Teachers, would you work?

[Liveandletlive3]

Just read an article which was stating that schools may run half days over the summer holidays due to missing so much from school closures.
Teachers, would you back this if you had the option to opt in or out to work over the summer holidays?

I am appalled at the frankness on here of the only benefit being that it pays the bills and comes with 13 weeks holiday
Really? Its a job that pays the bills like any other.

I do give a shit about the children. I give more of a shit about my own though.

I don't understand why you are saying 'job' so much. I love my job and am committed to my students but it is still a job. Just like any other job I've done before, with annual leave I expect to be able to take.

We need to drum in a good work ethic to our kids that feeds through, if that's their teacher and TA then what hope do they have?

Dare I suggest this might be in part the responsibility of their parents??

No, I would like to see and spend time with my own children this year!

I have a very real issue with people pushing the vocation narrative because it allows employers to guilt trip the lowest paid into doing more without recompense because it's a vocation. It's a nonsense
Same here.
I love my job and I'm passionate about supporting my pupils to achieve. I certainly put more emotional energy into teaching than I did my former career.

But it is a job, and it is a job that can expand and expand as much as you allow it to. It is a job where some SLT and Heads push the guilt tripping and the martyrdom and unreasonable expectations.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying your job whilst prioritising your own health and family.

they need specialised help by the teachers who know them, not random teenagers on minimum wage supervising them in front of a computer screen
This. The government won’t pay teachers extra to work over the summer. They’ll get random unqualified supervisors who hand out worksheets created by proper teachers. That won’t be helpful at all.

There's some here who could benefit from reading this article www.independent.co.uk/voices/teacher-coronavirus-school-safety-b1795126.html

Some people have a very binary approach to this.

I worked a week (unpaid) last summer in school looking after key worker/vulnerable children. My choice - we weren't forced, and most people received some money, it's just as a bot more of a leader I didn't. Hey, if that meant the TAs got a few more quid each that's fine by me. Ours are amazing and hegely underpaid.

Love my job and put in loads more hours/effort than I need, spend some of my own money, but I need to stop. My current workload is unsustainable at the moment - have spent a week teaching full time then coming home to do another day's work making and uploading materials/videos to my virtual classroom. I can't be effective at this pace.

Not on your Nellie! I’m a secondary head of department and have been working my arse off and have been since the start of all this. I’m teaching all of my lessons on Teams and still running the department. I’ve well and truly earned my summer break. Plus my own children deserve some time with me and dh - who is a primary deputy head and has also worked incredibly hard. The children I teach are not behind if they’ve attended online lessons regularly.

Actually, I'm crying now. Have worked all day to catch up on the virtual marking from last week and prep for next week when we have monitoring. I'm so caught up in it all I can't relax. I'm a coiled spring and I need to unwind now!!

Won’t happen anyway. Remember last summer’s Great Summer Catch Up? Nope, me neither.

Nope

The thing is, I am best at my job - best able to teach children with enthusiasm and passion and energy and drive - when I am rested and refreshed, full of new ideas and new experiences, of new books and new things to share.

DH describes teaching as 'the ultimate compressed hours job'. During term time, I live it, breathe it, work ridiculous hours and spend 6 days a week at it, worry about the vulnerable, fight for what the SEN deserve, puzzle about how to engage the disengaged.

But to do this, I need to have some time to rest and recharge. I am really aware that this pandemic year, with so much online teaching, and so much planning, worry and re-planning during holidays, I have trudged along. The hours are longer, more relentless and less rewarding. Constantly climbing a long hill in 3rd gear, rather than scaling a mountain and then spending time to look at the view at the top. I have done a good job, within the constraints, but not a great one, because I do not have any more in the tank to give.

I will need this summer, if I am to continue to be a great teacher next year.

(And, if I am honest, I scan the job advertisements constantly. Which is not good, because I am VERY good at what I do now.)

As a TA, I would rather spend time with my own DC than be paid extra money.

Countess, I think - I have learned - that it is as possible to be utterly, utterly ground down by relentless lower-level stress as it is to be affected by what might be seen as 'higher level' trauma.

There are many who talk about the effect of the pandemic on the mental health of children, based on the restrictions and limitations of their lives and the lack of social contact. Just because the impact on a teacher or child or parent or prison officer or supermarket worker isn't at the same high level as someone working in the NHS doesn't mean it can't, when applied relentlessly day after day, week after week, month after month, cause distress.

@CountessFrog

But dramatic to be crying because you need to catch up with marking.

DH just in from a 12 hour shift in ITU. Two patients died, one as they were turning him onto his front.

Catch yourself on.

I wasn't aware it was a competition over Who Has It Hardest.

Teachers are under a lot of pressure right now. So are parents. So are doctors and nurses. Just because one person is finding things tough atm doesn't mean that your H can't also have it hard or worse.

This is basic socio-emotional learning that most kids understand by the end of primary, really...

But dramatic to be crying because you need to catch up with marking.

DH just in from a 12 hour shift in ITU. Two patients died, one as they were turning him onto his front.

Catch yourself on.
Unpleasant much?

You'd think someone with a spouse in the health service might have half a clue about workplace stress. Actually ignore that, anyone with half an ounce of common sense knows that the regular building of smaller stressors can lead to a straw that breaks the camel's back moment. That's before you factor in different personal circumstances.

But don't let that stop you deciding to rank everyone else's struggles. We really do need more people telling people to shut up and smile instead of sharing their struggles.

I already work every weekend and would like to spend time with my own children.

@CountessFrog You seem to be deliberately vile on a number of threads towards teachers, why is this?

@CountessFrog

But dramatic to be crying because you need to catch up with marking.

DH just in from a 12 hour shift in ITU. Two patients died, one as they were turning him onto his front.

Catch yourself on.

Pop me your address and I'll send your trophy.

Don't be unkind CountessFrog

Things I've cried about recently include online parents evening, a lady dying in a film, not being able to get a particular section in a piano piece correct, a text message from a friend, a work email and just being tired. Nothing serious, nothing as bad as being overloaded with marking and nothing as bad as working in a hospital. Still cried though. Everyone's struggling to cope now. Knowing doctors have it harder doesn't make it easier for the rest of us.

Countessfrog I'm not playing top trumps, I know it's utterly pathetic. I'm just very very tired. I am fully aware I need to get a grip and I will. Sometimes in the anonymity of the internet we're allowed to whinge. But thanks for the pep talk. Always helps.