Teaching - what is it like??

[Pitchounette]

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I play fizzbuzz with Key Stage 3! But usually multiples of 3 and 5. I never thought of playing it in the pub .... someone would have to be sober enough to ajudicate ...

See, advantages of being a teacher! Guess what we'll all be doing next weekend

My class are Y1/Y2.

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm currently studying with the OU - chemistry and my aim is to teach. It's been good reading about different experiences. I think that this year I shall have to contact various local schools to see if I can shadow some of the teachers and find out if I think I could cope with a real class. It's given me quite a bit to think about.

Am assuming you're thinking of Secondary teaching, pitchounette?

What subject might you teach?

In my experience this has a big impact on the kind of workload you get as a teacher.

e.g. I teach secondary drama which means that until the kids get to GCSE level there is very little written work (and therefore marking) required. This is very different if you teach, say, English, where all ages generate lots of marking all through the year.

However, Drama teachers have a lot of different kinds of pressures - e.g. doing school plays which invariably take over your life for approximately a month culminating with the performances at the end.

Also the level of variety is very much controlled by your subject e.g. the maths curriculum seems to rarely change much, whereas other subjects (e.g. art, drama, DT, more creative subjects) are usually more flexible.

So if you teach a subject where the curriculum is pretty much fixed you can end up just repeating the same old same old which might get dull but at least you aren't doing lesson prep. all the time. But if you're doing a subject that's less controlled by a fixed curriculum on one hand it's possibly more interesting but you also need to constantly generate new materials.

I teach practical subjects, and whilst there may be less (but not none) wrtten prep to do as a lot of lessons are all practical work, the lessons are bedlam.

Not through bad behaviour, but because they all want to know how to handle machinery etc, sometimes I feel like I neeed wings on my feet, and 10 arms.

Have sometimes worn pedometer, and have frequently done over 10000 steps a day just teaching!

Imo it is English teachers who seem to suffer the most.

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Science depts have millions of technicians to get thing ready. Well ours does anyway..

Its been said a few times on here that during term time teaching is pretty family unfriendly.

What are your arrangements if one of your own kids is sick and can't go to nursery/school?

i'm an MFL tacher and having read this thread, have nearly managed to put myself off going back to work! i agree with lots of what has been said, but just wanted to add that while after a few years, you have lots of resources, we are constantly having to change and update, particularly to accomodate new technology and new curriculum/strategies etc.

I will be going back to work in april after 9 months off and am already dreading not being able to spend as much time with my dd. please talk to as many teachers as you can and don't go in to it just for holidays etc.
but if you decide its right for you, good luck

PS - pitchounette, have you though about working as an assistante as you are a native speaker? less pressure, less prep work/marking and maybe more enjoyable than being a class teacher? our kids LOVE our assistant(e)s
just a thought.....

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Pitchounette, the OU used to do a paid work experience package for people interested in doing the PGCE with them - I did it a year ago and decided teaching certainly wasn't for me.

you're not wrong about being a teacher in France! I worked for a year as an assistante in a lycee before i did my pgce and was amazed at how different it is!
hope it works out for you, whatever you choose.

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Have a feeling that the OU trial thing has stopped now or there was some sort of limit on it.

i'm a F/T teacher. Head of Dept.in a secondary school. definitely agree
with much that's been said already.Reasons for doing it: can be great fun, staffroom can be a laugh and important IMO to do something that makes a difference. Sounds cheesy, but personally i wouldn't want to spend 40 years doing a job and get to retirement and think 'what the hell was the point of that?'
Just don't go into it believing any of the myths eg teachers work short hours - ha ha, how come when my DCs were in nursery it was only teachers who'd be dropping off their kids by 8 am, while everyone else seemed to arrive later.You really need to be in work by 8.15 to have a productive day, and i leave about 5 at earliest (plus prob about 10/15 hours per week at home).
And it's knackering. Truly. For me the best measure is that in my particular post i have one day a week for admin, meetings etc and it's a breeze compared to a teaching day. Last friday I chaired 2 meetings (one with a number of professionals and a potentially very difficult parent)attended another meeting, wrote a paper to present at next Faculty meeting, led a training session for some teaching assistants plus various other bits of admin - so a pretty busy day, but i swear it was less draining than a morning's teaching. But as i said - prob the best job in the world if you can hack it.