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.

but as a professional and a parent it's an attitude I find upsetting.

It's not an attitude. It's a consequence of the shit job that teaching has become.

The problem with saying that you dint have anything to do with Ofsted is that you are removing the biggest issue atm in England.

If your issue is about them doing their job half heartedly in general. Well here is some news for you.
In any profession, you will find people doing their job half heartedly. That’s part of human nature. Just as some are better than other at what they do.
Being a teacher doesn’t make you better or doesn’t ask you to do better than any other profession. I’m sure there are plenty of doctors and surgeons who are doing exactly that too. And they might well have your life in their hands.

‘As a parent and a teacher, it’s not ok.’

So what is the solution? Because there is a desperate need for supply teachers, otherwise we wouldn’t be making a living off the corpse that was once a great education system.

1. It is none of your business why a teacher (supply or otherwise) goes into teaching unless they are teaching your child and failing to do their job properly.

1. Enthusiasm is no guarantee of a good teacher.

1. Decent supply teachers are hard to come by. In secondary, what a (short-term) supply teacher does is not anything like what a permanent teacher does. It's essentially glorified babysitting and crowd control. No planning. No marking. No actual teaching (most of the timd it won't be your own subject and may be a subject you couldn't even help with!). I say this as a supply teacher myself.

1. Lots of supply teachers are actually career teachers who may be perfectly decent teachers, but are sick to death of the system (not the kids or their subject).

So, how long have you been teaching, are you juggling family at the same time and have you reflected on why your analysis has irritated several teachers?

10 years. Yes: 2 dc, a terminally ill parent and all the other problems life throws. I am trying to reflect but really what I see is a whole host of people so defensive they can't see the wood for the trees and engage in what i think is actually an important discussion.

I’m sure there are plenty of doctors and surgeons who are doing exactly that too. And they might well have your life in their hands.

I would seriously, seriously doubt that.

The problem with saying that you dint have anything to do with Ofsted is that you are removing the biggest issue atm in England.

I don't know what you mean by this can you clarify?

It's not an attitude. It's a consequence of the shit job that teaching has become.

So that makes it okay then?

Oh forgot to add...

1. If the current teacher isn't keen enough, the school could just get rid of them and employ one of the many bright-eyed, experienced, highly qualified eager beavers queuing up for the job...

How do you address the problem, Thosearepearls?
You make teaching such a rewarding, exciting, fabulous job that people are desperate to be chosen for the honour. Til you have dozens of amazing candidates to choose from, and you select only the most perfect specimens. Then you treat them as human beings who are values and listened to, and make them feel that the job is worth doing for years because of the difference it makes to children’s lives.
When I hear those crap, lying adverts on the radio and tv, I have to turn them off. The reality is so different.

I would seriously, seriously doubt that.

Having been a doctor, I can tell you there are definitely burnt out, stressed out people just going through the motions. Plenty of doctors become locums (the equivalent of supply) for a better lifestyle.

I'm about to go back into teaching - supply... and I was fucking good at it and worked my arse off thank you very much. It's a different kind of work to full-time teaching, less of the bullshitty bits - harder on the behaviour management when you're working without the established status within a school and much much lonelier. I'm going back into the supply route as I know one of my kids is going to have a barrage of therapy appointments coming up sooner or later and I need the flexibility to be able to get her to those - while still being desperate to get back into the classroom.

One of my kids' teachers is very very rigid on her work-life balance - is out of the door as soon as she can be on a night realistically, doesn't fall into the trap of feeling she needs to show up for all the extra PTA stuff and the like... and I don't begrudge any of it - she's a superb classroom teacher, gets the job done - but I know and actually appreciate a hell of a lot that she's put her limits in in order to stay sane and be able to keep doing the job. Not all of the parents "get" that - but I really do and I respect her for it.

I'm about to go back into teaching - supply... and I was fucking good at it and worked my arse off thank you very much

Good for you! I hope you enjoy 😊 . Not talking about you or others like you. Talking about those who do it because it's the 'easy' option and they basically want a bit of a skive.

The wonderful world of supply teaching...

Talking about those who do it because it's the 'easy' option and they basically want a bit of a skive.

It being an “easy option” and “a bit of a skive” are not the same things.

In many ways it is easier than having a full time class but nobody really thinks walking into an unfamiliar classroom to teach a lesson is “a bit of a skive”. You’re just teacher bashing here.

So many folks on here who seem to think that being angry and bitter is a teaching badge of honour. It's a job not a prison sentence. Don't like it then leave. Simple.

Holiday pay is accrued through days worked, scale yes, sick pay yes and after two years continuous employment then rights are awarded basically meaning conditions much the same as a permanent staff member.

Much the same! Ha!

If they do supply through an agency, the above is simply not true.

Having now read the whole thread, l will have a go at interpreting the OP charitably:

Teaching requires commitment and therefore motivated people.
People who are not motivated might not be prepared to give what it takes.
Some of these less motivated people opt for supply etc, in the mistaken belief that this will be an easier option.

Does that sound about right? Only what you wrote reads as: if you're not prepared to suck up all the crap that FT teaching involves and look for a supply job, you must be lacking the motivation required to be a good teacher. Which several posters have, understandably, taken offence at.

I hope I've understood you correctly.

You're right, it's goady

If indeed you are a teacher you will know that a post like your on AIBU will go down like a cup of sick at the present time

Cannot believe what I am reading from a fellow teacher. Try it yourself and you would not last 5 minutes, it is a very difficult stressful job and you usually get treated like a second rate citizen by the staff and children. You are probably one of those staff.

10 years. Yes: 2 dc, a terminally ill parent and all the other problems life throws.

Well done. And you can do your job well with those responsibilities too?

You're in Scotland, was it?

Maybe I need to look at moving north. Because in England, right now, teaching well, FT with those additional responsibilities is nigh-on impossible [to sustain for long].

Well. except that supply is less work and stress, whether you are an enthusiastic teacher or not.

Slag off teacher threads arrive with the start of July. Every flipping year.

Scotland have knocked off already.

Again I'm not in England so I'm afraid I have no clue as to what's going on at the present time. I am delighted though that so many teachers are still so skilled in the art of sarcasm, biting comments and deliberate obtuseness

Have no knowledge of working through an agency - not even sure they are a 'thing' - in Scotland as have never heard of it. However it is absolutely true regarding employment rights after two years. Have had personal experience of it.