To be mildly irritated by most tiring job ever?

[brasty]

A friend who is a teacher has been saying how exhausted she is, and that only other teachers would understand. She is not joking. AIBU to be mildly irritated by this? Yes teachers do a hard job, but there are other jobs that are also exhausting.

You can't plan lessons effectively if you don't know the kids. The best time to plan a lesson is after you've taught the previous lesson and you know how it went down.

When I have planned in advance, I've ended up ripping up the plans and doing something different anyway.

Ironic that many of the responses prove the "only a teacher would understand" statement that the OP started the thread for. People need to try and be empathetic before passing judgment.

Any demanding job where there is little support is all the more stressful as there are feelings of it not being fair, that expectations are unreasonable.

My DFriend was a teacher, her last class had a child who would lob stuff round the room. No chance to move him or exclude as there was no funding for this available (As I understand it if you exclude you must fund the excluded pupil's one to one home tuition). So HT not interested.

The DCs seem to accept this type of things as the norm. Sad.

Yes, it's annoying. First because it is exhausting - nearly all my family are teachers - but there are other jobs that are just as exhausting or more so. Junior doctors, for example. Or as a junior lawyer, I often worked 24-36 hours without a break. Secondly because nobody wants to hear how tired someone else is. These things are all relative!

Where I do think teaching is fucking hard is that you are always on display. You can't shut your office door and glower at a contract like I can (even if it's 2am, not 2pm!). I remember when my friend's mother died, her brother had to go into school the next day, and kids can be pretty merciless if there's any sign of weakness.

Although another friend's husband recently tried this line about why he shouldn't have to do any of the night time wakings for their baby. Apparently his job (in sales) is more exhausting than anything else, esp law or teaching, so he should never have to have a broken night's sleep...

The curriculum has recently changed which has made more work. It takes times time to read through and check you're 'teaching the right thing'. You have to make sure you are covering the correct objectives and the children are making progress. I do three days a week and write a new maths plan every week, I'm pretty swift, but it a good few hours on a Saturday. My school don't use textbooks so
I spend (waste) time looking online for relevant resources. Then as I differentiate three, sometimes four ways, it's not simply a case of finding one sheet that all can do. Then obviously you have to mark their work so that's 30 books for maths, 30 for Literacy, 30 for Science, 30 for Guided Reading and 30 Reading Diaries. (That's my Wednesday). I teach year 3 so it's not the same as a secondary English teacher, but it's a fair bit of marking and a simple tick won't do.

I NEVER used to complain about my job, I enjoyed it and of course the holidays were great. However, it's changed. The expectations for the children are ridiculous and it has impacted in staff. (All staff, TAs for the money they earn are run into the ground). I feel so gutted the way it is heading.

But it isn't a competition. I can honestly say I really don't think teachers believe they have'the most tiring job'. We're not all sat around talking up how hard it is. We're more likely to say how it's now harder for the children. I can totally appreciate how hard other jobs are in their own specific way; it isn't a competition.

*Today 07:39 MrsGB2015

Someone said before that they taught 3 days a week (so assuming 5 hours a day teaching, that's 15 hours teaching a week). But they would regularly work 70 hour weeks. So 15 hours teaching and 55 hours planning and marking. Something has to be going wrong here!! Why does it take so long?! If you know the curriculum, can you not plan the lessons in advance in school holidays?! It just seems so inefficient to an outsider.*

This sort of sums up the OP saying that her teacher friend felt only teachers understood, doesn't it?!

This statement below is so insulting, I don't really know where to begin, so I won't.

why does it take you so long?

something has to be going wrong here. Says it all. Sadly, it's not the teachers that have got it wrong.

in my limited experience (Y2 trainee teacher) planning works as follows:
Maths and Literacy each day - power point for both, work-sheets for both, each lesson differentiated for lower and higher ability children so usually 3 lots of worksheets. Other lessons such as ICT, topic etc also need plans and resources, but are more practical. you need to get all models planned and worked out beforehand and enough materials for the class. Then at the end of each day 2x30 books to mark. Each piece of work needs to be marked thoughtfully and helpfully with an encouraging comment at the end. It takes me an hour to mark each lot of books. Although the work is not arduous, it's time consuming and needs close attention to detail. Children deserve high quality presentations and respectful marking. You can't really just dash it off. All of the teachers I have met are really committed to making sure that their children get the very best imput, whether that's lesson plans, room displays, trips.
I'm not saying that teachers have it worst, working with children is amazing, just trying to explain where the hours go (for me anyway).

Pointless bickering over who has it hardest. I'm fairly sure teaching isn't the hardest job on the world ever. But I'm sure it up there, and being demotivated and undervalued must make it even harder.

something has to be going wrong here. Says it all. Sadly, it's not the teachers that have got it wrong.

^^ This.

It doesn't have to be like this. It's all the pointless paperwork and constant changes that doesn't help the students in any way. I taught in 2 other countries before moving back to England. I loved my job before, I worked hard but managed to have a social life and see my family and felt like I was really helping those children to achieve the best they could.

I lasted a year and a half teaching in a state school here because fuck spending hours and hours to tick boxes and make sure that the data looked good.

State education is not about the children in this country, it's all about what looks good on a spreadsheet. So what if little Johnny's grandma has died and his parents are divorcing, he needs to be at age related expectation.

It's not exhausting, it's soul sapping.

After working in the system I am seriously worried for my own children's education.

No, it's not just teachers who have a difficult job but I think the fact that so many teachers are leaving should be something we should all be concerned about. (And nurses, and social workers.....)

Everyone has got their own shit going on, we need to be supporting each other.

MrsGB you can't just use the same lesson plans again. There are different kids with different needs. Maybe I taught top set last year and bottom set this year. The same stuff wouldn't work. If I tried to use the same lesson then all hell would break loose (cue parental complaints, SLT involvement, support plan, competency, the sack)

Then there's making the resources to help differentiate, annotated seating plans with all of your key student identified (new one every half term), intervention lists, planning for your TA, classroom displays, new curriculum, triple impact marking, report writing, responding to parent complaints emails, printing paper resources, entering data and department/pastoral meetings. That could all be happening in one day.

Absolutely jelly frizz.

And Mrs GB, it's hard to plan when both new GCSE and A'level syllabi were only ratified at the very last minute for some subjects.

Pointless, pointless bating thread. Purely designed to wind everyone up.

Like nursing if education levels fall they up the work that teachers must do.
Never put more money in, recruit more staff (they say they recruit more but if many are leaving there is not advantage) and new staff aren't as experienced. So there is a constant drain.

It's does seem inefficient to an outsider... Because it is. It's the same for most of the public sector. Ask anyone who works in the nhs, education, local government etc and they will all be able to point out inefficient practice, money wasted on ridiculous new systems. And the ground floor staff take on the burden of this inefficiency. A well run organisation would consult the actual staff and develop better working practice that strikes a balance with everyone but that doesn't happen.

I've taught for over a decade. I have never yet been able to use the same plans two years in a row. Either there is a change of year group, or a new initiative has been brought in that means you now need to incorporate x, y and z or teach in x new style, or focus on a different area of the Curriculum. For example, last year in maths my school bought in a new scheme to follow. This year we are abandoning it to focus on "maths mastery". The trouble is, so many new initiatives are constantly being brought in that there never seems to be enough time to prove if anything works!

Anyway, I don't work Mondays, so I'm off to go and finish some assessments in my "time off"!

I think all jobs are tiring just from the nature of getting up etc the commute. I am a teacher but my husband is an engineer who works 12 hr shifts and it is hands on and sometimes labour intensive, so on times he works physically harder than me!
I wouldn`t like to be a shop worker or work for a delivery company this time of year as I imagine it is chaotic. Plus all the party events going on in clubs/pubs/restaurants.
As a PP said, being at home, without a break or respite, must be tiring too. I can only just remember what it was like to be at home. I think that made me go into teaching!
So I think all jobs are just as tiring, some of us moan about it, others just get on!

I'm a childminder. It is the most tiring job of all time. Okay, so I only have max six children at a time, but three of those are TWO.

After a big corporate career and children, I'm currently doing a PGCE. If I didn't have all my university work on top, it would be a doddle. I'm in school 7-5 each day and have ample time to get things done. I'm doing well on the course. I'm constantly surprised at what teachers moan about. Try a real world job and then moan! Most are gone by four and still complain! And I come from a family of teachers...

Yes a lot of jobs are tiring, but I do think teaching is one of the most exhausting jobs out there. Working in an office, I am convinced, does not begin to compare.

I do have some experience of part-time teaching at an FE college, and even though I never even did a full day it was way more tiring than far more high powered jobs I have done!

I'm constantly surprised at what teachers moan about. Try a real world job and then moan!

'Real world job'. Yeah alright love.

Sprinklestar Are you in the first term of a PGCE, i.e. teaching nothing approaching a full timetable? From my memory of my husband doing his - come back and tell us all what a doddle it is in May, or this time next year...

I was a Teacher for 8 years, left to get a "real job" never been happier ! There is so much Teacher bashing that it is impacting the attitudes of children !

Sprinklestar, you are not qualified yet and shouldn't be taking a full tt. Planning SOW's etc. Wait until you do and see what it's like!

Sprinklestar- I hear empathy and thoughtfulness are useful in teaching....

Teaching is very tiring. its no life.
i'm leaving the profession soon and going back to a job where i can have my life back.
the holidays are not worth it.
i wouldn't recommend anyone to be a teacher.