Teacher rage

[Mozismyhero]

AIBU to think that as a teacher I should be allowed a holiday and not be sat here, on a sunny Saturday working while my children have fun with Daddy in the park? Or that I shouldn't have had to stay up until midnight every night last week working? Yes, I get 6 weeks off but I want to actually have them off, not spend half the time working and planning for next year. I love the kids I work with but the volume of work I do at home is draining me.

The workload definitely depends on what you teach. At DH's school they've been trotting out the same worksheets for RE for well over 10 years. Presumably the specification and assessment criteria hasn't changed in all that time.

And a lot of the departments wind down a couple of weeks before the end of term or once the Y11s have left. They are always surprised that Science (I can only speak for that one so no slight intended on any other subjects) is still going right to the last day.

Secondary English.

State or private?

YANBU. I'm on maternity leave, but took my DD in on the last day to say my farewells to colleagues who were leaving. Could not believe how much work other members of the department were being expected to do over the holidays (new schemes of work, new assessments, etc). Very glad that I'm not back for a few months yet.

I find I really need my classroom to access all the bits I need to work. Things need to change constantly when you see how each class is getting along. Working in the holidays wouldn't substitute for working during term time ime.
I don't work in the summer holidays. They are one of the biggest perks of the job so if that is taken away the job is less appealing overall, and I'd find it harder to justify the amount of work done in term time.

State, why? :)

Just wondering :-)

Can you share your tips for getting all your work done in term time? Perhaps it can help the inefficient teachers on this thread work smarter.

callher

For a teacher you seem to have very little empathy for other teachers.

Callher, English is one of the hardest subjects with the most changes due to the new specifications. Can you outline how you manage to complete all your planning and, the task that is more time consuming, marking in term time? Maybe I can learn from you.

Bit unfair, as I haven't stated anyone is inefficient.

However, since starting teaching I've been concerned by competitive stress and exhaustion and the constant insinuation, as evidenced in some of the posts here, that if you aren't working every hour God sends, exhausted, stressed and overworked, you're either not doing your job properly or you are some sort of cold superhuman.

That has a damaging effect because it makes every teacher think along the lines of 'more work means good work' (not always true) and 'if I am not doing X number of hours, I'm missing something' which also isn't true.

It's true that the examination syllabuses have changed, but the basic fundamentals of good teaching haven't and nor has the essence of the subject. English language and English literature are, after all, still English language and English literature - it isn't as if somebody has asked me to teach German literature or something! It isn't going to take me six weeks to read a novel or play I might not be as familiar with as in previous years and prepare some stuff on it.

We are all different. I don't think anybody is 'inefficient'; they obviously work differently to me, but I hate the assumption that all teachers work seventy hours plus a week and throughout the holidays and have no life. It's off putting to new teachers in the profession and it also just isn't believed by chunks of the population. I think people believe SOME teachers do but it's misleading to claim ALL do.

Cross posts but I think I've addressed both points.

Boney, I've actually got a lot of empathy. Where I do admittedly lose patience a bit is when I feel we are all forced into a position where a bit like the emperors new clothes, the one who says 'actually, my workload is reasonable' is shot down amongst loud protestations and denials that a teacher might be able to complete her work to a good standard and enjoy a perfectly balanced social life.

Incidentally if it is stemming from silly management instructions you have my full support. If you just want to spend ages over it because you're more conscientious than me you also have my full support, as it is a free country - but one persons experience doesn't speak for us all.

Other people have mentioned working smarter, not you, to be fair. But you seem critical of teachers that claim to need to do more work than you, so there is an implication that they're doing something wrong.

Are you aware that the content being taught in subjects can radically change - Computing/IT as was for example? What was taught 5 years ago is completely different to what is required to be taught now. Don't know if that makes a difference to what you think about it.

I have the utmost respect for teachers - dh and ds are both teachers. But this 6 weeks summer break is more than some people get for the entire year. Plus you get a week's half term break each term and 2 weeks for Easter and Christmas (assuming you work in a state school). So that's a total of 13 weeks (and I appreciate your pay reflects this)
I get 7 weeks paid holiday per year. Please don't think that teachers are the only professionals who have to work long hours, unpaid, outside their contracted hours.

Conceded, but then equally it has to be conceded that that goes the other way and that not every subject has had changes as dramatic as that. Yet the insinuation is always (and I'm definitely not just talking about this thread) that teachers are careworn, exhausted nervous wrecks, working until gone midnight, arriving in school at 6 and being thrown out when the caretaker leaves.

Now as I have said, if someone wishes to do this, it's their business - but the issue is when it becomes a case of competitive 'hard work' and I do think it's damaging to the profession. That's why I've been critical of it, not because I think the teachers concerned are doing anything wrong as such but the implication that that is what we are all doing, we must be - otherwise we aren't doing our jobs right.

Some SLT play on this and as I say it is extremely damaging.

callherwillow

I would never take one persons word on how they work to be the only way to work, but even the governments work time survey backs up the huge amount of hours that teachers work (I will put in here others work as hard , as many hours blah, blah, blah for those that will say that teachers are not the only ones that work hard).

The problem as I see it is that many of the things that we do get push upon us from on high, whether school management or government rhetoric. Arguing amongst our selves that we should work better or smarter, doesn't help as there is no set school method across the board.

My DSis is a teacher in a faith school in London, has been for years. She is also Head of Year and Head of Discipline.
She might do a day or two of work when she first gets her holidays but the rest will absolutely be time off.
She goes abroad, comes 'home' to see all of us for most of it.
She ever complains about the workload. She doesn't finish before 6 ever, and works later quite often but then who doesn't?
callher is spot on I think.

It's true that the examination syllabuses have changed, but the basic fundamentals of good teaching haven't and nor has the essence of the subject. English language and English literature are, after all, still English language and English literature

For you, but can you not see that for other people it may be different? For example, in RS the content that used to make up 1/2 of the course now has to squeeze into a third, and a world religion has to be taught. RS teachers up and down the country are busy learning new religions to be able to teach them to A level standard (particularly those who like me, have degrees in theology, not world religions and perhaps know enough to scrape by for KS3, but not for A level). It's a mammoth amount to learn, and not something where you can just be one step ahead of the students.

It's not about working harder or being more competitive, it's about the massive changes being forced on us. If you can get away with just a few weeks teaching - you're really lucky. I've essentially got to start from scratch again.... But learn the material first! (Thankfully not the world religion - my colleague is doing that!)

Never complains

I have only read the first post, but Moz, leave. You have no need to throw your life away in bondage, I promise you. It is a waste of your time here on on earth with your family. It robs people of years of their lives for absolutely nothing. The constant criticism, the 100+ hours a week, the lack of sleep, the not having time for meals, the relentlessness of it all, it pulls people to pieces. It is inhumane. Don't do it.

There is not need, there are other jobs. You can even carry on being a teacher if you want to, but move on from your current job. Some jobs are not as pressured as others, or at least start out that way, then build up over the years, changing round, you at least get the summer off, and an easier first year somewhere else, then move again. There are no shortage of jobs, thee is a massive shortfall of teachers. Many of the best have emigrated, or gone to day to day supply ( the ultimate in moving on before you get blocked in and built on!) If you insist of staying in this ridiculous charade of an education system, which treats teachers as disposable objects that can be used to destruction then replaced, then moving round different schools is the best way to survive. or move up.

I think there are some teachers, in some schools, in subjects with less change, that don't have to work very long hours. I don't know if they're the majority or not. I take your point that it's unfair to consider that they're not doing their jobs properly. Similarly it's also unfair to assume that those who do have lots of work to do over the holidays are working inefficiently. It's clear that it's perfectly possible for the demands of the subject and the expectations of the SLT to result in that being the case.

A1Sharon

what are your Dsis' timetabled hours (actual time in front of children teaching)

What about all the other school holidays? I have friends that are teachers, they do work outside school hours, but I have a lot of friends who are Nurses who earn far less money. I used to work 60 hours a week with 4 kids, not for luxuries, we didnt go away couldnt even afford fish and chips, just to keep a roof over our head. In the 80 when our mortgage rate went from 12% to 16% in 18 months, I had 4 jobs.

YANBU.
This is why I left teaching. I now have a Mo-Fri 9-5 office job and never ever work a minute outside office hours.
In my native country, where I was also a teacher, we had 10 weeks summer holidays and 50% ppa. Being a teacher in the UK is a rubbish and low-paid occupation.

I agree with much of what callherwillow says. I also teach English and have done for 20 years - it's just teaching the same stuff, sometimes a slightly different way. Modes of assessment and exam syllabi may change but students still need to have the same skills (with the odd adjustment here and there). I am neither negligent nor obsessive in how I do my job - the job is a great job and it is time consuming in places. It has ever been thus and I can tell you that teachers have always been in a state of 'we can't take any more of this!'

It's the nature of the job. You find strategies to deal with workload (or continue to enjoy working unnecessarily hard) and get on with it.

I meant to add that it is a job that will eat you alive if it gets the chance. Teachers need to be taught strategies to deal with this. We need to play the long game if we're looking for professional longevity.