Teachers - do you enjoy it?

[Wineandcheese2]

NC'd. Looking for some advice. Posting here for traffic.

Can the teachers out there tell me what it's like day to day. I read a lot of negative posts. I'm 12 months out of uni and considering doing a teaching course.

My background is in the emergency services but my degree is in law - I'm a bit older than your regular graduate.

Any advice would be welcome.

Don't teach.
It really is the last job.
Do something else.

Also I agree on inclusion, its not appropriate for some children, who need to be educated in special schools instead.
Inclusion is sometimes merely a cost saving exercise to avoid building and maintaining special schools.

I'm a secondary maths teacher and I love my job, most of the time.

As others have said the teaching bit, in the classroom with the kids, seeing them understand what you've taught them, that's the best bit. I love working with kids, even though they are teen-agers and some of them can be stroppy, argumentative creatures. I'm in a nice school though so our kids are generally very pleasant, I've taught in a tough school before where the kids weren't onside at all and that was a very different experience.

The downsides are all the marking, planning and paperwork that needs to be done outside of school time. I hate marking books, just because it takes so long, it can take me a couple of hours to mark one set of books, and I've got 7 classes to mark each week (that's 14 hours a week of marking if I don't cut corners and get the kids marking some of their own homework). Planning is much quicker now I've got 15 years experience, but back in my nqt year I used to spend as long planning a lesson as I did teaching it.

If you are considering teaching I really recommend getting yourself into a school for a few days/a week, observing the subject you want to teach. Talk to the teachers, ask about their marking and planning load because different schools have different expectations, even different subjects within the same school have different expectations and experiences.

I am a high school teacher in one of the most deprived areas in the country and I can honestly say I love my job. The kids are amazing, challenging, hilarious and completely fascinating. The team I work with in my dept are brilliant and I honestly feel we make a difference to the kids lives.

There are days when I could see it far enough. This time of year is especially exhausting. The constant tracking, monitoring and justifying of your decisions as a professional is difficult. I have a young son and I feel torn between my job and home life. The holidays make up for the amount of time I have to dedicate to school during term time.

In my opinion, teaching isn't just about giving kids information and developing their academic skills. It is about showing them how to be a good person, developing emotional intelligence and empathy. It takes all of you and sometimes you feel like you are completely empty but you still need to find more to give.

The money isn't great and the conditions are challenging but it is like all vocations. We do the job in spite of the difficulties because you can make a difference.

I absolutely love it and I think that’s partly to do with making a career change to join teaching a bit later in life. It is so different to any other job I’ve done in the most wonderful way! I love everything about it. If you’re used to hard graft (and you presumably are with a background in emergency services) the hours and workload will be manageable. I have two DC and love having the long holidays to spend with them (although childcare during term time was tricky at first!)

I've recently retired after 35 years in the classroom. If I had my time over again I wouldn't change things, but hate the way in which teachers' professional status has been eroded over the years, and largely from within the system - in terms of being regarded as sufficiently qualified and experienced to be able to operate independently, plan lessons as you see fit, etc.

If I were to have to start out in teaching right now, I'd be pretty depressed at the prospect.

One thing I would add is that I had the most fantastic departmental colleagues and was never, ever bored. That is a real plus, I guess.

Don't do it. Id be gutted if my child went into teaching. Pay is ok but I'm sick of feral parents, ridiculous expectations and stretched budgets. And if you do your job properly, totally not family friendly. I haven't ever seen a sports day or nativity for my own child.

Yes, but only now I work in a selective private girls’ school.

Working with students is almost always great. Working with their rude and sometimes abusive parents is not. (Of course you hear much less often from the 'normal' ones). Never ever getting to the bottom of the to do list, or even close, is morale-sapping.

Honestly? I’m retiring next summer and I’d be gutted if any of my children went into teaching. (Secretly- id never tell them because it’s their life, though actually none of them have gone in that direction anyway)

The lightbulb moments are incredible. But everything else- paperwork, marking, constant scrutiny, frequent changes from govt, squeezed budgets, greater expectations to be social workers, counsellors and to even provide basic parenting, rather than being allowed to focus on actual education which is after all what we’re trained in ... no thanks. The education system is in crisis- seriously. It’s lost it’s way.

I thank heaven that I a) went into teaching early enough to have had the benefit of the pension. That’s changed now and t and c are far less favourable so you’d be mad to go into it for that reason b) that despite the pressure, I’ve taught full time and had management positions which has meant I can retire early next summer. Many of my colleagues have ended up working part time for long chunks of their career, because the job is so all consuming that they feel that’s the only way they can cope and do a decent job. Trouble is, they end up working practically full time hours for part time pay and pension.

I know this sounds very negative, as if I’m saying the only good thing about teaching is that it’s set me up for a comfortable retirements. The truth is a little more complex- because like I say, there have been wonderful light bulb moments over the years, I keep in touch with many former pupils which is really rewarding and I’ve been privileged to know some wonderful parents. The job is never dull (paperwork aside!) and it’s been great to actually use my degree subject for my whole
Career.

But hand on heart with the terms and conditions as they are now - no, I wouldn’t do it. Not worth it.

I'm a secondary teacher and I think it's a fantastic job. Once you've been doing it for a few years it's all a lot easier and you are confident to do without the intensive lesson planning that you need in the first few years and training. You'll build up a huge bank of resources and skills and confidence and then it can be relatively easy. Still long hours and stupid admin tasks but that's true of a lot of jobs.
I even do extra work now and examine/moderate for our exam board to gain more experience and earn a bit of pocket money.
All I would say is you need to love your subject. If you don't, it won't be fun.

The actual part from 8.45-3.15pm when I'm in the classroom with the children is fantastic. All the other crap that goes with it is bloody awful.

Like everyone else has said, teaching Is brilliant. The crap that goes alongside it is horrendous.

It's a hard job, make no mistake. It's vital to get some experience in schools before making a decision.

In a bad school it's an awful job but even in a good school with supportive management you are battling against ridiculous expectations, inefficient paperwork, unattainable targets, rude parents and criticism. Long working hours and high levels of stress.

Since the budget cuts we've been expected to look after children with severe disabilities and mental health issues with no TAs, no additional support. Physical violence against staff is common in all ages including primary.

Not all schools can afford the resources they need either so you'll end up spending your own money on those, even if you swear you won't.

All that being said there are things about the job that are magical. Children continually surprise you with how funny, witty, fascinating, kind and clever they can be. Sometimes the hardest children are the ones you grow to love the most. Day to day there's a lot of routine and a lot of content to cram in, but no lesson is the same and you will never be bored.

I feel it’s a bit like a drug addiction: makes you feel wrung out and vaguely ill (exhaustion/stress) a lot of the time, but the good bits are too good to want to stop and nothing else compares.

You need to be comfy with ‘good enough’, and constantly feeling slightly inadequate because you cannot do everything. My priorities are squarely the kids’ experience/learning, and my own wellbeing. Everything else (admin/paperwork that doesn’t directly benefit the above) comes second.

I’m never bored at work. I rarely worry that my work isn’t useful/meaningful. I learn loads from my students and feel privileged to witness them becoming confident and competent. And the holidays are bloody brilliant.

If I knew then what I know now, there's absolutely no way I would have done it.

I'd advise anyone considering it not to bother.

I wish I’d done something else and I was one of those who’d antes to teach since they were tiny.

It consumes your life, it’s all about data and ofsted and is at the expense of what you know is right for the kids.

You are only ever as ‘good’ as your last observation which may not be good if you’re trying to go up a pay increment and the school has no money. Nobody in my school moved a pay grade last year-it’s crap for those lower down who are simply stuck. Most are still living at home desperately trying to earn more money so they can move out.

If you move schools, there’s no pay portability and if you’re at the top of the pay scale like I am, you’re expensive and people start to wonder if you’re ‘worth it’ when they could have two NQTs for the same price-experience isn’t valued-it is seen as a waste of budget.

But now it’s all I know and I can’t leave and get paid anyone near as much so I am stuck. I have to be part time for my own well-being, but that screws my pension!

Don’t do it.

Slightly different view from me. Secondary teaching is fascinating and I haven’t be been bored (except when marking!) for 15 years of it. But now, although I love being part of a school, love thinking about how to improve learning, enjoy working with parents, don’t mind the paperwork at all (perhaps am lucky in my school but most of it is reasonably necessary I think), I do find being in the classroom utterly exhausting. Now I have my own kids, I find the need to be in performance mode, managing 30 kids drains me and I can’t get through a full day’s teaching without a headache. You need to be a bit of an extrovert and enjoy performing to feel energised rather than completely drained by it I think.

So just a different view to the “love the teaching/hate the rest of it” so many say!

Like most people the actual teaching is great. If it was just me and my class I’d be happy, but paperwork, administrators, parental demands make it a nightmare.

I teach year 1. I’ve had parents complain about dojo points, question the difference between American/British spelling, complain I don’t give homework everyday, about class decoration, seating arrangement, lack of breaks, too much playing time. I even had a mother tell me I was ruining her child’s chance to attend university because she found number bonds difficult😡, then complained to the head, daily for weeks. The child was 5. I spend a lot of time planning and marking,

It concerns me that (still) people don’t have becoming a teacher is the primary thing they want to do after university. It’s s bit of an ‘I have this degree and am not sure what I want to do, so I’ll give teaching a try’.

I’m not suggesting that this is the case with OP, but I do think it happens more often than it should. OP, see if you can volunteer in a school to get some experience of day to day life in a school, or maybe look for a TA role. Please embark upon it because you really want to teach, not because you think you might like it.

Everyone has experience of school, so thinks they know how it is. Being a teacher is a totally different experience from being a student. Be prepared to be exhausted, stressed, anxious, fed up, exhilarated, emotional, joyful, proud in equal measure.

I love it. Love it more than anything I've ever done work-wise.

It's hard, and I sometimes feel like I don't ever really switch off - the hours are arduous. The meetings, paperwork and organisation are a challenge, but the actual time spent in class hands-on trumps all of the downsides for me.

I think the main reason I still love it is that I'm part time. Full time was too much for me, for my DC, for my marriage, and it's a far better balance now. I know that's not an option for everyone and can see how so many teachers become fed up and leave.

90% of parents fine. 10% are just unbelievable. Moaning emails, aggressive behaviour, phone calls over trivialities, this bizarre belief that their child doesn't lie and so their account of any minor incident is the absolute truth, unreasonable expectations of what you can do in terms of progress, not understanding that you're teaching 300 pupils a week so actually your dc whilst precious to you are not precious to the teacher, I could go on.....

Without a shadow of a doubt, if it wasnt for the holidays i wouldn't continue to do it.

If i could send a butterfly effect type message to past-me it would be to not do it.

It is draining and massively time-consuming, with little financial reward. More and more parents absolutely refuse to believe their child is either anything other than a delight, which creates more issues, or that their behaviour and attitude is anything to do with them, so what do you do then?

Im part-time as i dont want to lose the weekend to working when i have my own children. So my pay truly sucks. A friend earns twice the amount i do, also part-time, with wfh days and not even A-levels as she went into finance.

Under labour we had the workload aggreemeent, which did make a difference. Now that is all but gone im covering every single week. Two weeks even in my protected free. We have meetings every week after school, even when there is a parents evening or a different meeting on too. Ill be on observation number two next week, and learning walk number two. And we are in term one. As well as a year 11 parents evening and an after school meeting. On one day i will get two ten minute breaks from 8.30 to 8pm. That’s not because im busying myself. It is because my time is scheduled like that.

You need to get some experience in different schools.

Yep I liked actual teaching but not teaching state schools as its become.

I wish I could tell the prekids me to train in something else as its hard now to work up to a decent salary and feel I dont have time on my side to just try things!

I love the part of my job that's actually in the classroom. Unfortunately, that's just a fraction of it.

If my ds announced a sudden desire to teach, we'd probably try to talk him out of it. But, having watched both his parents surrounded by marking in the evenings for years, it's unlikely.