If you left teaching what did you go on to?

[Snowflakewater]

I had a really tough day today and parTly just need to vent and partly need some advice.

I think at the place I’m in now I really don’t know if I can carry on teaching, I’m losing passion for it on a daily basis. The good kids are amazing but the bad are awful. I got told “spotty features” and another shouted something so bad I just wanted to burst into tears another told me “I’m an arrogant so and so” for them flinging a chair across a room, I learnt not to let much get to me but this just did.

Since I’ve been back after summer I’ve lost the passion to teach, I just feel like I’m on auto pilot, I work with others who just seem to know jr all and one up each other in meetings. The kids simply do not listen and it just feels exhausting.

Part of me wants to stay or maybe this school just isn’t right, but then another part of me thinks, maybe I’m just not a good teacher and actually it might be time to find something that I do genuinely feel more passion for.

How is everyone else getting on?

Maybe stop replying because quite frankly you’re droning on about a complete load of nonsense.

You claimed kids regularly threw things and called you names. There have been many, many threads listing all the dreadful things that kids do in your classroom including throwing things.

Not sure how you think you have 'shut me down' or why you think discussion forums are for 'shutting people down'. You have thrown a load of insults my way and accusations of me being the cause of the retention crisis I'm bound to respond.

'Droning on about a complete load of nonsense' is rather ironic from yourself.

You could collate all of your threads and actually read the endless list of complaints and droning on about how none of your problems are your fault in any way and your endless negativity about young people and teachers and people not throwing you leaving parties after less than a year in post if you wanted an actual example of what you accuse me of.

I probably have boundaries because I was educated in a different setting. So my line thag Shouldn’t be crossed is much firmer than teachers who’ve only ever been in comp schools themselves.

I haven't really read the rest of the thread but this is so insulting! So I don't have any boundaries in the classroom because I attended state schools?

My behaviour management is excellent, thank you. I was awarded Outstanding from Ofsted in my NQT year with the worst class in the school. I do hope you've never actually said it out loud to anyone.

Very well done to you.

It’s the reality though. I attended private school my whole academic education, it’s very strict , you don’t mess around. You don’t insult teacher either.

I was referring to teachers who have taught at state schools.

In the nicest possible way, the reality is private education is much stricter and there is better behaviour systems in place and they’re choosy with students. It just makes for a better atmosphere.

Sorry, but that’s just the reality.

Dear God. I spent my entire eduction in state schools, and have taught my entire teaching career in private schools. Your assertions are nonsense. You are rude, immature and have a) a wildly unrealistic expectation of what teaching should be, and b) a wildly inflated sense of your own importance.

I am astonished by your rudeness, your lack of self-awareness and your incessant need to seek validation here - and your childish behaviour when said validation doesn't appear. I am fairly sure you are a terrible teacher. Give up now so those kids you teach have half a chance, and get some self-awareness before you move on to whatever job you do next. Teaching has long notice periods, plenty of time to find a new job.

Good luck with your life. You're going to need it.

All you're proving on this thread is how superior some people who went to private school think they are.

Go and teach in a private school, perhaps you'll be able to cope with the behaviour then.

I've only taught at state schools, too!

Doesn't it make more sense that teachers who have only taught at state schools have better behaviour management?

And I beg to differ that the atmosphere at a private school is "better". You get wonderful, engaged kids at any school and I have had truly amazing experiences teaching in state schools. I'd take that over a bunch of snobby, identikit private school kids any day!

P.S. Don't be "sorry" that it's "the reality" when you've only been teaching a year - you've not even experienced much yet, really, so your view of "the reality" in education is fairly limited 😆

Not an inflated sense of self importance at all. Don’t know why you’re so bothered that I’ve been to a private school.

Well done that you’re a great teacher. That’s brilliant.

Well yes, I’m planning on leaving.

Well yes, of course some teachers in state would have good behaviour management but some also seem to cruise because they just numb to bad behaviour!

Well I didn’t say it was better because of any particular reason other than you’re not going to have children that have a history of poor behaviour attending a private school.

Also, not all private school children are “snobby”. I’m just comparing what I’ve seen.

Good call.

You seem to wilfully misunderstand people but in case it's not deliberate. People don't have a problem with you going to private school but the massively stereotypical and clearly misguided generalisations you make about that fact and about people who went to state schools.

The lack of self awareness that shines through these is dazzling. You say in one post that you think that's why you have boundaries and don't accept poor behaviour, except by the sounds of it your lessons are full of bad behaviour and an inability to manage behaviour at all and you seem to sense no irony in your conclusions. Bizarrely in another post you say the problem is your are too kind and children take advantage of it.

You contradict yourself all the time but don't even seem to be aware of it. The generalisations you make about people are offensive and your attitudes really quite prejudicial. Kids can smell that kind of attitude a mile off and teenagers have really low tolerance for it.

I have to agree with a pp about immaturity too I'm afraid. You come across as churlish and childish and very self centred. Teaching really requires you to be the adult in terms of emotional maturity and it not being 'all about you' and your feelings.

What did you expect from this thread OP? What were you hoping to achieve? A place to vent? suggestions for teaching? Suggestions for future careers?

All of them I suppose.

Look, I really didn’t want to reply to you but I find your opinions rather infuriating. I’m saying teachers who have taught at comprehensive schools have different tolerances to those who’ve taught at private. Some give up and just ignore certain behaviours because there’s nothing much they can do, or some are amazing because, they just don’t tolerate nonsense. However, in reference to private education, believe it or not the behaviour IS different. You can tell me till you’re blue in the face that I’m being snobby or rude or childish, but the fact of the matter is, the behaviour in private schools is different to that of mainstream education. Thats a fact, they’re there to achieve results and parents are paying their hard earned money for the results.

So you’re welcome to continue on your tirade, but you’re being extremely pedantic and arguing on behalf of people who have stopped replying. Or if you’re not doing that you’re picking up on one thing I’ve said and creating an argument.

My suggestion is that if someone’s views on the internet are not aligned with yours, guess what, you can ignore it and move on, rather then taking umbrage with every single thing that you can find.

Just leave it and go about your business.

Well, my dh was educated in both the private and the state system. He has always maintained that the behaviour in the private schools was WAY worse than in the state. Arrogance, entitlement, rudeness and a kind of "my father won't stand for this" kind of attitude.

"Thats a fact,"
Well, no actually. It's not. It's your belief from what you experienced. As I've demonstrated above, someone else's belief is entirely different.

I'm sorry OP but one of the things I've found doesn't ring true about your threads is the teenage language/insults you report.

For me, and, I think, others who work in state secondaries, it doesn't sound like the kind of language we hear.

Therefore we wonder whether you are being truthful, I'm afraid.

Eg
"Spotty features"
"You're an arrogant so and so"

Well that happens in some yes, but not all. I don’t remember mine being quite like that.

Snowflake, the point you are making is that your experience of behaviour as a pupil in a particular private school with particular teachers was different from your experience in a particular class of a state school with you as a teacher.

There are a number of reasons for that. You have cited one pupil with SEN and challenging behaviour, and I agree that most private schools would have had the luxury of not having to admit, or excluding, that particular pupil.

Another reason could be that your behaviour management of the whole class is not as strong as that of the teachers you had as a pupil.

I attended in private school, and teach in a state one. The behaviour in my private schools with one particularly weak teacher fills me with retrospective embarrassment, and was a function of that teacher, as exactly the same class behaved beautifully for others who taught interesting, well planned lessons and commanded our respect.

Honestly, you can believe whatever you wish to. I don’t need sympathy for that because that wasn’t what the post was seeking advice on in particular.

Good to hear a different perspective!