Positive teacher experiences please

[lilyflower1803]

Hi,

I'm a trainee teacher and I am absolutely terrified I have made the wrong choice going into this profession. I love teaching and working with children, but with everything going on in the news at the moment with the strikes, the stories teachers have, the amount of teachers leaving, all I hear are the negatives.

Are there any teachers out there with positive stories to tell that can shed any light on the good of this profession?

There is the knowledge you make a difference/you got a child a 9 or a 4/ you kept them safe/you passed on the passion for your subject
School trips and extra curricular make memories
Progression pastorally or departmentally can be swift
Some pupils will always remember you
The holidays are good
but
I am not full-time and am now support staff
I always think trainees know deep-down if they went into it for the right reasons and more importantly, whether they actually enjoy it
If you don't, you'd do yourself a great favour by getting out now lovely

You can make a real difference in children’s lives.

Lots of highlights for me including

• working with a 9 year old boy who hated to read (as he struggled) and managing to instil a love of reading in him which subsequently led to him making incredible progress across the curriculum
• Helping children realise their potential/talents in certain subjects (particularly when they struggled in core subjects)

Working with children can be fun and incredibly rewarding.

However the system is broken and heavily relies on teachers working insane hours. I quit after 17 years.

Hey, I'm a primary teacher. I have mixed views. I absolutely love the children, they make my day, they are funny, keep you on your toes and I truly believe it is a privilege to be around children in a school environment.

The other side of the coin is the paperwork, marking, assessment, pressure from SLT etc.
I've been doing it for 15 years and I'm looking to exit the profession. It is difficult to have your own family and be a teacher as well. I'm ready for a change. The jury is still out on whether I'd recommend anyone to be a teacher right now.

But we need lots of good teachers who care about the children. Lots of people are leaving. It's not as easy as many people think it is.

Sorry to sound so negative. But once you are in the classroom, you'll know whether it's for you.

The actual teaching has always been the positive.
Relationships you build with the dc. The light bulb moments.

It is the fact that the actual teaching (and the bits where you have the energy to produce great lessons) has become a smaller and smaller % of the workload, and "all the other stuff" is what teachers dislike.

There are thousands of international schools across the globe, so if you want to live and work abroad then teaching is one of the easiest ways to do that.

Do you enjoy it? At the end of the day you know whether you want to be a teacher or not.

One tip though: switch off from everything teacher related in the media. It was affecting my own mental health listening and reading everything. I stopped and it made a massive difference.

Good luck whatever you choose to do.

I’m a primary teacher and when I’m teaching I love my job. Seeing a child’s face when they achieve is unmatchable as is seeing them come to life when they have fun. When I’m getting endless emails and asked to attend yet another evening meeting after I’ve already worked 7.30-5.30 I wonder what on earth I was thinking. My colleagues are amazing and I love the families I get to know. Overall I still would recommend it, I’m just not sure for how long because the conditions at the moment mean it’s just not maintainable for too long.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all your replies. I absolutely love teaching and have worked in education settings prior so knew it was what I wanted to do. However I took a year out from my studies as I had a baby (now 10months) and went back to university last year when she was 6/7 months old- now I'm really starting to question my choice in career. I already feel swamped with all the work and juggling a family, so I dread to think what it could be like. I'm not sure I have the stamina I did pre-children and starting to panic it may always feel like this.

Having a baby makes every professional career extremely difficult, tbh. Teaching seems particularly hard at the moment but hopefully reform will follow.

Do you have a supportive DP? GP on hand to help at weekends? Honestly, with a good DP and good childcare ( your toddler can be in FT childcare all year) you do still get some respite during vacations.

I hope government will listen to teachers and cut the crappy bureaucratic side of the teaching profession right back down.

I also hope you give teaching a try … even if you only manage it for 5 years, we need people like you entering the profession and maybe, just maybe, things will improve.

It’s the most wonderful job where you’ll find colleagues who are fiercely supportive of you and the kids. Every day is different; some days are bloody awful and you’ll be looking desperately at jobs and considering whether in fact you would like to be a lorry driver or retrain as a plumber.

Some days you’ll come home exhausted but your head buzzing with creativity for your next lesson and not be able to put your laptop down. You’ll worry endlessly about the kids, their home lives, their results, whether you’re doing a good job.

At times it’s a thankless task. The pay’s shit for the hours you work and you’ll look at your friends with their wfh options and bonuses and wonder what the hell you’re doing with your life still governed by the school bell.

But you’ll make friends for life and cheesy as it sounds, genuinely change the lives of your pupils. I’m 12 years in now and often host ex pupils for work experience and have had them apply for jobs - to see someone you’ve taught become an adult with a job which you’ve inspired them to get is insane. As you move up the ranks, you get a mix of the teaching, management, strategic thinking, networking and an opportunity to genuinely make an impact.

Stick with it.

I’ve been teaching for nearly 20 years. I love it! Yes there are downsides but it’s such a privilege to spend my day with 30 children 😊

I've been teaching since 1994 and earn less than I earned then in the civil service.
I wouldn't change it for the world. I moan, cry, get frustrated at bureaucratic shit etc etc.
But ultimately spending my time with 300 teenagers keeps my zest for life going.

The kids will surprise you with something and make you laugh every day guaranteed. There's very rarely a boring moment. Seeing the kids' progress from start of year to end is rewarding. Helping children with other issues, also rewarding. Sometimes you're their only advocate and you can make a real difference to their lives.
If you get a good set of parents you get PRESENTS at Christmas and summer! School trips are ace!
You will have to work hard but it's working hard doing something you enjoy rather than something meaningless. Don't be put off if it's what you want to do!

The relationship you build with the children and watching their learning grow is amazing.
I have been teaching for 6 years, 2 of those part time after having my daughter. You learn to make things work - E.g I leave school at 4/4:30 at the latest; however do most of my planning at 5:00 in the morning when my daughter is asleep. I work through my lunches and during quiet moments ask my teaching assistant to prep areas (EYFS.) I very rarely work on the weekend. I love that I have the holidays off and can leave at 3:30 if needed. The paperwork, parents, SLT can be daunting but you do learn to prioritise.

I am not a teacher, but I just wanted to say thanks for joining the profession.

My DC didn't attend a primary school in the UK until late in junior school and it always amazed me how teachers and the school, in general, are expected to be the de facto parent by the government. On the other side, you have parents who expect this level of service and then are constantly on a teacher's back about any small thing.

I do wish both parents and the govt. would back off so that you can actually get on with teaching. FYI, I rarely email or bother my teacher. I email them about twice a year and usually, this is with a very simple question. I don't want to be one of these people who suck the joy out of a teacher. My DC are no worse off for it, in fact they do really well at school.

Thx from a grateful parent and good luck.

I’ve been teaching 15 years and honestly don’t think I’d want to do anything else. Yes it’s an emotional rollercoaster but everyday is different and it can be incredibly rewarding.
My main advice would be that if you’re struggling ask for help. Too many teachers will not admit they’re finding something hard and will just battle on. I recently had an assistant head come in and be my TA in one of my lessons each week because I was finding the class really difficult.
Also don’t over do it. A lesson should not take longer to plan than to teach and not everything has to be perfect. Good enough is good enough.
Good luck!

Best job in the world. Kids are amazing to work with. It's a team job, and you'll definitely make friends. Never ever boring!
I try to avoid reading all the negative talk as it definitely brings me down.
Look for the positives!

Primary teacher here...in my 29th year.

Positives: in the 90s and early 'noughties' it was THE best job in the world.

I love the children fiercely- currently in Year 2 but I loved all primary ages.

Negatives: education and teaching is now TOTALLY broken! I'm permanently exhausted, and know for a fact that if I had a young family I would not be able to manage.

I would NEVER advise anyone to go into teaching now...if it wasn't for the fact that I am 12 months off retiring, and for the past 10 years or so, I've been 'too old and too expensive', I'd be moving on. I only get by now because a) I'm single and have no life, b) I see the light at the end of the tunnel (retirement).

I work upwards of 70 hours a week...and never get to the bottom of my 'you MUST do this' list (SLT pressures to take on ever more exhausting tasks is HUGE, micromanaging is toxic, and Academy 'suits' are ever-present with their demands also!)

To give one tiny glimpse into how bad it's got, my colleague and I were called into a formal meeting last week (during our LUNCH HOUR) and berated for 45 minutes because the child-generated 'ideas word storm' in each of our classrooms was different 🤦‍♀️ (think, her class chose 'red, blue, green' and mine chose 'purple, pink and orange' type difference!) I'm sadly not even joking...I (in shock) suggested that maybe we should have walkie talkies and update each other seconds before we write anything on the flip chart 🤣 Didn't go down well with SLT who told us to 'check for consistency before displaying'. You couldn't make this up! I'll inform my children then that their ideas are worthless because they are too original shall I?

Utterly broken. Get out now whilst you can!

I've been teaching for 25 years + and definitely wouldnt want to do anything else. I love being in the classroom.

Part time kept me sane when I had young children though.

When you see complaints you know that there is usually a love and passion for working with children. We do it because we love making a difference; for some kids this difference is life changing and life saving.

Unfortunately the teaching side is now less than 30% of the time I spend working, because there is the expectation that all the other parts will be done as well. The long hours are realistic for many teachers and as long as you are prepared for this and are resilient (because there are times that will really challenge you), then you will love some parts of it.

I don't know if your circumstances will allow this, but teaching is a ticket to travel the world. Pick an international school anywhere in the world and often you will get a package with accommodation, free kids places, paperwork all sorted for you etc and can use those great teacher holidays to explore the region. I have 3 kids, each born in a different country (!) and our lives are like an an amazing mosaic of our experiences. Both of us are teachers and this experience would never have been possible without that teaching qualification. If you can't travel, it's still fab working with children/young people!

I still love it, although I think parents are a fucking pain in the arse if we can get rid of parents out work that would decrease rapidly
yesterday a parent ranted on the phone. I haven’t stopped her daughter being suicidal

But I’m now decades into it. Like YEARS and I love teaching kids.

I have been teaching 10 years and I still love it. I enjoy going to work every day. I've had my wobbles, and I've taught in schools where I just didn't fit, but I'm now in a school that suits me and I work with people I respect and enjoy working with. It's hard to explain why beyond - working with kids, seeing them make progress, knowing you are making small differences in their lives every day.

Yes, there are downsides. Safeguarding is so important but so time-consuming. Tracking data sometimes seems a waste of time, but I've reframed this for myself when working with the right people. parents can be confrontational, unrealistic and demanding at times. And some children are relentless some days! But overall, I wouldn't want to change jobs.

I’ve been teaching 27 years and am still working full time at 56 and still absolutely love it. However, I work in a selective, academic, independent school in which older teachers are valued, behaviour is generally good and we have a lot of autonomy in how we teach our subject. If I’m free and not on cover I can leave early. It’s very full on and busy but we are treated as intelligent adults which I am aware is not the case in many schools. I’d say have a clear idea of the kind of school you want to work in and don’t be a perfectionist- it’s the sort of job where there is always more you could do - a bit like being a parent! Good luck OP.