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.

I did a 2 year sponsored Pgce to teach in further education. I concluded rapidly that there were far easier ways to earn 30 -35k a year before I even took into account the fact that there were no permanent jobs and most of it was zero hours contracts so in reality no paid leave anyway. I now do an audit job for the same money. I get 29 days holidays and work 8.30 to 4.30. Literally have never brought ant work home. That for me is a better balance. It's a pain finding and paying for holiday clubs but that is easy to chuck money at. I concluded that teaching was a vocation and I just didn't have the patience for.

Definitely agree with the finding strategies thing, also making sure you aren't procrastinating and wasting time is important.

I had a whole new A level to plan and prep for in the time after the y13s left this year and its done, there will need some tweaking but that can be done in term time.

People over plan in teaching, people try to reinvent the wheel, I've outlined how I've spent my time at school way up thread. But in th 6 weeks I'll do little more than check the A level and GCSE results, and then maybe go in during the last week of term to do bits and pieces.

I've said it to NQTs before, time management is everything, and then its experience. When you are learning how to mark, or some of the content it can be very, very hard.

Although if you work in an academy I can see the work load being even more oppressive than my 55 odd hour week.

I broke up on Wed last week and have done the square root of fuck all school work since. Will go in for a few days the week after next and then be in pretty solidly from GCSE results - but after 22 years fuck it, I'm not giving up my holidays

smallfox2002
I had a whole new A level to plan and prep for in the time after the y13s left this year and its done

Sorry if this is a stupid question, what do you mean by, in the time after the y13s left ?

smallfox you're saying that the OP isn't working smart, without knowing anything about her situation. It's a bit patronising and simplistic to assume she needs to find better strategies and to stop procrastinating/time wasting. You don't know anything about how she works. Is it impossible that she just does have a lot of work to do?

The year 13s finish their A levels and leave before official end of term

I wasn't being patronising at all, I said its hard if you are new, or if you are having to learn the content. With some of the changes going on, some teachers are having to learn content that they didn't do at degree level and have never taught before. So I can see how hard it is.

I also said that if people were in academies the work load can be far higher than if you are in an old style comp, and its not always meaningful work!

There is a thing about people having strategies, some people need help to find them too, I mentor NQTs and have seen them work huge hours doing all the things asked for them, put lots of effort into things that someone else is just going to look at, tick a box, then never look at again.

The OP says she's been teaching for 13 years, so not an NQT. Clearly everyone can always learn new strategies, but I'll ask again, is it impossible that the OP just does have a lot of work to do in the holidays for reasons beyond her control? If yes, then is she deserving of empathy and sympathy? Or does she have to suck it up in order to preserve the reputation of the teaching profession?

I didn't not give empathy did I?

Fucking hell, I am very supportive of everyone in the profession, its not a criticism to say, maybe you need to find strategies. Or highlight to your employer that you are being over worked.

Seriously, if the OP is going to spend 3 weeks of the 6 planning and preparing for next year that would count as being over worked !

I'm a teacher. I tend to have the first two weeks 'off' - one week holiday (not this year though, can't afford) and one week decorating. Then the next two weeks I work one day, play with my kids the next day, etc. Final week go into school all day and each day to prepare the classroom. OP I hope things improve for you. All teachers know the following: If you cock up in teaching 30 plus pupils know, 60 plus parents know, management know and often Ofsted too. What an audience to perform too. No wonder we feel pressure! I've worked in other professions before. I never felt the same pressure. My husband who works in retail earns the same as I do and does the odd hour at home but not hours and not every night. I feel jealous of him and ask him to bear me in mind for future jobs lol!

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 have to say it's this dichotomy I disagree with.

I've been teaching for 18 years and up to a few years back, didn't use to work holidays...

But for me it is the demands of the course changes, and personally I find the insinuation that I just need to work more effectively / find better strategies really insulting. After 18 years, I do know what I'm doing!

However, my point is that for some the changes have had much greater impact than for others. For example, my colleagues who teach Sociology have been able to adapt their materials so the changes have had little impact on them. For me, I've got major new topics to learn and to write materials from scratch.

I also work somewhere where the standard teaching load is 27 hours a week. All A level teaching. There's little downtime in term time, so doing the planning now will keep me same term time. It is my strategy for reducing work term times.

I really can't see why it is so difficult to accept that teachers have different circumstances / different situations.

For me, I've got a tough 5 years, but once it's done, I will go back to not working holidays and weekends. But that does not negate the work I need to do now.

I would honestly say in 18 years of teaching, I would say now is the toughest I've had in terms of work load. But this is my work circumstances - I only teach exam classes (over 90% A level), Large classes (average of over 20 in a class) so lots of marking), a full time teaching timetable of 27 hours per week (although some of that for me is management) and having to implement major changes to my course. It's not just a case of tweaking lesson plans - it's majorly learning new scholars, new topics I've never studied or taught before and as I have already said, without any text books to guide me. As a small subject, I don't have the luxury of just buying a text book that has got the material pre published. I'm having to read the original texts (philosophy - so often very complex and several with a reading age of 21+) and turn that into a format that 16 year olds can understand.

It's not lack of strategies, or being a naive teacher... It's the demands of having major changes implemented at the last minute.

Being a teacher in the UK is a rubbish and low-paid occupation.

This. There are many other rubbish and low-paid occupations, of course, but they differ in two respects: 1. The general public don't assume simply because they went to school themselves, that they know all about how to do that job and 2. The other jobs don't require anything like the qualifications that teachers need now. I've got a degree and a PGCE and I earn just under £25k. It's shit. I could go and get an admin job for £18k and not have sleepless nights, work-filled evenings and weekends and the latest teaching fads thrown at me every year. However this is the job I've worked for and the state has paid for me to train to do.

Then there's the whole Government hatred for teachers on top of that. The league table system. The lack of resources for children with SEN/ SpLD etc.

Not trying to make you angry, sorry if that's how it comes across. I did both of those things (find strategies and highlight to my employer) and was met with "suck it up" basically, from my line manager and from the head. So I resigned. Now happily not teaching, working in a 9-5 office job for the same pay, and take no work home. I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone in the OPs position, if you get the chance.

SpeakNoWords this is because SLT are all climbing up the greasy pole and there's no room for individual, original thought any more.

Teachers only get 28 days paid holidays a year. The statutory. They only get paid for 195 days of school year, the rest is unpaid. The salary is split over the 12 months.

I was a teacher for 11 years and now work in an office 9-5. I don't miss the holidays, because I don't need them as much.

I only teach A level, and I'm the head of department with responsibilities for other things within the school as well. So I do understand where you are coming from atlik, 3 classes of y12 and 3 classes of y 13, all with 20 or more in the class.

I also get to teach on A level courses that are non speciality, in the same year as managing an NQT on one hand, and the HEAD on the other.

All circumstances are different its true. Sorry if it came across like I didn't accept that.

Smallfox managment strategy no 1: If you get asked to do something and its not urgent and it goes to the bottom of the list, don't do it until someone asks for it again, often you find that people don't ask you, so it was never that important.

The thing is some subjects may not have changed much either here in Scotland or down there in England but others have.

Substantially so in some cases :- what with technology/science/ environmental issues/IT moving on in the last decades.

There are many other rubbish and low-paid occupations, of course, but they differ in two respects: 1. The general public don't assume simply because they went to school themselves, that they know all about how to do that job and 2. The other jobs don't require anything like the qualifications that teachers need now.

This.

I really actually do love my job. I have thought several times this year about leaving and realised that i would really miss the kids if I did jack it in.

But when I have been at the end of my tether with the ridiculous hours and the crappy pay and the general gobshiteyness of it all, the thought that most people out there, who have not stepped foot in a school sinsinthey left themselves, judging me for having what they see as an easy cushy job, really is the final kick in the bollocks.

Sorry, I know that final paragraph has ridiculous punctuation but it is the summer holidays

And the thing is the holidays are great. I have friends having the annual struggle with holiday childcare while I don't need to worry. But if people understood that the holidays aren't a perk but a trade off for hundreds of hours of unpaid over time and never seeing your kids in term time, it would be nice

That's how I see it Brandon, its part of the package.

I asked a friend of mine what her "package" at work included, she does work hard and needs to be highly qualified.

The list included, gym membership, 32 days holiday, flexi time, discounts on food from high street stores. She didn't think things like the staff parties and Friday drinks paid for by the company were perks.

We get the holidays.

Yes smallfox we have had a few staff parties in the school hall actually they were quite good fun as we just got hammered

But certainly no open bar staff dos in these parts!

Mmm thinking of teacher perks... I once nicked a pencil sharpener and took it home

My head lets us have a glass of wine during the leavers speeches at the end of year, its always warm and it means sitting through two hours of people you barely know talking.

Great.

YANBU. Never. Going. Back.