do find it rather patronising that you're telling me to listen and learn from a range of experiences when you don't know me at all.

JennyCalendar I also think extensive research is definitely necessary when teaching new texts. Thinking about it, if I count the time I spend reading and researching new texts, I spend many, many hours planning a SOW -- but I think because I enjoy this part of the job, I forget to think of it as work.
I'm obviously also learning constantly.

JennyCalendar - if you are constantly confronted by writers/texts to teach for public examinations that you haven't heard of, something (not necessarily you) is not right.

Gennz Sick leave is for me, if I am sick. The entitlement to leave for a child's hospital appointment is that if no cover can be found, there is no entitlement! Obviously, if my children were to be rushed into hospital, I would go with them but when my DS had an operation on his arm, which was planned, I had to be in work. Nice. It really does make you feel like the worst mother ever.

I'm sure you do LeP. I was responding to Bonsoir's post.

So maybe that's why your PGCE colleagues appear to be doing so many more hours planning than you? They are counting it and you aren't?

ah lectures from a pgce student about how easy teaching is - joy. double your lessons, add in the actual real intensity of paperwork involved when the students are your sole responsibility, take out the hand holding and the temporary placement survival element and stretch out a proper full year with full responsibility instead before you are too sure of how easy it is and what a natural you are.

for the record i too was the 'oh you're a natural', 'born teacher', 'naturally high expectations', ya da ya da student of my course too. i also got the highest exam grades of any teacher in any dept in my nqt year despite a timetable heavy with 'difficult' groups and supposed low achievers. didn't stop me hitting a brick wall of burnt out in my third year when they decided to pile up pressure even higher (give her all the worst classes, she can turn them around), change exam boards, recruit a hideous bully boy yes man as head of faculty (after getting rid of HOD posts to 'streamline'), switch from an upper to a secondary school with a period of split site working in the transition and various other factors. sounds extreme - but the thing is ime teaching and educational change IS extreme and it is the massive responsibility combined with the lack of power over change and systems and initiatives that is the hard bit.

yes, if you're gifted at it and positive and energetic it can seem a breeze at first but the reality of it and the constant changes and the frustration of change for change's sake when you can see it will make things worse, and the feeling of letting down kids (especially when you work somewhere long enough to know more of their backgrounds and issues and how little is being done, or can be done, to help them) is wearing. great teachers leave teaching all the time. it's not because they're shit at their jobs or just need to organise better. it's actually often because they are good at their jobs and have high standards and are capable of doing so well that they can't surrender to the reality and just turn up and go through the motions in order to achieve a work/life balance.