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.

In the two schools I have taught at since a career break there has been a lot of cross curricular teaching. The way i teach is completely different to the way I was taught in the eighties so changes have been made. Infact I found education to be a very different place after a five year break at the start of the noughties.

I agree with riven though we are well rewarded in a whole host of ways for what we do.

All teachers, whatever their subject, should be teachers of good English.

I agree Unquietdad. Mind you I had to retype your user name 3 times to get it right. At one point you were Unquiteddad. Spelling/grammar mistakes are different from typos. One is a slip of the finger; one is being thick. Hope you noticed my correct use of a semi-colon there [preen].

You're not allowed to mumsnet and teach at the same time, you get in trouble for it.
You is being pedantic and so need redirecting.
There's a corner somewhere isn't there?

Pedants' Corner is spreading its influence.

Goblinchild, yes I have noticed this. I go on TES quite a lot too. Strangely, the reason I love both of these sites is because they are BOTH very argumentative with lots of strong personalities. Funny that there is animosity between them.

WEll i worked in IT in schools for 20 years, and ive met vast numbers of teachers and social workers, literally thousands, far more then most peopel will ever meet.

Teachers fall into three categories

1.Primary school teachers. Takes no brains at all to teach primary education, so most of the people who do it are there because its the easy no brain option. As a result, i met vast numbers of them who had no idea about anything, ive even met primary school teachers that cant spell and cant do mental arithmetic. And the level of sheer ignorance and stupidity was breathtaking. In the end i had to write step by step instructions on how to operate the computers, and i mean seriously basic noddy guides.

1. Secondary School teachers (Smart ones). This form the core of the secondary schools. You have to know what you are doing i na secondary school, if your crap at your job, you'll soon get found out. Usually very intelligent and technophile.

1. The waste of space Secondary teachers. These are the ones that have somehow survived despite being brainless morons. I estimate they form about ten percent of secondary school teachers. Most of the are arrogant, and male, and think they know everything, they charge in take of the computer system and 6 months later we would lend up going back to sort out the cockup they made. The same happens with there teaching. Later on, someone at the local college or Uni has to teach the pupils unfortunate enough to have there education crippled by these people how to read, spell, add and write reports and essays. Theres generally at least one in every secondary school, sometimes, sadly they are the deputy head, which is really tragic for the school.

Here endeth he generalisation of 20 years experience.

Just don't rise to it...

I watch the IT crowd.

So lovely to meet someone to confirm that it's a factually-based programme.

"Later on, someone at the local college or Uni has to teach the pupils unfortunate enough to have there education crippled by these people how to read, spell, add and write "

It's THEIR, lincstash, THEIR

Rise to it? I've got the giggles.

The IT tech at my school said that my IWB would be more effective if I had blackout blinds.
So, that's vitamin D supplements all round then, with all my borglets unable to see the light of day.

IT = IQ then, eh?

Oh god, don't get me started on the IT techies........

Come the Apocalypse that pencil will be very useful tethers.
What with that terrifying millenium bug only just defeated by the brave warriors of computerdom, who knows what terrors of obsolescence lurk in our futures?
Keep your pencils safe.

"1.Primary school teachers. Takes no brains at all to teach primary education, so most of the people who do it are there because its the easy no brain option.

linctash - Shame on you, what utter rot!

Primary teachers are important.
My parents encouraged reading but I will always be thankful for my primary school teachers. I had a couple of teachers that were brilliant. They made books and maths so exciting.

I recall one boy in my primary class who lost his father - our brilliant male teacher helped him through his grief - being so kind and funny to him. In turn the whole class learnt how to be kinder and more supportive to this little boy - it was one of the best lessons in life I ever learnt.

There are good teacher and bad teachers sadly in the 4 years my dcs have been at school I have seen both.

In my experience more honesty and less treating of parents like they are stupid and it would be much more effective relationship.

lincstash - you don't know how to use the apostrophe either.

Good job you're only in IT

Well, I've got 25 years of IT in school experience. Mostly of it not working very well in real-life situations.
Or being hugely expensive to run and accessorise..
Or excellent teaching programmes suddenly becoming obsolete and not replaced by better ones, just gone.
But I turn it off and turn it on again, and recalibrate and sometimes it's worth the bother.

i thought that there/their would be picked up on when i reread my post and noticed my mistake. I can assure you i do know the difference.

Every stereotype about teachers, for good and bad, has some truth. All industries have a range of professionals, and you only know when someone is outstanding when you have someone less to to compare them to.

The difference about teaching is that we have all been to school, so feel that we are world experts about teaching.

I am a teacher and have found a niche where I love my job and feel that I am adding value. In a different environment you would be quite entitled to put me in the stocks and throw rotten tomatoes at me.

By Goblinchild Sat 03-Apr-10 12:13:34
I watch the IT crowd. grin

So lovely to meet someone to confirm that it's a factually-based programme.

-----

Look, i cant even begin to tell you some of the stuff ive seen in IT. There isnt enough room here.

I worked with a cliquey server team once, some of the in jokes they had were so obscure, so intellectual, it took hours of research to work out what the joke was. There really are people like that in IT. Ive seen installation teams where they give the Star Trek Vulcan salute to each other every morning, and one guy could actually speak Klingon........

That's all well and good, but who would win in a fight between them and teachers, lincstash?

@ violethill

yes it do. but this is a throw away internet forum, its not worth the additional increase in the net entropy of the universe to bother with getting their and there right or having a nervous breakdown about 'schools' or 'school's'. It really isnt. This is just junk commmuniction. It doesnt matter if you spell it right or not, it doesnt matter if its punctuated right or not, it doesnt matter if its good enough to win the Booker Prize or its written like a 5 year old. Im not writing a CV, or a research paper, or a job application.

its an internet forum. chill out.