quote:Originally posted by herbs: I have to confess getting a teensy bit narked with teachers who moan about having to spend some of their 12 weeks off doing some work. Meaning they only get 10 weeks off. Is this you Sam? Is it?
I work about 61 hours every week, sometimes more; I used to do more as a matter of course but I can't keep it up anymore. I leave every morning at 7 am and get back at about 6.50 pm and I work all day Sunday. The 61 hours includes the free lessons I am expected to give this pot-less generation of students because they don't work in the lessons I am contracted to teach and the unpaid lunchtimes I end up working through. Our school insists on making us work the maximum number of directed hours and also rings the bell early in the morning and afternoon - unofficially and illegally, but no-one seems able to stop the mad man running the place from doing what he wants. All lesson preparation and marking is done in my own time except for 2 hours protected frees which I spend photocopying because our school will not provide proper technical support. The unprotected frees are spent covering colleagues’ lessons. We have responsibilities within the department, even if we do not have a point of responsibility (i.e. pay for it) and we have to attend extra meetings and do extra work over and above our own teaching for that. We make the vast majority of our own resources (or I buy my own) because the school will not provide enough and if it does, it has to be adapted for different classes and purposes. I am registered disabled and can be unwell, in which case I might work a few hours less and save up the work for my week's off, but there is always something to do anyway in the endless time off I am presumed to have so I always use the time off to plan and mark in. I never have time off where I don't take work home. I teach English which takes a hell of a lot longer to mark than any other subject - fact. It is true I can do a set of ordinary exercise books for Years 7 and 8 in about 2-3 hours if I haven't left them too long, but the Romeo and Juliet essays are half-way drafts and a gifted (wordy) class, so they will take approx 30-40 minutes each to read and annotate meaningfully; that's 15-19? hours. The Sixth form stuff takes about 1/2 an hour each; more if it is A Language work like their investigations coursework or Editorials. The coursework I haven't started takes at least 45 minutes each as all their coursework is in the folder, so that's another 19 hours - hence a 61 hour week as a matter of course and sometimes more, as well as holiday marking. I teach approx 180 different kids and between them they sit 6 external examinations; 5 of which involve coursework we have to grade; both whilst they are doing it and at the end; x-marking our colleagues too then re-marking the whole feckin’ lot at the end of the course. Such joy. It is true that this fortnight off, I have only worked during four days so far. My bad. It was on lesson planning for next term. I have had to make a scheme and resources for a new text we have bought a gifted class I happen to teach - there are no suitable materials to buy. My job is to write the scheme for the Department to use after this year too. Obviously I have not been able to do it all in four days; it will be on-going. It is also true that I take a whole week off at Christmas and only work for three or four weeks during the summer. One year the syllabus won't change or I won't get a new subject or a couple of new topics to teach and then I won't have to spend all my summer holidays creating the damn resources and schemes for it. That won't be this year, of course, as all the A Levels are changing. In fact it won't be any year because texts are rotated by the exam boards and there are always new ones to teach; though cpompared to a new syllabus that counts as ligtht relief. I have given up two posts of responsibility in the last couple of years; posts that I did very well at for over a decade and enjoyed, thus losing money I can ill afford because I am no longer in my thirties with the energy to manage an even worse workload and one government initiative after another has been added to our workload - a workload that is crippling almost everyone at my school; a school I cannot leave because in spite of the disability acts, people don't like employing disabled people; especially once you are past 40. My younger colleagues are leaving the profession because they are being made ill by it and I could cry to see so many dedicated, excellent teachers bending under the yoke of an education system that has been a political football for decades now - so much so that the layman doesn't even see it; all they think they understand are teachers have long holidays and we must be servants now on a par with shop assistants because they have parent-power - not a power all of them seem capable of exercising over their children I should say. Add to that the fact that I barely am allowed to actually teach now because I have to cram the poor kids with stupid exam requirements that half the time don't make sense just because no school can survive without some stupidly unrealistic level of A-C grades, and the kids, who may be a rabble half the time but are still human beings, are dispirited and made resentful by an over-crammed, ill-thought out curriculum and poxy, endless exams that ask for skills that half the time their intellect hasn't developed enough to do. What fucking normal 13 year old is capable of comparing the language, characters and damn staging between two scenes from a feckin’ stupid Shakespeare play about stupid feckin’ lovers without having it crammed into their heads against their will, I ask you! How can they love learning? And don't even start talking to me about what the Sixth form are like. I'm even getting colleagues in Unis having a go at me; asking me why I'm not teaching them. Get them back from their driving lessons, shopping trips and part-time jobs and I might stand a chance!
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I teach English which takes a hell of a lot longer to mark than any other subject - fact. ... I teach approx 180 different kids and between them they sit 6 external examinations; 5 of which involve coursework we have to grade; both whilst they are doing it and at the end; x-marking our colleagues too then re-marking the whole feckin’ lot at the end of the course. Such joy.
Why not post your students' coursework here and let us grade it? We'll do a good job, honest.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I wish I could! I love the class; they are darlings, but hours of the same essay endlessly does rather squidge the brain. It's not too bad giving a final grade on a piece because you only have to annotate with the criteria, but when it's for improvement and you have to write all those notes on it....
Anyway, you have a party to go to this weekend! Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
I should point out that by "we'll do a good job", I meant "we'll have a good lol at their expense". Just to be clear.
Can you let us grade them now?
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I'm very slow. Known for it.
I doubt every much they will be anything but very dull and earnest. Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
Sam's description of life as a teacher seems eerily familiar. My dad took early retirement after being pressured into taking on more and more roles at the school.
During term time he wouldn't get home until after 6:00pm because of meetings, and after dinner would immediately disappear into his study to spend most of the evening marking. During holidays he'd have to write lesson plans.
He used to spend at least half of the summer holidays working with a few other members of staff to construct the timetable for the following year. This was not computerised at the time - if I recall correctly, it involved massive sheets of paper laid out on the dining table.
When I was quite young, I once mentioned to him that I might want to become a teacher. He gave me one word of advice:
"Don't!"
When you think about the long holidays and early "home time" it seems like it might be a pretty easy job, but under the surface it's a fucking nightmare.
[ 18.04.2008, 09:50: Message edited by: MiscellaneousFiles ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Misc! I'm in love! I thought I would be told to stop wingeing; which is fine; I'm used to it *martyred air*, but your words are balm to my ears.
I guess it would take a teacher's child to know.
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
It must be really different, because not only was I a teacher, I'm a teacher's child as well, and I still think teaching is a hell of a lot better than the grind that froopy goes to every day.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
The teachers at my 11-year-old's school have got around the marking burden by simply telling parents to mark their own children's homework.
The upshot of this is that my son takes about 20 minutes to complete a bit of Maths or English work, and we take the rest of the evening trying to figure out what the fuck he was supposed to be doing and whether that's the right way to do it, and how the hell do you work out the area of a shape anyway.
Also:
Science test paper question in my 11-year-old's homework the other night:
Underline the correct word in the sentence.
"When something is slowing down, friction/gravity is the main force that is making it happen."
Answer (printed in the back of the book of test papers): "friction".
How ambiguous is that? I mean, a skateboard going down a half pipe is impelled by gravity, and going up the other side it is slowed down by gravity, isn't it? "When something is slowing down..." Christ. Give us "something" to work with here.
Another question in the same paper:
"How could you make a switch to use if you wanted to leave a bulb on for a long time?"
What the fuck is that supposed to mean??
Answer from the back of the book: "A switch made from a paper clip that you can connect across the gap in the circuit."
A what?!?! I thought that health and safety was the big thing these days. You want a child to use a paper clip as a "switch" in order to "leave a bulb on for a long time"?
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I've absolutely no doubt that there are worse jobs than teaching. Absolutely. Longer hours, worse conditions and pay. There are more dangerous jobs by a long chalk!
I have also no doubt that there are crap teachers and schools.
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
quote:Originally posted by rooster: It must be really different, because not only was I a teacher, I'm a teacher's child as well, and I still think teaching is a hell of a lot better than the grind that froopy goes to every day.
Should also point out that your dad was a P.E. teacher and spent most of his career in the pool. In Miami. So one might read from that his wasn't necessarily the world's worst teaching assignment.
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
Yes, but most of that time he was also 'teaching' a population that couldn't wipe their own asses...so not a job many people would be clamoring to sign up for.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by rooster: Yes, but most of that time he was also 'teaching' a population that couldn't wipe their own asses...so not a job many people would be clamoring to sign up for.
I don't know. Every mother on the planet seems to sign up for that. Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
true sam, but they generally don't plan on wiping the butts of 250 pound 20-year-olds.
ETA: not that my dad did any butt-wiping...that was beneath him. He did have to frequently drain the pool after 'accidents' though.
[ 18.04.2008, 10:23: Message edited by: rooster ]
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65:
Another question in the same paper:
"How could you make a switch to use if you wanted to leave a bulb on for a long time?"
What the fuck is that supposed to mean??
Answer from the back of the book: "A switch made from a paper clip that you can connect across the gap in the circuit."
A what?!?! I thought that health and safety was the big thing these days. You want a child to use a paper clip as a "switch" in order to "leave a bulb on for a long time"?
You sure the teacher wasn't having some fun at your expense? Pick the correct answer!
Q: If you exercise in the sun for a long time, you can drink diesel/acetone to quench your thirst.
I give the teacher points for encouraging kids to experiment with paper clips and electric mains. I think that's the sort of initiative we should encouage through teachers merit play plans Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65: The teachers at my 11-year-old's school have got around the marking burden by simply telling parents to mark their own children's homework.
You know that can't be true. How can you mark a GCSE coursework essay? Unless every kid in your school is aged 11-13.
Personally I think parents should stop obsessing about homework.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by froopyscot: You sure the teacher wasn't having some fun at your expense?
Yeah, you'd think that, but these were printed questions in an official test paper book. I've heard from other people that the same books are in use nationwide in England. They are full of typos, misprints and missing options (so the answer in the back wasn't even one of the options given).
I think the actual exam results are going to be down to pot luck on the day.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by rooster: He did have to frequently drain the pool after 'accidents' though.
Ugh.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
dang; have you deliberately taken those questions out of context?
For instance, the question and answer to the paper clip one clearly refers to a circuit that has a break in it and at that age it would refer to a circuit on a simple circuit board, not a proper, working, real life, fully wired circuit. Your son must have had lessons with simple circuit boards.
You're playing silly beggars, surely?
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I guess it would take a teacher's child to know.
I'm actually the child of two teachers, but mater only teaches art which doesn't really count.
Well I say she teaches art, but in truth she mostly just has to be in the same room as a bunch of kids who haven't quite made it to full-time prison yet, and try not to get stabbed.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: dang; have you deliberately taken those questions out of context?
For instance, the question and answer to the paper clip one clearly refers to a circuit that has a break in it and at that age it would refer to a circuit on a simple circuit board, not a proper, working, real life, fully wired circuit. Your son must have had lessons with simple circuit boards.
He may well have done, but it's me that's left to mark the paper, and the paper does not state "on a simple circuit board like you've had in lessons at school". Anyway, he didn't know the answer, and maybe that's because it's a bizarre question? I mean, if you want to leave a lightbulb on for a long time then, er, you flick the switch to "on" and don't flick it to "off" again until the "long time" has elapsed.
I genuinely didn't know what they meant, and I still think it's a fucking stupid answer, regardless of whether it's a simple circuit or not. I mean, why not just join the two bits of wire together? Or any number of other possibilities.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
Hey dang, don't ask me.
I was sat at the back of the lab with the other girls by a physic teacher who fancied the boys a lot more than he did us.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam:
quote:Originally posted by dang65: The teachers at my 11-year-old's school have got around the marking burden by simply telling parents to mark their own children's homework.
You know that can't be true. How can you mark a GCSE coursework essay? Unless every kid in your school is aged 11-13.
Personally I think parents should stop obsessing about homework.
Well, it's a primary school, so my 11-year-old is about to take his SATS before moving to secondary school. I swear that they have told us to mark their homework. We are even supplied with a "marking scheme" for Literature tasks.
As for obsessing about homework... children are given the homework to do, and they don't do it unless they are nagged, by their parents. And their parents want them to keep up at school, so they sit down with the kids and go through it together. This isn't really obsessing. It's just trying to do your bit, kind of like politicians and teachers always say that parents should do.
Hey, I've got a good story which happened actually yesterday, so it's still fresh in my mind for a few more minutes.
Same son has a bit of a cold at the moment. He told his teacher that he had an earache and a headache. They phoned home to get him picked up from school in the middle of the day. His mum ignored the phonecall because she knows perfectly well that he's just got a bit of a cold.
When she picked him up at normal going home time, the teacher insisted that he was really ill and should go to the doctor. So she took him to the doctor and, guess what, nothing wrong with him, and the doctor had a right pop at her for bringing him in with just a bit of a cold and wasting good NHS time!
So we've got over-paranoid nanny state telling us how to look after our own children, and an over-stretched NHS state telling us not to be so silly. And us in the middle knowing that he'll be fine in a couple of days and you have to just live with the occasional cold.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
I was winding you up about the homework.
Thanks for the idea for the parent's mark scheme. I'll take it to my next Dept meeting.
As to going to the doctor's; that'll teach you to take any notice of teachers.
It's about time someone else ranted about their job. I did call this rant: put your job rant here
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
I'm afraid if I complained about my job I'd be beaten. It does have its downsides: hours editing images in front of the computer makes for nasty carpal tunnel and a sore bottom, clients occasionally waste my time and order one or two prints, people write me nasty notes complaining about my pricing, there is always something new I *need*, kids can sometimes seriously stress me out.
but on the whole, it isn't really as bad as going to an office every day, especially since I don't have to dress up!
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: I was winding you up about the homework.
Guaranteed to get a rise out of any parent, that one. Posted by sabian (Member # 6) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: When you think about the long holidays and early "home time" it seems like it might be a pretty easy job, but under the surface it's a fucking nightmare.
Yup...
I have up to Stage 2 of my Teacher Training and was invited back for the PGCE but declined because I realised in Stage 2 that my "work day" would be around 18 hours a day when you factor in lesson plans, marking, helping the retards, paperwork to keep No. 10 happy, etc...
So, now I just have the cert on my CV and use it to blag 'company training' sessions instead.
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
quote:Originally posted by sabian: helping the retards,
The number of times I have to tell colleagues not to refer to Senior Management like that.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Just marking one of these "Revise Wise" practice papers this morning and found this one:
What do you add to the word care to make an adjective?
Child's answer: "ful". Correct, right?
Back of book says "carefully"!
Now - putting aside the fact that that would make "carecarefully" - "carefully" is a fucking adverb!
We walked carefully across the crumbling old bridge.
"Careful" is the adjective.
The careful DIY enthusiast didn't electrocute himself.
Shockingly, these books are published by BBC Active and are being used all over the country.
[ 20.04.2008, 12:37: Message edited by: dang65 ]
Posted by sam (Member # 884) on :
The answer is 'less' surely? Haven't we already worked out the DIY enthusiast did electrocute himself because he used a paperclip?
I'm the sort of person who would contact the publishers and send a letter to the school too, complaining about the inaccuracy of the work they are sending home with the children. It is pretty poor.
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
or keep the kids home and send a note that instead of going to school you are having them spend the day watching Schoolhouse Rock. Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by sam: The answer is 'less' surely?
Good point. Or 'free', or 'worn'?
Posted by mart (Member # 32) on :
An S at the beginnning and a D at the end.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: During term time he wouldn't get home until after 6:00pm because of meetings, and after dinner would immediately disappear into his study to spend most of the evening marking. During holidays he'd have to write lesson plans.
He used to spend at least half of the summer holidays working with a few other members of staff to construct the timetable for the following year. This was not computerised at the time - if I recall correctly, it involved massive sheets of paper laid out on the dining table.
...
When you think about the long holidays and early "home time" it seems like it might be a pretty easy job, but under the surface it's a fucking nightmare.
From your description it sounds like a fairly normal job. I'm sure most people here frequently find that they don't get home til gone 6.00, and that the same was probably true of their parents (FTR I recall 7pm being the norm for my dad getting home, with a similar situation about after dinner working; for one job I was in for five years it was not unusual to arrive home at about 10/11pm). Spending half your summer holiday working sounds bad, because for most people a summer holiday is five days, maybe ten if you're willing to sacrifice some holiday elsewhere. As a teacher, surely working half your summer holiday still gives you three whole weeks.
I'm not saying teaching's easy or that I could do it, but it seems to me that what's daunting about it is the act of getting up there and teaching, the responsibility and the tension of teaching a class of kids. You know, I admire that and it's something I could never do. But describing a normal set of working hours with a sense of outrage seems to miss the point a bit.
[ 21.04.2008, 05:33: Message edited by: Thorn Davis ]
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Indeed. Surely 'the holidays' refer to the time off the children have, not the teachers.
Posted by MiscellaneousFiles (Member # 60) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Spending half your summer holiday working sounds bad, because for most people a summer holiday is five days, maybe ten if you're willing to sacrifice some holiday elsewhere. As a teacher, surely working half your summer holiday still gives you three whole weeks.
Hmm, is that really true? I get 26 days holiday a year, which certainly allows more than one week for a summer holiday. Perhaps that's unusual, I don't know...
If you read my post a bit more closely, you'll see that I mentioned his holidays were spent writing lesson plans AND that the timetable took about half of the summer holiday. That doesn't mean half of the holiday was free. Yes, we used to go away for a week, but both parents were pretty busy for the rest of the time. It wasn't uncommon for the marking to come on holiday with us.
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: But describing a normal set of working hours with a sense of outrage seems to miss the point a bit.
I was trying to point out that, contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, a teacher's day doesn't finish when the bell rings at 3:30pm, and those long holidays aren't quite as appealing as they might seem.
My job doesn't require me to take work home. Each night when I leave the office at 5:30pm, my time is my own. My weekends and holidays are my own. I can switch off and not have to think about work, and that's something I'd find pretty difficult to give up.
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
Are teachers paid as 12 month employees there then? Here they only get paid 10 months of the year, so there is no way a teacher would do that much on the summer holidays.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
I believe they are. If it helps, my step-mum was enjoying an afternoons worth of 'work' yesterday when I called to see how she was enjoying her holiday.
In other news my step-mum has become some kind of turbo athlete. She recently cycled from John O'Scrotes, climbed a mountain on the way down to Wales, then climbed Snowdon when she got there. I feel utterly fucking ashamed of myself because I used the lift earlier to go one floor.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
That's not really news I know. But to be fair 'dudes step-mum does exercise' isn't really any less valid a headline than 'Paris Hilton in latest snatch-flash-o-rama'
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
did your stepmum flash her snatch? If not, then there is a definite reduction in headlineliness.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Is that how you measure things that are good. The snatchitude?
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
It's already the de facto standard measurement in some circles.
Posted by Dr. Benway (Member # 20) on :
do you measure how good things are by their ability to get headlines?
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: do you measure how good things are by their ability to get headlines?
No. I user the Nero system.
Posted by Harlequin (Member # 454) on :
I still sell the Big Issue and have done on and off since June 2006. Being in London though I find if I use chatrooms and message boards a lot then people from the net recognise me when I am selling it and come up and buy it off me.
It is great when every once in a while someone comes up to me and says something like: "Hey you're steelgate off Lycos chat on ther internet aren't you? I recognise you from your photo on there. I'll buy a copy please."
Something like that really makes my day. Otherwise the job is totally crap and boring as hell.
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