For teachers- do your pupils learn something new every day?

[jasper]

I am asking this due to the thread about taking kids out of school outwith holidays, where some of you explained it disrupted the teaching programme.

My question is do you really teach your pupils something different every day? This is a genuine question, not intended to provoke or criticise. I admire anyone who chooses teaching as a profession and the friends I have who teach are , to a woman, remarkable and inspiring individuals.
It's just that my memory of school (particularly primary school ) was of weeks and weeks of repetition of the same things.

That was my biggest compliant about school - it was boring and repetitive and I felt I hardly ever learned anything.

We were taken out of school for a week or two most years and there was never any notion of having to catch up or missing anything. Have things changed or am I suffering from false memory syndrome ? Might I have gone on to acheive greatness if it hadn't been for those fortnights in Harrogate?

So to repeat my question,which was not intended to rehash the holidays issue, do you teach a different thing every single day?

[donnie]

I too have been following and contributing to this thread and I have got to say it has reached a stage where I am just laughing out loud at what robinw says becauwe she is talking such drivel and clearly enjoing herself! most of us agree that the views she has expressed are both ridiculous and riddled with inconsistencies so I am not even bothering to argue any more - it is pointless. Robinw, you maintain that because teachers disagree with you that they cannot accept any criticism, yet you yourself display that very trait - you will not hear or even respond to any of the criticisms levelled at you.....um, maybe this must mean you are a bad mother?? now , that's what I call ironically funny! anyhow ladies why don't we call it a day as popsycal has suggested, no point giving her more rope to hang herself with, she's done a good enough job. GOODBYE ALL!!! I am now off to resign from secondary school in order to take up my new cutting edge, inner city position of assistant Brown Owl.

[hmb]

Moomin, that was very kind, thank you. But I don't think that I have been that patient

[Lisa78]

I drove DS2 to school again yesterday - the wonders of maternity leave, wouldn't be dressed till noon if I didn't agree to drive him most days - and en route he was having a good old moan about his new English teacher. "Everytime someone is talking, she blames me" he ranted "Why?" said I (being one of those mums that always supports his teachers, even when it sounds like they are wrong - cos naturally DS1 is perfect and gives a totally unbiased accounts of his wrongdoings! )) She says I have one mouth and two ears and I should use it proportionately, he moans. I roared laughing, (he's 14 BTW, quite able to deal with blunt comments) he's been told he talks too much by every teacher since reception, this one got his measure in 2 weeks flat.
On the way home he's having another grumble, he says he asked her to explain the answer to a question they had had for homework. An answer she had just that second explained... Naturally she asked if he had not been listening, and he cheerfully pipes up that he was trying very hard to but Tom was talking to him and winked at her... Teacher burst out laughing, told him he was cheeky and could do the question again for homework since he got it wrong!!!

My point - and I do have one - is that he has been in school 9 years now and has had lots of different teachers, some better than others. But I can honestly say, not one of them has been a bad teacher in my opinion. As he went to high school, the type of relationship he has with them has changed yes, but for the good. When a teacher such as his English teacher, can teach several classes of 30 odd, and get a bead on his personality in two weeks, and therefore a bead on how best he learns, well hurrah for her - I look forward to parents evening! The one thing I always get a feeling for at parents evening is how much DS1's teachers seem to like him, which I admire more than anything else sometimes, adolescents not being the most likable species

Teachers, like nurses, police etc, sometimes get a bad press, and they do, like any other profession have bad apples. But by and large, they do a bloody good job at all levels, under sometimes difficult circumstances (my big mouthed son included!)

[singingmum]

Haven't been online for a while as have been busy.Want to make a few poiunts:-
I have looked at the krebs cycle and thank you for the mention of it as my son(aged 9)enjoyed this topic.I do not understand what is so difficult about it.
I have not once said that teachers have wasted their time getting qualifications,I believe in getting these however some people do not get them not because they are incappable but because they cannot afford it or other justifiable reasons.
Not once have I stated that the whole of the teaching proffesion was a load of rubbish.I did however state that in my experience there are many who are obviously badly trained or just ill-suited to this proffesion.
HMB stated that I believed her to be against HE again if you re-read my posts you will find that this is untrue.
I myself have a wide variety of teachers some excellent but in my case most were atrocious.Any proffesion has good and bad sides.
I would never unilaterally describe teachers as awful.
I have stated that it is the educational system that is mainly at fault.
Some of the posters here have become abusive and quite frankly have over reacted to things which have been said.Robinw has gotten annoyed at being belittled by others and has responded in kind.The comments made by a lot of the teachers are disproportionate to what has been said.
I would also like to point out that yes Ihave been and helped in a local school when I was a teenager and I found it enjoyable.
I wanted to learn at school but like many other children who wanted to learn I was overlooked and ignored.I quit working and decided that I no longer cared what happened.I left school with a total lack of confidence in myself both as a human and in my abbilities so excuse me if I feel I have a right to be annoyed when told that I must therefore as an unqualified person be unable to do the very thing I am doing ie HEing my children.
I have to not only pre prepare certain lessons and mark work done but I have to teach different subjects at different levels and I have to study myself to make sure that I know what I am teaching.I do this so that my children have the best life I can provide them with.
Not once in my life have I believed teaching to be an easy job,but I have realised that there are many types of teachers.Congrats to hmb for her obvious hard work and the same to any other teacher who can honestly say that they have done their job the best way they can,but realise that their are others out there that don't.
In answer to the why don't I become a teacher point made(I am taking this as a personal thing).I have not become a teacher as I 1) do not believe the education system in this country to be conducive to learning and 2)am an agoraphobic through many reasons.
I do teach my son certain subjects at GCSE standard and yes it is possible.HE is not the easy way to go.My son has suspected ADHD and mild dyslexia and dyspraxia,my daughter is hyperactive so realise that I have put up with violence etc.I also have 2 ADHD brothers who have done numerous things including threatening with knives so do not try to tell me about dealing with such things as I learnt a long time ago exactly how to do so.Also I have done a lot of work with mentally and disabled people both adults and children and have taught them basic math amongst other things.I was a teenager when I did this.Assuming that a person could not do something because they did not get a deegree or qualification is absurd and highly insulting.
I find it very sad that so many personal,rude and childish things have been said here from some otherwise polite people.When I origionally posted all of my messages I tried to make the points generalised so as not to be misunderstood for some reason things I had said were twisted.I repeat that I did not mean any offence.

[popsycal]

good point raised by singingmum
can we please let this thread die?