What is worse?

1 Marking books
2 Marking exam papers
3 Taking assembly
4 Parents evening
5 Detentions
6 Phone calls to parents

The above is my personal order, ranked where 1= worstest, 5= pretty bad 6= OK

Depends why you're phoning IME. I hate phoning to say a kid's excluded. And I worry when I phone about something good, 'cos parents always worry that something bad has happened.

Having been an engineer and now a Maths teacher (having a great time!) I would have to say that all jobs have their stresses. The advantage that I see with teaching (apart from the teaching interaction with students – every day an adventure…) is that as bad as it may seem, the absolute worst it can be is 10 weeks till the next holiday!!!
I don't have a company car anymore, but I do get great holidays and I actually want to go to work each day.
Marking (college level here – so assessment counts) is a bit of a downer, but you get to see how your class is doing relative to others' and what the students have come to grips with. Always get a few pleasant surprises. Parent evenings are normally good as you get more info on students – parents usually grateful too. I am about to be a year co-ordinator again, so will be getting to make some interesting phone calls. Talking to parents is usually illuminating – sometimes you get to see that the student is managing really well – especially considering home life. As you can pick up, I'm enjoying my work.

One of the great mysteries of the universe, perhaps one of you can help?

Why do teachers when in a pub always sit round one table no matter how many of them there are or how small the table is

We always wondered about this in my local and even when we asked some of them never got a definitive answer
Have seen the same behaviour in other pubs too, so its not just a one off

Over to you

It's because generally they don't mix well with others.

Marking books and setting h/w are the things I hate because its done to keep SLT and parents happy most of the time and has almost no value to the kids 90% of the time.

LOL at Goan!

Its because if you sit with anyone else, and they find out you are a teacher, they just bang on about the holidays!! 😆

2 Marking exam papers

This morning it is anyway…

Writing reports.

I'm in charge of my school's management information system and part of this involves ensuring that all reports are done on time and to standard – I'm always last to finish them myself though…

Goan – Premier Member

It's because generally they don't mix well with others.

😉

Why do teachers when in a pub always sit round one table no matter how many of them there are or how small the table is

It's because we all have to be thoroughly checked and vetted by the law to become a teacher. If we sat with any of 'you lot', we wouldn't know what kinds of deviant criminal perversion we might be exposed to. 😕

Marking

Though why you haven't got OfSted down is a mystery

worstest 😯 I would keep to ringing parents rather than writing to them. 😀

Our last Ofsted visit was by an HMI and was alright, he seemed like a nice bloke for a change. Much better than the previous 5 officious overassured muppets. Thought he might even be a half decent teacher himself unlike the others.

I'd definitely say marking exams was the most irritating, followed by chasing reports and data from other teachers who seem to enjoy the sound deadlines make as they woosh past.

Matt

I am wondering whether I am a bit weird since I really enjoy writing reports for students I teach… If you "do it right" (ie. no statement banks) it's bloody time consuming but does give you a chance to be both honest and constructive and parents really appreciate that IME.

1) Producing paperwork to prove to someone else I know something that I already know such as predicted grades every month due to national challenge.

2) Marking books – if you're even halfway competent and have designed a lesson properly you'll know if they've got it sorted without marking their books.

3)Trying to get parents to understand the level/grade of their child and that suddenly taking an interest in year 11 after several years of apathy won't turn it around in time for their results to mysteriously become a C.

I actually want to go to work each day

I wish 🙁

I like the way Ofsted have moved the goalposts – it seems that a 'Good' lesson is now ' Satisfactory', 'Satisfcatory' is 'Usatisfactory' etc. I got good GCSE results in my class last year, but I doubt any of my lessons were above Satisfactory.

Schools seem to have very little to do with educating children anymore; just meeting targets, proving that you have met the targets.

Have sympathy for that clink. My sister is currently studying for her PGCE and has recently been informed that she will not become a 'teacher' rather a 'facillitator of learning'!?

My mrs also works very closely with ofsted… from what I can gather it seems no more than a bunch of bureaucrats changing things on a whim, with rather sparse 'real world' experience or acknowledgment.

Oh FFS- I actually forgot to mention inspections! We have eleven nice visitors coming to see us on Jan 6th.

I'm Upper School pastoral manager (rebranded head of year) I make LOTS of phone calls.

My sister is currently studying for her PGCE

My daughter is currently doing her nqt year in nursery. she has been dropped in at the deep end. Home visit, reports on 32 kids, writing Ofsted report. All in her first 8wks.

Her little un goes to what is supposed to be the "best" school in town according to said Ofsted reports. She has an alternative view!!!!!

I was inspected by HMIe, in Scotland, in September 2008. I moved schools in December 2008, and I've just been inspected again in October 2009. I actually look forward to inspections. I know that I and the team I'm lucky enough to work with do a good job. The inspectors were pleased with what they saw when that came to visit.

IMO if you do your job well and you know your strengths and weaknesses and have a plan in place to deal with the weaknesses, you've nothing to fear from an inspection.

Trout,where are you? I love teaching, MY only fly…We do the d.o.e, I run the silver and had to drop somebody else to take the daughter of a member of the school board,so now she can turn up at meetings IF she feels like and keep me waiting for paperwork, middle class princess. Thank goodness life is really like that, parents will sort everything for you just ecause you were "too busy" to attend several meetings.Hacked me off so much I am self funding my ML so I can tell the boss where to go when he tries it next year.sorry, rant over. Filling in expected levels and discussing then with my tutor group because guidance are to busy to do this.Certainly, that will be 8 grand please!

Clacks.

Haha, glad it's not just me!

Did my PGCE last year, appointed to my first full-time position (after half a term of supply) at half-term. Then 4 weeks later I was expected to write reports for and level all 7 of my Yr9 classes – 180 pupils!

Enjoying it so far, but damn it's hard work. I'm in the middle of trying to mark 2 classes worth of Yr11 BTEC coursework. The teacher I took over from had given them NO feedback since last April. Great, cheers mate 👿

The unbelievably petty and self-important behaviour of some other teachers. I mean you're teachers; you're not Einstein-in-the-classroom! 😡

SaxonRider – Member
The unbelievably petty and self-important behaviour of some other teachers. I mean you're teachers; you're not Einstein-in-the-classroom!

Good use of a semi-colon though.

As i say to my class if you ave a problem with someone tryto walk a mile in their shoes. Then at least you'll be a mile away and have someone elses shows.