to think teachers are constantly under fire?

[strawberrykate]

The number of negative assumptions about teachers motives, nit-picking over fine details of what they do and the general attitude towards seems to be really poor. They are held up to unusally high-standards and expected to do the impossible it seems.

Imagine the scenario, 30 children, one adult. Each child generates a small mountain of paperwork in the form of marking, reports, assessment and planning needs plus more. Each child has different needs, abilities, fears etc. You are under pressure to teach more hours than you have in the day (really, look up the required number of hours per subject per week, it adds up to more hours than there are in a school week). Average workload outside traching hours (if you do it all decently, but quickly)

• 2 hours per night marking books
• 1 hour a day collecting resources and preparing a class
• 2 hours each for literacy, planning, numeracy, foundation etc. per week
• half hour per day writing up lesson evaluations
• half hour per day with parents/ resolving issues from the day, sending collecting letters and homework feedack etc.
• one afterschool club plus tidying up and preperation/ waiting for kids to be collected 2 hours

That's a basic 58 hour week inc. the 6 hours teaching day.

Then throw in parents evenings/ report writing/ additional long term planning/ after school perfromances/ fetes/ events/ compeitions/ sports matchs/ meetings with outside services/ dealing with larger issues with families and children/ arranging special events or theme weeks/ liasing with outside professionals who come into school/ holiday clubs/ one to one tuition or extra free tutition and the million and one extras like carol concerts or parish events. Which can push the job into occupying every waking moment some weeks.

Then throw the needs of your own family.

Everyone is still shocked when your reports written at midnight have a few typos or you dont pick up or know about every child as well as their parents from memory. You get impromptu meetings where parents are outraged you don't know every level of the top of your head. Every slip of the tongue or small error is analysied to death. Every other year you may even be lucky enough to get a parents peition against you, normally over a misunderstanding (e.g. for banning books in the class was my favourite-I never did find out why they thought I'd done that). Parents gunning for a fight over a missing lunchbox/ coat/ glove, then no apology when it turns up at home or on a sibling.

AIBU to think a bit more courtesy toward teachers and an appreciation of them being human wouldn't go amiss? I've had a range of jobs, retail, law etc, and I've never been in ajob where so quick are people to attack. Even the national media has teachers and schools as a favourite gripe, rarely a week goes by where I don't see a report which boils down to saying teachers are either a bit thick/ lazy/ uncaring/ money-grabbing.

I really love working with kids and seeing the difference I can make, and I think I have done well by hundreds of children who have passed though my care. The constant, and increasing, habit of expecting teacher to be no less than saints is really pissing me off! It's huge factor as to why decent teachers leave the profession, often leaving ones who simply don't care/ can't find other work.

You can just imagine it, can't you? Spot The Suicide Bomber. "Well, Ryan spends a suspicious amount of time in the chemistry lab. But then again Yasmin's always muttering quotes from the Koran at me and Mohammed came in with a suspicious bulge under his coat. On balance, though, I think it's probably Ryan."

at wiring them up.

Actually I retract my previous comment about never experiencing teacher bashing. Our management bash us on a daily basis but the parents and general public tend to be much more supportive ime.

The really insane thing is that it's here in Cornwall. If there's one place that's least likely to be a seething hot-pot of Muslim extremist thought...

Is it Cornish separatist suicide bombers you are supposed to be watching for? Modelling themselves on ETA?

x post with Riven but yes!

There was your man in Plymouth a while back, but that was upcountry in Devon where they have strange ideas!

The Kernow Liberation Front do have a presence, but I think their plans to blow up the Tamar bridge are unlikely to bear fruit tbh!

In my experience (12 years as a secondary teacher) i have encountered very little teacher bashing. I very rarely work in the holidays (i occasionally run exam revision classes in the holidays but we get paid extra for this) and five parents at the last parents evening actually thanked me for all my hard work!

I find it a very satisfying profession and always encounter respect from people when i tell them what i do. I have much more sympathy for social workers as they have to deal with the worst of society.

I would say a that an small minority of the pupils i deal with are difficult and i work in an inner city school. Social workers only deal with those few and only their mistakes get publicly noticed.

I get a lot of pleasure from spending time with my pupils, especially the older ones who are excellent company but i can't imagine their is much pleasure to be had with the families that social workers have to deal with.

Agree, caro- social workers have it far worse IMO.

TTT's DH here! (Too busy to get my own profile - must be all this school paperwork!)

I used to be a classroom teacher, but have taken a sidestep into specialist teaching in Music, Drama and Dance. I teach 35 different classes and need to know over 400 names of children - not to mention any specific behaviour strategy any of the little shits darlings might be on. My workload may involve significantly less marking but lesson/resource planning and prep are the same as any teacher. What I find most difficult are the parents' evening drop in sessions I am required to undertake. A class teacher has about 30 children to know inside out which is hard enough. I have 400.

I am on my first day of my Easter Holiday and I have spent at least 2 and 1/2 hours on school work prep for next term! Is that dedication, stupidity, necessity or a mix of all three?

YADNBU

I do find the comments about school becoming outdated very interesting. Every child has a right to a decent education but what is the best way to deliver it? Discuss.

The work never stops.

I find that after teaching the same subject for a number of years, the preparation time is much less (until the government decides to change the structure of GCSE and A Level yet again!). I also find that i am able to think on my feet more and improvise. Some of my best lessons have been when they take an unexpected turn and we go off on an unexpected tangent. Unplanned but definitely educational and worthwhile. In fact when i am formally observed during an A Level lesson i will often deliberately only plan half the session because i don't know what direction the lesson is going to go in until i can gauge the responses of the students and i like to react to the work that they produce. My observer totally understands this and i have had some of my best feedback from these types of lessons.
I do feel that any teacher who knows their subject well should be able to do this. I understand that it is much more difficult for primary teachers who have to cover the whole curriculum.

Caro- I sometimes wish I'd stayed in Secondary (Maths), as I orginally began training in. In 6 years in primary I've not been able to use the same planning twice due to either numeracy andliteracy strategies being replaced/ a move towards a creative curriculum/ new school planning formats and year group changes. This year the nightmare for primary has been the addition of mfl to the primary curriculum. Most primary teachers I know have near to zero language skills! I speak french/ russian/ polish and german...but you've guessed it...my school has decided we must teach spanish. I've never had such a mental block with anything, it's a joke the level I manage with in class with a basic vocab sheet in front of me, with poor native spanish speakers in the class wincing. Poor sods getting that now in addition to my tone-deaf music lessons! If parents complain in my opinion it should be about non-specialists teaching these subjects, they'd get a lot of support from teachers. I can teach all the core subjects off the top of my head if need be and perform well in art and PE etc, but teaching subjects I barely covered myself in school is a step too far.

i completely agree. Subjects such as languages and music need to be taught by specialists. I know i would struggle teaching maths at primary level. I think there should be a lot more specialist teachers in primary education. maybe to move towards the secondary system, especially for pupils in years 5 & 6 who probably need challenging more.
Also in secondary teaching we get more protected free time for planning and marking.

IAmTheEasterBunny No! No! No!, I am totally opposed to worksheets.

Once a child understands a concept,there is no earthly reason for them to do hundreds of worksheets on the same thing.

It's just a mindless activity.

When my DD was in primary she came home very excited a few weeks into the new school year.

She had her classroom teacher, but for maths and science she had a teacher just back from mat leave.

DD was so excited that this teacher didn't make them colour everything in once they had finished. She just looked at the content and understanding of the subject that the DD had.

The previous year DD had a teacher who actually marked them down if they hadn't coloured in everything and made beautiful title pages and headings.

DD just wanted to get to the nitty gritty of the subject.

I totally disagree with the need for more specialists in primary, except perhaps in music, languages and PE. Children in primary schools should be offered a broad and LINKED curriculum. They need to realise that subjects aren't discrete - that what you learn in geography may have some bearing on what you do in history or english. This is the beauty of the creative curriculum.

Perhaps secondary schools should try more cross-curricular teaching??

In primary, we do challenge our more able pupils, who often find their first year or two at secondary school is a repeat of Y6.

I feel sorry for sec teachers who teach the same curriculum year in, year out - secondary education doesn't seem to have changed much in the last 30 years. (The GCSE texts!!! How can ANYONE think they will encourage young people to love reading?) Whilst the sec school curriculum has been in the doldrums, primary school teaching has recently undergone an exciting, creative change.

You're quite right EasterBunny.

As an 18 year studying Pimary Teaching, I received top marks for an assignment which pointed out that a particular subject topic could be carried over into another subject area.

It's a bit frightening and sad that almost 30 years have passed and nothing has really changed.

As an example,I have been teaching DGD how to sew.

I am very big on allowing her to choose her own fabrics and item to be made.

I am very aware of not pushing my own tastes onto her or expecting perfection. (Although she gets annoyed when she sews a less than perfect seam).

She made a quilt for her baby sister.

This included Maths, design and technology,comprehension (reading patterns).

Everything from going to the fabric shop, choosing her fabrics, working out how much she needed. (Ladies in the fabric shop were absolutely marvellous, spent a lot of time with her even though she wasn't spending much money.

(Grandma makes up for that on a regular basis).

Communication skills. Working out how much money to hand over.

Using a ruler and tapemeasure to plan her design.

Using a fabric cutter safely (With me in close attendance).

Ahem.

Can't speak for the last 30 years, as I was - just- at primary myself at that point.

But secondary teaching of core subjects has experienced an absolutely fundamental recent sea change at KS3: 1) no more SATs & 2) APP.

As for GCSE English texts, well, I'm inclined to agree that there isn't enough reading for pleasure in there.

I'd like to see two novels, one contemporary & one classic. Oh & unseen poetry, rather than just spoonfeeding set poems.

& assessment under controlled conditions, rather than soul-destroying 'tweak it until it's a grade above target - yes, I know you no longer understand the text or the task, just type it eh?' style coursework.

All the stuff the 2010 curriculum's bringing in, in fact.

I think maybe it's easy to see 'doldrums' if you aren't that well informed. I look at my son's primary provision, which is good (Ofsted say outstanding), & to my eyes it looks fine. He's doing well, he's happy. What I don't see is anything marvellously different from my own primary education, unless you count the IWB.

No doubt there's an exciting, creative change going on if you're a primary specialist, & it's going over my head because I'm not.

Equally, it's depressing to think that primary colleagues haven't noticed significant changes at KS3 & KS4 level!

Either we're all missing something important that our colleagues are changing the educational world with, or we're all doing a tad too much of the navel-gazing & self-congratulation.

IAmTheEasterBunny - you are both right and wrong! Of course there needs to be strong links between subjects. Cross-curricular, interdisciplinary learning has huge benefits for the children, but this can still be achieved through the use of specialists.

What is required is for teachers to talk to one another! I find it very difficult at times to find a mutually agreeable time to meet with class teachers and discuss in depth some joint planning strategies, but it is possible and absolutely necessary.

I don't want my lessons in Music Drama and Dance to be separate from the children's learning in other curricular areas. It makes no sense. That is why I absolutely love Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence.

feralgirl "The Kernow Liberation Front do have a presence, but I think their plans to blow up the Tamar bridge are unlikely to bear fruit tbh!"

Surely, as long as nobody is on it, this can only be a good thing no? It's a bloody ugly bridge - mind you leave the Royal Albert Bridge alone as I like that one!

SlightlyOTMaidInExileTiggaxx

'Equally, it's depressing to think that primary colleagues haven't noticed significant changes at KS3 & KS4 level!'

I have, but my children are 15 and 19. I've seen some amazing, innovative and inspiring activities coming home, and mine both talk about their days with enthusiasm and interest. Maths and MFL less so, but that might be more to do with the attitudes of their individual departments than a national flaw.
There's not enough collaboration going on between KS3 and primary, we've got some links going between the feeder schools and the local secondary and they are working to everyone's benefit.

A secondary school teacher with 12 years' experience who still doesn't know the difference between their and there ?

Maybe they don't teach that subject. Maybe they are on holiday and not as meticulous.
I'm wearing my jammies and eating a doughnut as I type, neither of which I'd be doing with my teacher hat on.