Teacher attitude

[grumpyteacher1]

Have name changed for this as potentially a bit goady.

Read a few comments today about teachers wanting an 'easy' ride at work so looking at supply, for example. Also saw a comment about going back to teaching a couple of days for 'pin money' basically.

AIBU to think that this isn't the attitude you'd want in a teacher either as a colleague or as a parent?

I get that it's a hard and demanding job but is it one you could or should do half heartedly? Does hoping to go on supply imply a half hearted effort or is it just a defence mechanism.

Should note btw that I'm in Scotland and we don't appear jut now to have the same level of bullshit that our English colleagues have at the moment.

Defence mechanism against the current teaching climate that should have read.

Supply teachers, bank nurses, temp office workers and contractors.

No different. Do the job get paid go home.

Why should teachers opt for flexible working. Do you think they shouldn’t?

Lots of threads slagging off teachers lately.

Count yourself lucky that there’s anyone willing to stand in front of a class at the moment. It’s not a job that you’d be allowed to do half-heartedly, even for 2 days a week.

Supply is also no walk in the park.

Do you know how little some supply teachers through an agency get paid? No pension.

Absolutely. It's not a job that can be done half heartedly and that's my point.

I'm not really trying to flag off teachers. I am one. I'm concerned about some who think there is a soft option / way of teaching.

puts hard hat on

I did supply for a while because I'm disabled and needed the flexibility.

Yes it is easier. So what?

I'm not grumbling about supply teachers - I'm grumbling about those who seek out supply because they feel (mistakenly) is an easy option.

Is it easier though? Should it be? Surely it shouldn't and the kids should experience the same?

As they would if it were a permanent staff member?

Since when has easier meant that it has to be half hearted? The retail job I had when I was a student was a billion times easier than teaching. That doesn't mean to say I did it half-heartedly

Of course it's easier.

There's no planning, minimal marking, you don't have to deal with staff meetings, displays, SLTs, tracking, tests and all of that crap. You go home at the end of the day and move on. You don't have to go back to a poor school or a difficult class. If you're ill you can have the day off.

Again, why does any of that mean the children suffer? It doesn't have anything to do with the way a supply teacher teaches.

Supply, daily supply will be a lot less work than a permanent teaching job. Many teachers are leaving due to work load pressure. The average primary teacher works 60 hours a weeks, more in some schools. I was talking to a colleague the other day who used to work in cancer research and was used to working much longer hours but he said the intensity of teaching makes him feel a lot more tired than working longer hours. He was worried about a member of his department who was getting up at 3.30 in the morning to mark and do other teacher related admin as this was the only way she could do what is demanded of her and enable to see her children for a couple of hours a day. Do you want your nation’s children being taught by exhausted teachers? I don’t. I completely understand why people want an easier time.

I do work in England. I will be leaving teaching this summer as I can’t sustain it anymore. I am leaving because like most teacher I care about the students and I can’t do a half arsed job of teaching.

Pin money suggests non essential money. If someone is working for pin money it is because they want to rather than need to.

Most teachers don't want to get to that point. Teachers want to teach. But there comes a point where a change has to be made or that teacher isn't going to be able to function at all, let alone teach.

The DfE are recommending going part time as a way to cope with excessive workload (the DfE are starting to see the problem, but heads and SLT continue to perpetuate the heavy Marking/reporting/data regime presumably because of their own fears of league tables and OFSTED).

What I mean is that going part time or on to supply allows a teacher to continue to do the job they love without it killing them. And potentially being able to do fewer days to the higher standard (that is impossible to achieve when working FT, particularly with their own family responsibilities too).

If anything, going part time or on supply is an expression of wanting to do ones job better than is possible otherwise. AND to be able to be sane and enjoy ones life too.

Is that so bad?

So long as they get the job done who cares how they feel about it? I would rather a half arsed teacher who still manages to give my children a good education than a teacher who feels really inspired but is so hopeless that they can't manage to teach properly.

It is an easier option, that's why I chose to do it. I could give 100% in the 6 hours I was with the class that day and then go home and give 100% to my family and myself. When I had a class full time I was running on empty and couldn't give enough to work or home as the load was too much.

I think it is easier in the sense that teachers can put everything down and leave at 3:30pm (or whatever finishing time is in the school) hands free. They don't have the paperwork, the parents and the planning/marking to do.

They may well be very enthusiastic and capable in the class, working with the children, following a plan that has been provided, or making up the odd ad hoc lessons.

We have a small number of regular supply, who chose that option for various reasons. They are great. They don't do the day to day work in class half heartedly.

*Of course it's easier.

There's no planning, minimal marking, you don't have to deal with staff meetings, displays, SLTs, tracking, tests and all of that crap. You go home at the end of the day and move on. You don't have to go back to a poor school or a difficult class. If you're ill you can have the day off.

Again, why does any of that mean the children suffer? It doesn't have anything to do with the way a supply teacher teaches.*

I think we have our wires crossed. Supply teachers in my school are expected to do all that. Of course the children would suffer if you weren't tracking their progress or 'that crap'. We wouldn't , for example, have he option of writing a child or a class off as difficult and would work to solve the problems.

So I'm sorry professor but yes your version of teaching sounds half hearted and like children would suffer.

I don’t want an easy ride. But equally my job is currently so stressful I’ve been getting palpitations. Insomnia, stress, anxiety. I am a passionate, highly qualified and experienced teacher, who has always worked their arse off. Teaching shouldn’t be making people ill, and 10% of the profession shouldn’t be leaving at the end of every academic year. I won’t be doing supply for a number of reasons, but I’ve done it before and did a bloody good job. This job feels at the moment like it’s killing me. And I actually need to put my own DCs and family first. Which is why I’m looking for a way out.

Would children suffer if they weren't given a grade every half term?

Does weighing the pig make it fatter?

Would children suffer if they weren't given a grade every half term?

Absolutely not but effective tracking and testing really isn't about grades.

Teaching shouldn’t be making people ill,

THIS!

And people should be able to function as both teachers and the default parent. It's not supposed to be like working on an oil rig.

Absolutely not but effective tracking and testing really isn't about grades.

I can tell you're not SLT!

I'm against testing in primary aged children. I've done enough research to have that opinion.

If thinking testing 7 year olds is "half-hearted", then I'm extremely glad I am.

Funny though, how a random Internet person can come to that conclusion, when they have no idea about the way I teach, which certainly isn't half-hearted. I am one of the teachers who goes massively above and beyond the call of duty.

Showing your intelligence there, OP.

Part time is a hell of a lot easier than full time because it doesn’t take over your entire life.

I can’t see that I’d ever be able to go back full time. That doesn’t mean I’m doing the job half-heartedly, but full-heartedly for fewer hours.

I think we have our wires crossed. Supply teachers in my school are expected to do all that.

But how can they if they are only in school for the odd day, here and there? Or do you mean long term supply?

Our supply teachers will mark the work that has been done in the lessons they have taught. However, they only do superficial marking, not deep marking, etc.

They don't plan, as that is done as a year group, and all classes follow the same plans. The teacher who is absent will leave work for the class, if absence is known, or if not a member of that year group will let them know what could be done.

Only our longer term supply go to staff meetings, and only at their own choice - they aren't paid to attend them. Likewise with INSET days.

They don't do displays unless long term supply such as a maternity cover or a long term illness. They wouldn't know what the teacher wanted putting up.

They'd only be administering a test if that was the left planning for the class; which would be avoided as far as possible anyway.