To ask teachers on mumsnet what ‘behind the scenes’ things your job involves

[Humbersausage]

I have always found it really interesting how most of the work teachers do is never seen by parents or students. Aibu to ask teachers what bits of the job there are that we don’t see. In other words Aibu to ask what the ‘trade secrets’ of teaching there are?

I teach level 2 and 3 English so a heck of a lot of marking .

Definitely data analysis - a huge part of our job that goes largely unseen.

Oh yes, I forgot subject leadership. Most primary teachers also lead subjects which we have to produce documentation for across the school and do monitoring of.

All worth it for the 24% ER pension contributions, the 6 months full sick pay followed by 6 months half pay. Not forgetting the 4 weeks full maternity pay, 2 weeks at 90%, 12 weeks half pay and the rest SMP.
Also the ever escalating salary scale with guaranteed pay rises .

Teachers get a very good deal.

I spend lots of time thinking and making resources that are tailored to the children’s interests but that links to their goals.

I change wet/soiled children. Wipe noses and use the magic wet paper towel. I comfort them when upset and had one fall asleep on me today.

I have lots of fun and love their eagerness to play hide and seek when there’s no where to hide in our playground.

I talk about dinosaurs and superhero’s a lot.
Plus then the chats about the children and their next steps. Responding to emails regarding homework. Meeting after meeting. I worry about a couple of them constantly due to their home situations.

Planning, resourcing, marking
Data analysis
Planning training and staff meets and resourcing
Resourcing my subject (lots of reading needed)
Buying stuff
Setting up separate timetables and resources for send children with 1:1s
Fielding parental queries
Managing online stuff for children isolating at the mo
Meeting with link governors
More buying stuff
Worrying about children
Keeping working walls and displays up to date
Preparing parents eves
Cleaning things a lot at the moment
Monitoring, moderation
Collecting evidence for moderation
Sats administration
Organising tuition
Doing tuition
Sorting intervention groups
Checking children are reading and what
Um. That’s off the top of my head

Oh
Meetings and briefings
Safeguarding

Planning. Photocopying. Putting displays up. Paperwork like data input. Every teacher manages a subject and they need to do stuff to show how they are managing their subject so they ask for evidence of stuff relating to their subject, which I then need to find and copy.

• Buying and cooking food for children who would otherwise go hungry
• teaching parents (who ask) how to budget
• teaching children how to go to the supermarket / bank / cook basic meals from scratch / eat with a knife and fork / behave in a restaurant
• writing programmes
• marking coursework / exams
• supervising / teaching / writing reports about student teachers
• framing children's art work and creating murals in the classroom / corridoor
• cleaning the classroom / emptying bins etc

All worth it for the 24% ER pension contributions, the 6 months full sick pay followed by 6 months half pay. Not forgetting the 4 weeks full maternity pay, 2 weeks at 90%, 12 weeks half pay and the rest SMP.
Also the ever escalating salary scale with guaranteed pay rises .

Well I've taken one sick day in the last 10 years so haven't really had the benefit of that, have been stuck on the same pay level for years (once you get higher up the pay scale there are innumerable performance management hoops to jump through before you can reach the upper pay scale levels and this year was the first year I've had an above-inflation pay rise for years and years. And that was probably the last one for the next decade.

Behaviour records and writing up behaviour/consequences reports.

Writing lesson plans and tweaking existing ones.

Rewriting entire schemes of work for topics, including homework sheets with mark schemes and levelling.

Practicing science practicals.

Ensuring each pupil has everything they need in their pencil case (primary school).

Just so much beyond actually teaching.... that's why I quit secondary school teaching and became a primary school TA

@swashbucklecheer

Writing and rewriting schemes of work for every class just because the bastard education minister decides to go on a power trip and change everything because he thinks he knows best.

This a million times... lost the will to carry on and quit.

It's stuff like if you want to do pen pal letters to those living in isolation.
You have to contact organisations, decide which classes will take part, receive the names and addresses of the pen pals, due to data protection we can only give first name to the pupils, sorting a brief to help the pupils write the letters, chasing unwritten letters, getting them all back, sorting whose is going to which penpal, then because only you can know the names and addresses, writing 69 envelopes out, stuffing, franking etc. No assistant or elves to help. And that's just one thing in that one week

Teachers get a very good deal.

Not sure they do.

Average hours worked per week is over 50. NQT salary £25k less pension, tax, student loan leaves little per hour worked.
Maternity benefit is worse than at aldi.
Pension is the one decent thing.

After school this week - staff meeting, SLT meeting, meeting with virtual school regarding a child in foster care, meetings with two separate parents regarding SEN provision, meeting with student teacher, trip to supermarket for science experiment resources, took down and replaced a wall display, prepared resources for some staff training I'm running.

Left the building 5:30-6 most days, taking 35 English books, 35 Maths books and sundry other books (depending on day) home for marking. Once marked, checked planning and resources for the next day, responded to emails from parents and put ten layers of paper onto my pass-the-parcels.

Marking
Lesson planning
Pastoral issues
Department meetings
Making my classroom displays
CPD
Arranging trips and visitors
1:1 help for sixth form
Supervising
Email traffic

@SoggyBiscuitss

All worth it for the 24% ER pension contributions, the 6 months full sick pay followed by 6 months half pay. Not forgetting the 4 weeks full maternity pay, 2 weeks at 90%, 12 weeks half pay and the rest SMP. Also the ever escalating salary scale with guaranteed pay rises .

Teachers get a very good deal.

That didn't take long. Not relevant to the question is it?

Phone calls home
Reports
Mentor meetings
Observe trainee
Set homework
Mark online homework
Plan lessons
Photocopy
Write timetable for visiting trainee
Write mocks
Mark mocks
CPD meeting
Read briefings
Read emails
Reply to emails
Reply to parent emails
Parents evening
Write mini assessments
Mark mini assessments
Plan feedback lesson
Write lesson feedback
Write/amend schemes of work
Sort cover

Didn't take long for this to descend into a good old teacher-bash.
Is that what you intended, @Humbersausage?

@Hercwasonasnowball

Teachers get a very good deal.

Not sure they do.

Average hours worked per week is over 50. NQT salary £25k less pension, tax, student loan leaves little per hour worked.
Maternity benefit is worse than at aldi.
Pension is the one decent thing.

I wouldn't rise to it. Some of the post isn't even true.

Behaviour follow ups
Find students and sort minor issues

Before school:
Printing objective labels for 4 subjects
Printing sheets for lessons
Gathering maths resources : dice , number lines
Reading emails
Collecting resources from the stationary cupboard :glue sticks , whiteboard markers
Trying to get the visualiser to connect to the board
iPads wiped and ready for the maths group that comes in early for extra maths support

Lunch ( we work all the way through to lunch as we are with bubbles )

Mark some books
Update feedback sheets

After school :
Tidy classroom : wipe boards down , push tables back and push chairs in
Tidy cloakroom
Tidy desk: excess paper in recycling , pens , pencils , bits left on desk put away
Place sanitiser bottles in correct places
Put away teaching resources
Mark books from the day
Type up objective labels for next term
Print them
File away feedback sheets
Update curriculum coverage chart
Chat with other teachers about next terms coverage
Reading and answering emails

In my school we just mess about on Insta and make TikToks in the staff room. Obviously socially distanced. On a Friday lunch we usually drink wine with our lunch 🤨