to be annoyed about the end of the scool holidays?

[maxpower]

Only because I'm so sick of listening to and reading fb posts about all the poor teachers who are having to go back to work after 6 weeks off. There are many workers who don't get 6 weeks holiday for a whole a year never mind in one go. I've just read some drivel on fb about how - while I'm 'watching tv' - some self sacrificing teacher is writing a lesson plan to benefit my child. This the post stressed is unpaid. Oh woe is s/he. How about the 5+ unpaid hours I worked this week over and above the full time job I do? Oh and just to clarify, when I got home from work I spent an hour coaching my daughter for school entrance exams, when I discovered that all the amazing teachers she's had have not taught her about calculations involving 'parts' or indeed how to work out the area of a triangle.

So forgive me if I don't lament over how tough it is to have to go back to work (where the rest of us have been all summer long).

I get this. My husband is military as were my parents and I. This is not a 'my job is harder than your job' post, but I can't remember the last time I saw my husband for longer than 2 days. It is not always this way, sometimes he is away for 4-6 months at a time but then we get 2 weeks to see him afterwards. I see posts like this on Facebook et al and it really boils my piss. I work full time and ds 6 goes to breakfast club and holiday club and has been at holiday club 8-6 all holidays as I only get 22 days holiday a year (5-8 for xmas so really only around 17 days a year). I appreciate teachers, I really do, but there is always someone worse off.

Perhaps if that bit of Facebook feed annoys you so much you might be advised to unfriend or unfollow the teachers on your friend list.

My commiserations that leaving teaching turned out so negatively for you.

I'm a teacher and today I posted a meme about going back to work...it was funny, not a moan. I posted it for the 50+ teacher friends I have on Fb, not for the other friends who are not. Didn't even occur to me that it might piss anyone else off. People post on Fb for specific audiences don't they?

It's one thing that's always irritated me... Teachers saying they work 50+ hours a week or whatever, taking into account their unpaid overtime but then saying others work 35 hours a week.. their unpaid overtime not counting a jot..

Max Maybe proofreading your op would have been a good idea.

Here we go again

I feel for you notahope

Ilovesooty please be assured I like my job. It's tough (just like teaching) but it doesn't mean I don't want to do it.

As in, if I repost a messAge about a woman's right to breastfeed in public, for example, I know that the people who will repond to it are more likely to be women, mothers, partners of new mothers etc. I don't worry that the friends who it's not relevant to will get offended.

ex teacher here. I think there's a huge difference in age taught, primary workload is far less than secondary and I empathise with the stress, especially around exam time. However, in my mind a job is there to be done and if you're not willing to put the time in to do it properly then you're not the right person for it. In my job I regularly work 20-30h overtime and have to be available / on call on holidays but yes my salary is higher. When you divide it out over the year it's really not that much more per hour worked than teaching however.

I think a lot of teachers are guilty of martyring themselves because although they do work hard, they know the benefits are significant yet despise the perceived implication that they're lazy.

Everyone likes to feel appreciated, but I think everyone will acknowledge that in every profession there are people whose needs or self appreciation exceeds perhaps the views others have of them. OP it sounds like your friend was one of them.

Keep up Highlandfling - that was covered a wile ago :-)

Constant change.
Students with all kinds of additional needs and horrendous things happening at home.
Management breathing down your neck all the time. Constant observation and pressure.
Being expected to meet ridiculous targets that students sometimes have no hope of meeting.
Vilified by parents and disrespected by students.
OFSTED.
The reports and assessments and writing schemes of work and planning and filling in of pointless forms and training in your own time and the intervention and fielding calls from Mrs A whose darling child has never done anything wrong and you just have it in for them.
And a laptop that doesn't work and no room to teach in.
And health issues from the stress and heavy lifting.
The fear of being assaulted. And knowing you won't be supported or kept safe if this happens.
Working until midnight and up at the crack of dawn to start again.
No time for your own family. No energy or emotional strength for them.
Knowing each year that more will be expected of you.
The nightmares about facing all this for another year.

*While (jeez......)

Wolfie I get it. It's tough. I could write a very similar list about my job.

Good thread! Very entertaining! Only the crap teachers take 6 weeks holiday (well, 5 weeks & 3 days this year). They're not dedicated & thank goodness the vast majority are. We work hard & are proud to say we earn our holidays (where we ALWAYS take work home or spend days/weeks tidying & creating lovely spaces & plans for our new classes)
Best job in the world...!

Fruit box so tell me what significant benefits teaching brings please. Unpaid holidays, a decreasing pension and unappreciative clients?

Jennn I have no doubt that you work hard and earn your holidays.

So do I.

YANBU I too believe that teachers do an incredible job, and have a huge amount of respect for them. Don't like hearing the martyrdom crap all the time though, like they don't get paid, or were duped into going into teaching under false pretences or something. Yes, I have been a teacher, never expected pity for it, it's like any vocation or job - you're not doing it with a gun to your head ffs

Posting in between dealing with a child who won't sleep so behind.

Max are you paid for your holidays?

here is a gift for you :)
Alternatively don't have teacher friends on facebook.

Piece you know the answer to that :-)

I don't think it's surprising that teachers are defensive given the attitude of society to them, complaints from parents, defiance or worse from pupils, the disdain from the government and the fact that such a culture of blame exists.

Boney what is it? Can't make it out on my phone.

Some teachers in the family so difficult to cut them out!

fruitboxjury
"ex teacher here. I think there's a huge difference in age taught, primary workload is far less than secondary"

Not according to the workload survey, (not a primary school teacher).

maxpower

It would be a grip.