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Great thread on teaching, nothing to add.
As for hours, my Brother regularly worked till he was so knackered he just went to bed too tired for anything else.
My mate worked too late to ever meet us for our regular night rides in over 3 years.
For the pay both were overworked / overstressed and undervalued.
Life is bloody short, dont waste it.
As an aside, did anyone just hear Any Questions where there were two successive questions:
1) what would you do to improve oecd numeracy and literacy ranking? Unanimous answer: let teachers teach without interference
2) should that headteacher have told parents to come to school properly dressed? Unanimous answer: noooo,there are more important things, she shouldn't have...
Gaaah, well, which is it, you bastards? Either we let teachers use their latitude and initiative to do what they judge their schools and kids need, or we don't! Very annoying.
Im now halfway through my NQT year and it's very tough. I love my job, but the money is pretty lousy at this stage. It's unbelievably rewarding though, and you'll never learn as much as you do when you have to teach something.
Word of warning though - teaching is NOTHING like lecturing. Cross lecturing with babysitting, social work, motivational speaker and actor and you'll get close...
Word of warning though - teaching is NOTHING like lecturing. Cross lecturing with babysitting, social work, motivational speaker and actor and you'll get close...
😀
No offence but when is 7.30 till 5 deemed long hours?
Dont think it is really, but when you have 25-30 unruly 15 yearolds sucking the ife force from you its quite tough. The attrition rate tells the story.
Its not uncommon for my wife (teacher obviously) to only have a 10min lunch without a single break throughout the day. She comes back shell shocked often, but still loves her job. This is the difference between a long day at the office and a long day at school.
It's not uncommon for me to only have a 10min lunch without a single break throughout the day. I come back shell shocked, still have stuff to do in the evening and the worries often stop me sleeping at night. At the end of the day if I've done a good job, a millionaire is an even bigger millionaire than when he started. At least your wife has something really worthwhile to show for it!
I suspect that's why she still loves her job and I'm looking for a change.....
It's not uncommon for me to only have a 10min lunch without a single break throughout the day. I come back shell shocked, still have stuff to do in the evening and the worries often stop me sleeping at night.
I'd change jobs, sounds very unhealthy.
but you do it for the kids. They are bloody brilliant.
Kids are just like the rest of society, some are brilliant, some are eedjits and most are somewhere in the middle.
I mainly do it for the money. And holidays.
Too many teachers are martyrs to the cause. They do ridiculous hours often when not necessary then complain about it. This has a number of negative effects: 1. People lose sympathy for the profession. 2. It creates a culture whereby working massively over your contracted hours is not only acceptable but expected.
I teach in Scotland where things are a little different but my advice to new teachers is to look at your practice, talk to the old hands, decide what has heehaw impact and stop doing it. Then have a right good talk to yourself about not feeling guilty, after all if the powers that be really valued that stuff they'd give you time to do it.
I have been teaching for 19 years (blimey that has flown by!) and recently went back to being a HOD in a secondary school after being in GFE for a couple of years!
Is it stressful, yes it can be.
Is any day the same, not a chance 😀
Would I want to do anything else, not on your life 😀
Workload expectations can be huge, but for some reason even though I only take home occasionaly and it is one set of work to mark at home max, and I have never worked until 10pm, all of my students do well and my departments do well! I think there are a few too many martyrs in teaching who love to tell the rest of the staffroom how long they are working to make themselves feel a bit better!
My working day tends to be at my desk by about 7:15am (I am an early riser and work better in the morning), I don't take breaks or lunch by choice then I leave usually by about 4:30-5pm. However on Fridays I aim to be off by 3:10pm. I reckon that that working day means I don't need to take much home, and I like to keep the two as separate as possible
Thanks for all the continued insight everyone. Teach Direct were supposed to call me yesterday afternoon and didn't, but I shan't let that put me off just yet 😉
As Edukator said, this is a great thread that puts both sides across for the OP.
Yes money is crap per hour. Yes, the holidays are awesome. Yes, teachers complain about the hours too much I think. Yes, its savage/draining as a 10 min break from 8-4.30 is normal. Yes, it's very rewarding and I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
I don't have much more to add other than I followed a similar route (PhD to maths teacher via lecturing) so if you want to contact me direct you're welcome to (email in profile)