Retraining as a Teacher - has anyone?

[shanti]

Has anyone retrained as a teacher since having kids? What is it like? Am just considering doing it now.Also would be v interested to hear from teachers who are also mothers. What are the logistics like? All my childless friends who teach spend the first week of every holiday comatose in bed. Clearly you can't do this with your own children. What are the solutions? Very supportive partner? Superhuman strength? Vitamins? I just want to have realistic expectations of what it's going to be like, both training and working as a teacher!
Shants.

Can't help on the teacher survival bit but want to say good for you and very best of luck!

Shanti, my sil is in the middle of a one year ( or is it two?)post grad teacher training course. Her 3 kids are all at secondary school and she has been a full time mum up till now .( don't anyone flame me for that please, that is how she describes herself!)
She did a degree fifteen years ago so only has to do a postgrad thingy.
She is finding it really difficult and time consuming but is loving it too. I know she would recommend it.
Good luck.

Dear Shanti, you need everything!!! and the rest to be a teacher. I am a Primary School Teacher, Year 4 and have been teaching for the last 7 years. I had my first baby in July and am taking a year out.

Now for the nitty gritty!!! I must say teaching is the hardest, depressing, tiring, knackering, frustrating, time consuming job in the universe, yet... it is also the most rewarding, fulfilling, heart warming and funniest job too!

You have got to be preapred for the amount of planning and preparing whcih is expected of you. I find it quite funny that when i talk to people about my job they are astonished to find out that we don't just draw and play in the sand all day but we have a very structured time table, and that we don;t make it up as we go along, we have very specific goals and targets whcih we are meant to reach, all planned and prepared to the hilt! Before i left I used to spend the WHOLE of Sunday planning and preparing! Admittedly, this was partly due to my own fault as i would leave it till everything needed doing all at once, but the other option is to spend your entire week planning and preparing! (i preferred to do it all in one go!) Teaching would be brilliant if only you didn;t need to do all the appaerwork! (a hell of a lot of it!)

But in a funny way i do love it too because it is very rewarding to see children improving and doing their best! (sorry if i sound a bit cheesy!)

I'm very lucky as my head has offered me part time after my year off (and believe you me i need a year off to re charge my batteries!) as for working full time with young children... i cannot imagine how anybody has the energy to do that! hats off to all full time working moms!!

I think you will just have to be so prepared and well organised to fit eveything in! and thick skinned! (is is also very soul destroying at times!!)

oh well! good luck anyway! and i hope i haven't put you off!

i wish i could be a little more precise and eloquent... but all this time off work has turned my brain to mush!!! and i plead baby brains!!

By the way what are you thinking!? Primary or Secondary!?

You Mad Fool! Ha! Ha!

Shanti - I'm not a teacher, but a good friend of mine is, and I'm amazed how she does it. She works in secondary school, and they certainly put in some hours, (her husband is a teacher too). There are advantages - like no childcare problems for school holidays, but there are many many disadvantages too. They have two small children, and over the past three years that I've known them they've had to 'miss out on' first day(s) at school, playgroup, nursery, etc., nativity play, etc., as well as having to drag grandparents half way across the country when children are too ill to go to the childminder.

Obviously there is stuff they 'miss' which any full-time working parent would miss - going in to playgroup/school to 'help', listen to reading, sharing assemblies, etc. It's just that with teaching there is very little flexibility for even the 'major' events in a child's school life.

Also, interestingly, my friend has found it gets MORE difficult, not less as the children get older, and would benefit from her input after school with help with reading, spellings, homework, etc., as well as just generally unloading after the day. Which is tough when they are at the childminder until at least 5 pm each day.

I think teachers are super-human, but if you've got the energy - go for it!

My SIL is a full time teacher and a 'single mum' with 2 lovely kids. She is an amazing woman but she has struggled with teaching for years now. She's at secondary level and lives in what you would call a 'nice' area but has had so much abuse from kids and even more from their parents! She does love her job too but until I met her I completely underestimated how much work it involved, spending hours each week at home either marking work or preparing. She also has to take her holidays in the absolute peaks times where any holidays in half term or the summer seem to at least double in price. In my younger days I wanted to be a teacher but now wouldn't touch it as the sheer amount of paperwork and abuse you have to put up with is staggering.
I hate to be negative but wanted to give you a realistic view on teaching so I hope this helps.

Thanks for finally starting this thread Shanti - this discussion started somewhere else, but it's good to have it in one place. I fancy training to become a teacher of 5-6 year olds. But all the teachers I know who I've mentioned this to have told me not to do it (except the only male teacher I know.) I've now thought that it might be a good idea to get a job as a classroom assistant to find out what life in the classroom is like, and if I like it before making the huge leap of giving up a year of my life to train. Does anyone know where these jobs are advertised, and if there are any particular skills they look for?

I trained as a secondary teacher and then taught part time for a year between my 2 kids, ie the first was only 4 months old when I started. I found the PGCE easier than I expected but the actual teaching much harder. It's not the teaching itself, that was much as I expected, it was the marking, report writing and preparation etc and I was only half time. The best thing was being able to get home for 4, the worst was having to get all the work out after ds was asleep.

All I can say is pick your subject / age group very carefully. I was influenced by job availability and chose a shortage subject, but have found it very inflexible and with not v.good part time opportunities. I know teachers of art, PE and technology subjects who do seem to have an easier time! I'm told the first year is the worst! I haven't taught since No 2 due to other personal circumstances but will give it another try soon, I must admit that the holidays are really the ONLY thing enticing me back. It's definitely not the money!

Im am a year 2 teacher with a 18 month old child. When I went back to school after maternity leave I managed to change to a jobshare with another teacher mum, and so I teach 3 days a week. It is very tiring even on just 3 days, but it is a lovely rewarding job (if you like children!). I do my planning at school, but I have a very supportive school which gives me time out of the classroom here and there. In a difficult school with no support I couldn't do this.
I must say, though I can do this also because I have 7 years experience. At the beginning, I spent every hour I had planning for lessons. The PGCE year I did was the hardest year of my life! You get NO TIME TO REST, so with children it must be very tough.
I love my job, and would not consider doing anything else (I worked in the city before this). Some people say they don't know how teachers do it with a children at home, but the love and attention you give your own child is entirely different than what you put in at school. You always have time for your own.
Good luck.It is a job I recomment entirely.

Please please please can someone share their good experiences of teaching??? I'm a single mum doing a degree at university and next year I'll be doing a primary PGCE. This thread is enough to make anyone think twice. Someone please tell me it's wonderful and worth all the effort!!!

Rosy, classroom assistant posts are often advertised in your local weekly paper.
Good luck Shanti! What did it for me (deciding not to retrain) was the comment someone here said about the lack of flexibility to attend your own child's major events, which is understandable given the unique relationship a teacher has with his/her class.
I think teachers do a wonderful job in the most thankless of circumstances.

Thanks for all your comments. Blimey. I think I'd better steel myself. The convenor of the PGCE course I'm looking at - and get this, there are only TWO PART TIME PRIMARY PGCEs in the COUNTRY (how ridiculous is that) - told me in a very jolly voice that it was going to be very hard and hoped I had a supportive partner....! I can't imagine not attending my daughters' nativity plays etc especially as dh works very long irregular hours and is often supportive from a distance, shall we say. What a nightmare! Has anyone managed to get a job in the same school as their kids? Not as their form teacher OBVIOUSLY, dodgy boundaries etc, but surely that would be a solution?

sorry Shanti, bad news again, my experiences of teachers and their children being at the school has always been pretty negative, even if you feel quite comfortable with it, there will always be comments and remarks if your child gets a prize, gets picked for a special job, praised, etc as of course the child didn't really deserve it because their mother is mrs x! or it can go the other way, your child will never get the recognition or praise they deserve because teachers are so self conscious of who they are and don't want to seem favouring! - not to mention the old... oh look at child x, they've gone off running to mummy!

Sigh! it's all very hard to get the balance!

Good luck again!

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So, tell me, do you absolutely definately have to have done a degree first to teach? Or are there other routes which are equally valid?

Pattsy - yes I'm absolutely sure you have to do a degree first before becoming a teacher. If there was any way round it, I'm sure I'd have found it by now!
Robinw - thanks for putting something positive on here :-)

There's loads of info on the Teacher Training Agency Website, www.canteach.gov.uk

There's info about the Registered Teacher Programme, this allows you to work as a teacher and study for your degree at the same time, it takes two years. While you are working you get paid as an unqualified teacher, for which the minimum salary is currently £12,456 for full time.

I am seriously considering this route into teaching, I'm hoping to be able to talk to a couple of local Headteachers to get their views on the scheme and maybe sit in on a couple of lessons.

Teaching is the only career I've been interested in since I was at primary school, the only thing that has changed over the years is the subject I want to teach, originally it was French, but now my preference is Maths.

I started a p/t PGCE in Sept but have had to defer it for at least a year due to childcare nightmares. The course itself was excellent and, I think, do-able with kids AS LONG AS YOUR CHILD CARE IS MORE OR LESS INFALLIBLE! I'm not sure how the old work-life balance would be once you're trained though. My impression is that teaching is incredibly time consuming and difficult.

I am ashamed to admit that after getting a place on a PGCE course at Exeter Uni, I dropped out before it even started. Partly due to childcare probs, but if I'm honest, I just suddenly realised that secondary teaching would be the most thankless task and I just couldn't face it yet. I haven't completely discounted it, and I am considering teaching English as a foreign language locally (which I have done before and enjoyed). The money is better and its just much less work!!

Shanti - just to put the other view to Bea - there is a child at my dd's primary who's mum teaches there. Her daughter in fact had a starring role in the infants Xmas play as Mary, and she was the only child who sang a solo song. I suspect she reason she got the part had more to do with the fact that she was one of the older infants, and she must be a bright girl with a nice singing voice. I don't know anything about snidy comments though, I think that people who would do that must just be jealous. Certainly she would get the right kind of support at home from her parents - mum in particular!!! to make sure she had learned her song etc etc.
BTW we also have part time and job sharing teachers as well at the school. I was shocked last year to find that some parents are wary of job sharers - well they don't mind when they see it working OK but initially they are a bit sniffy - I saw this in class last year when dd had job sharing class teachers (both excellent IMHO BTW). I think family friendly policies has more to do with the head's/senior management attitude and the school's willingness to support teaching mums. So where you actually teach after training is probably as important as what age group and subjects you choose.

IMHO think that if teachers have kids they have more insight to how parents feel. Please don't think I mean that childless teachers are less good at teaching and dealing with the children (which is of course the most important thing!), but I think being a parent would give you the edge in dealing with parents because you can empathise with the emotional side of it. Mind you I reckon its not the kids that cause all the problems for teachers (they are probably one of the positive bits), the parents that don't support what you are trying to do that must be really irritating.

BTW just 1 more snippet to support the difficulties front suggested that you miss stuff (KMG/Bea) - sorry this message is really long now!! I noticed that one of the mum's I know her hubby was not at the Xmas play. Her child is in reception. He is a school teacher (secondary) a couple of miles away. But they wouldn't give him time off to go. Skinflint or what.

My school wouldn't give me the day off to go to my own wedding. I'm not joking. I had no alternative (due to accomodating family abd church bookings) but to have my wedding on a Friday. I was told I could have the day to go to a relative or friend's wedding, but not my own. When I got back (from my very short honeymoon - due to inflexible holidays) my salary had been docked. My most memorable wedding present.

And if you can't have the day off for your own wedding, you're sure as hell not going to get it off for a play.

Don't do it! A thankless task.

Shanti, I started training as a Montessori nursery teacher. I went on the part-time post-grad course and rather smugly thought I would find it easy. Well, I was totally unprepared for the workload. The amount of coursework nearly killed me and very, very regretably after two terms, I had to give it up. I was really sad, as I loved the course but I simply could not cope with the workload. I have a toddler and a part-time job, plus my dh is away from home alot.
I would say that you have to be ruthlessly realistic about exactly how much time you could find each week to do homework.

Monkey, just read your message. Not letting you have the day off to get married - that's unbelievable!

This thread makes really depressing reading. I already know teachers have mountains of paperwork to get through - and the rest, but never realised they have it quite so hard. Is supply teaching just as daunting, I wonder? At least you can say 'no' to a job if you need a break - if you can afford to say 'no' to the money.

The teachers I know either have no children or grown up children, or they have got out of the profession to work in adult education or TEFL. Another of my teacher friends, with two primary aged children, is training to be a careers advisor, but tells me the work load for her course is far more than she ever expected,

I have to say, Monkey, from the POV of a parent and as someone who had a mere three weeks paid annual leave in her last job, I don't think I'd have much sympathy with a teacher who couldn't arrange to get married in the holidays!

And as a point of interest, my DH's company won't permit him leave to be at home for Christmas. He went away a week ago and my children won't be seeing him again until 28th December.

Thanks for your kind message Suedonim.

Even though the teacher only saw her family once a year and this was the only date possible?
Or should I have gone ahead without my recently widowed grandmother?

I wouldn't expect sympathy, but consideration that as I am able to take leave to attend the wedding of someone I might not even know or care about, I might be able to go to my own wedding. Also, I think that the rigidity of the teacher's schedule, be it daily or termly or yearly is a huge drawback. Why should you, as a parent or anyone else in the community/politics have a problem with a professional needing ONE day a year for something very important. (not loads every five minutes, but one).

And with regard to the amount of holidays. Firstly it's not a competion. Secondly, I'm sure anyone who knows anything about it will agree that the 'enormous' holidays teachers have are not quite so, eg often being ill the minute a term ends, ALWAYS having to do some, if not huge amounts of work eg report writing, end or year tests to mark etc, taking pupils on trips during the so-called holiday time etc etc (which incidentally most pupils and parents took for granted and despite being on duty for nearly a whole week, 24 hrs, if one pupil or parent bothered to thank you it was a miracle.

You seem to expect a lot from your teachers. I hope you give some consideration back in return