To just make a point about how hard teachers work.

[Poppadumpony]

Just inspired by comments on another thread.

I know I am not being unreasonable but I just want to say it!

Teachers keep 30 children with diverse needs safe, happy, occupied and learning from 9-3pm.

Teachers typically plan and prepare for 5 lessons a day. This involves finding, adapting or creating the resources for each lesson. (Average KS2 lesson might need: introductory powerpoint, items for practical demonstration, 3x sets of worksheets and a game). This prep all happens after 3pm.

Teachers need to mark and provide feedback on all the work that said 30 diverse children produce during the 6 hours they are in school (30x5= 150) every day. This also happens after 3pm.

Teachers attend staff meetings, discuss children with parents and create educational displays in the classroom. This happens after 3pm.

At any one time, a teacher is also likely to be doing one of the following: planning a class trip, preparing an assembly, preparing a school concert, running a club, writing a scheme of work. This all happens after 3pm.

Teachers work incredibly long, hard hours. Yes, they get the holidays. Yes other professions do overtime.

I am just pointing out that really only a third of a teacher’s work happens between 9-3 (high-energy work) and there is a huge amount of additional work to be done every single day, in preperation for the next. The pace is phenomenal, and there is zero flexibility in terms of hours.

Teaching is a very hard job. It’s why I left after 6 years, I just couldn’t hack it. I’ve done a PhD so I am not afraid of hard work.

Teaching is not for the faint hearted.
Those who manage to do it well and achieve a family life at the same time should be running this country, and I’m not even joking.

Teachers have also had quite an easy few months compared to those on the front line. They just need to stop moaning and get on with their well paid secure jobs.

I don't think there's any doubt on MN that teaching is The Hardest Most Stressful Job (TM)

You can't have read many schools threads then. There is plenty of doubt.

Yanbu.

So a person who is not a teacher starts a thread and eleventy zillion posters tell teachers to STFU and get on with it.

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳

I think most teachers do a great job in a crap system. I am married to a teacher and have several in my extended family, alongside several friends. None of them martyr themselves or moan more than the average person does about work.

There’s a small minority of teachers on MN who are incredibly moany and think the world is against them. Fortunately it is the minority!

*Well, I know that LOTS of people don’t need another thread on this. But SOME clearly do, based on what I’ve read on here today.

I’m not saying that teachers work harder than everyone else. I just think they don’t get the recognition they deserve.*

Why? What do you want? I didn't see people clapping for my industry, even though it was essential. Nor would we expect it, or feel it was necessary.

@greengreengrass14

I am a single parent. I don't and didn't get paid for home schooling for the past six months.

No holidays, no time off, no job security, not paid back up team, no I.T department, no legal support, no cleaners, no admin.

I really respect the teaching profession, but don't go on about working hard, thanks.

You appreciate that there are single parents teachers who did the same, right?

[quote DonnaQuixotedelaManchester]@Cokeycola

The teachers I know who were in the private sector first (law / banking) appreciate the shorter hours and holidays you get with teaching and really don’t moan the way the ones who have only ever taught do.

This. They make themselves look silly.

I had lots of private sector experience. I also felt that way when I first went into teaching. What wears you down is the culture in the state system I think. You don’t deal with the same set up or needs in the private sector ( in teaching or other professions).

I have also taught in private schools and it was so different - so much more organised and functional. There is definitely a level of managerial expertise and organisation missing has in the state sector,imv.[/quote]
I agree about the war of attrition. Disagree about private schools. It was one of those which caused me to finally leave permanent contract teaching after 31 years. I do supply now. Far more control.

@ClarencesMum

Teachers have also had quite an easy few months compared to those on the front line. They just need to stop moaning and get on with their well paid secure jobs.

Not well paid. Not secure. I was teaching key workers children in lockdown.

What's to.plan if you're using the same materials and lesson structure year after year?

It doesn't really work like that (well, not for most teachers I know). Syllabuses change, resources change, different classes require different approaches, materials get stale, teachers also find themselves teaching different subjects (in which they are not necessarily trained). Even after 20 years of teaching, a good good teacher is still always looking for new and better ways of teaching things, and making use of new resources. I teach 3 languages to people age 4 to 76. It requires quite a lot of planning.

@Hardbackwriter

Are you an All Lives Matter type too? Because, you know, nobody has a monopoly on their life mattering.

I realise that’s hyperbolic by the way.

It's not just hyperbolic to compare people saying teachers have it easy to the systematic oppression of black people, it's really, really offensive.

I’m not comparing the situation.

I’m comparing the attitude that if you say something sympathetic about one group, it must mean you think other groups aren’t worthy of sympathy.

But you know that.

@tappbar

It’s really not on to be mocking children in care noble

You should ask for that post to be pulled.

I haven’t mocked children in care.

Both my parents are teachers, they work averagely hard. When they are in work it is full on, but they get plenty of down time as well. For reference theyve been on 4 holidays in the last year and we've had lockdown. I would say they work 8-5 most days, so standard hours. Never weekends, about one or two days in the holidays. Thats a normal amount of work tbh that youve listed, time management is key but as with any job really.

Funnily my mum used to come home and moan about her colleagues moaning about how hard it was

Plenty of people work hard, I think teachers get a lot of suppprt actually on mn. When I was a child lots of people used to assume that teachers were lazy, but its not really like that anymore.

So you work hard like the vast majority of us. Bravo.

So you work hard like the vast majority of us. Bravo

Don’t tell us! Tell the OP.

They are not a teacher!

DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon
I've definitely done the same as your mum and come home irritated at colleagues complaining about nothing. My favourite was when senior leadership made some changes that genuinely reduced staff workload and the usual crowd still found a way to complain.

It does annoy me when people suggest that once you've planned one lesson then teachers don't have any more work as you can just use it again every year. I don't doubt some staff do that, but then that's also why there's somd parents rightly complaining the most basic adjustments for SEN aren't there, for example.

If we're really honest, a lot of the posters on here claiming they don't understand why lesson planning takes time and teachers clarifying the time it takes are moaning (usually in response to people saying teachers teach identical lessons each year), would probably be the first to be starting a thread complaining about a teacher if they didn't like the lessons.

Love that people still think they have something new to say on this topic.

Check the list, folks, you’re recycling old material.

They also get well paid and have more holidays than any other profession I know. Let’s stop with the teacher worshiping. Many professions work extremely hard. I have several relatives who are teachers and they’ve basically been off work doing knob all since March. Those that have been “working” have been teaching for less than a day a week whilst getting full pay.

Lots of people work bloody hard and put in plenty of overtime. Plenty of people get the standard holiday of 20 days holiday and 8 days holiday. They also have to cope with crap pay, crap pension schemes and no unions.

Teachers who feel that hard done by need to stop moaning and get out. It's not rocket science!

End of week one and I'm not sure how I can sustain the workload any longer. I worked 7pm til midnight on Friday, following weeknights of 8-11 and 6am until 11am this morning. This morning was just on individual planning and resources for my two SEND children and title letters for a display. I love my job but my children are still young and I will not spend our family time working.

I would say the disparity between those who do work hard and those who put minimal effort in is great. Unfortunately, those who don't bother always seem to end up paired with those who will, so manage to get away with most things x

Yawn

Lots of people work bloody hard for longer hours, less pay and significantly less holiday, no generous pension at the end of it either

The average age of a retired teacher is 59 - an age most others can only dream of

I'll be teaching till 68. Early retirement is a sign of burn-out, not financial security.

Perhaps we should be asking why we are all working ridiculous amounts of unpaid overtime and expected to be contactable 24/7, rather than bashing other professions.

It's not a race to the bottom.

The teachers union has not helped. The op needs to realise that alot of us have been pushed. When it first happened and there was no ppe many of us still went to work. Teachers are great but this thread does not help! Thank your childrens teachers. Far more effective.

Op, any job dealing humans every day is challenging.
I work with teens mainly from deprived back grounds.. It's a gift, and also at times gruelling. But it's a job that lifts my soul.

Your comments however really grate, when the 4 teachers my dd has had, have pretty much let her down, not clearly and effectively let me know she's floundering, tried to hide stuff, let her fail and basically been doing goodness knows what, but certainly not, caring about or educating my dd.