Does anyone here teach?

sarajoy

Sometimes I think these things are staring you in the face, and then a trigger helps you realise that really, you've got no choice. I don't think I deserve a chapeau, as it feels like it's about time I did something about it!

So I'm now sat in limbo hoping several things:

1) That my first choice agrees to interview me.
2) That we can place the interview date after my period in the school.
3) That I don't come away from the school going "No WAY can I do that!"
4) That they grant me entry into the 'enhancement course' that runs from January.
5) And finally that they offer me a place to begin my PGCE Autumn 2010.

Sooo many variables....

alfablue

sarajoy wrote:

Just thinking further - I'm seeing this whole secondary teaching as more than just passing on information in an easily digestible way (which is the way I see lecturers, sorry if that causes offence) - but also the process of trying to instil enthusiasm or hopefully at least mild interest in the pupils. Arming them with something for life.
?

Sorry, couldn't hold back - you describe bad lecturers, at their best they strive to enthuse and enrich every bit as much as a school teacher (though alas, many uni lecturers don't posses teaching qualifications, which may explain the bad examples - in my faculty it is compulsory to have teaching quali's however).

gb155

Not a teacher but do class room training at work, I love it but the amount of preparation/marking is a pain in the ass, At the moment I have 11 people, I prep the week before and normally in 30-45 mins before they are to prep for the day, normally 30 mins after they have gone do I don my lycra, Lunches are always working ones too, but As I say I do love it.

redvee

sarajoy
Good luck with the application, know we've talked about this and it's a hell of a career change from what I can see. When you're a teacher you can get to the social drinks first.

lost_in_thought
Does this mean countless souls are putting their faith in the hands of a pilot being guided into Heathrow/Gatwick etc by an ATC looking at Wiggle/CRC/Epic webby sites?

sarajoy

No problem alfablue - I realise there are good and bad, and I had several very good lecturers too.

However people who warn me off teaching and suggest lecturing are missing the point - I /want/ to reach the ones who are less likely to listen, or want to be there, etc.

alfablue

I'm with you Sara, I get most job satisfaction from getting the failing students to succeed, whereas some of my colleagues will give up on them in favour of working with the more talented (aka "easier") students. It is amongst the less academically inclined that the real challenge lies, and where the real teaching skills come into play. There is a great need for teachers who are up for this challenge - I think your attitude and motivation could make you one of those memorable and influential teachers - all power to your elbow! I hope it all works out.

vwolf

Are you having a laugh? All the teachers I know turn up at 9.00am and are out of the building by 3.20pm. This nimby government panders to every beck and call of the teaching unions which means in reality, teachers get away with doing little work (no paperwork, etc..) for what is an obscene salary, particularly during a recession. Not bad bearing in mind they get 190 days a year holiday

And working late/from home? Don't be rediculous!

BUT that said, If you want an easy life, good salary, secure job and enjoy standing in front of 30 kids, then go fo it

jimmcdonnell

It would be very interesting to hear first-hand from 'all the teachers you know'. And if that does describe their working day, I sincerely hope no student or child of mine ever gets taught by them.

Seriously, vwolf, are you just taking out your frustrations from a bad experience as a pupil on the teaching profession, in the absences of any actual knowledge or facts?

Facts and helpful comments = useful contributions to this thread.
Ignorant, opinionated fact-free ranting = unhelpful and makes you look like a fool.

By the way - ridiculous, not rediculous. Sound it out (but try not to let your lips move, it's a dead give-away).

Stone Glider

"All the teachers I know" edge quietly towards the door and leave. :oops:

doog442

I actually live next door to two teachers..one secondary and one primary

the 13 week holiday entitlement is well spent....on 13 weeks holiday

The strange thing is they always come home from work at the same time, (4pm at the latest) get changed into running gear, bikes etc and life seems good for them

I dont believe for a minute they are working from home or even from work after hours...the NUT should be dispanded ...just as corrupt as most MP'S

Im sure other public services would love wages / hol's and the back up of a union who should have been disbanded years ago

(ps parent of 3 kids who's teachers are more disfunctional than the pupils they teach)

nonnac85

I am a teacher just completeing my training year. I work through my "holidays" so that I am not rushing around planning lessons in the morning before I am supposed to be teaching them. This half term I expect I will get one good day of riding in after doing normal jobs at home as well as school stuff. I dont know why people think teachers get an amazing salary - from speaking to friends my age, we are all on similar amounts. And teacher are effectively forced to pay higher prices if they do go away on holiday because it is aways peak season.
Yes I do tend to get in by 4.30 but thats because a) I get into work by 7.30 in the morning to get everything ready and b)I only live 10 minutes away by bike from work. But then guess what - I have to mark the work the kids have done that day.
Have to love the challenging kids though - I never have a "boring day at the office" with my form!! And its great when you finally get through to one of them. I love working with the kids but not so sure about the planning / paperwork / overly picky risk assessments!

linsen

vwolf wrote:

Are you having a laugh? All the teachers I know turn up at 9.00am and are out of the building by 3.20pm. This nimby government panders to every beck and call of the teaching unions which means in reality, teachers get away with doing little work (no paperwork, etc..) for what is an obscene salary, particularly during a recession. Not bad bearing in mind they get 190 days a year holiday

And working late/from home? Don't be rediculous!

BUT that said, If you want an easy life, good salary, secure job and enjoy standing in front of 30 kids, then go fo it

:roll:

You clearly know a different bunch of teachers than I do.
Holiday is only around 55 - 60 days in fact (unless you also count your weekends as holiday in your job)

vwolf - on yer bike

stuaff

redvee wrote:

sarajoy
Good luck with the application, know we've talked about this and it's a hell of a career change from what I can see. When you're a teacher you can get to the social drinks first.

lost_in_thought
Does this mean countless souls are putting their faith in the hands of a pilot being guided into Heathrow/Gatwick etc by an ATC looking at Wiggle/CRC/Epic webby sites?

Best of luck ladies. I must say I understand redvee's reservations about LiT doing that job...but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.....

always_tyred

linsen wrote:

vwolf wrote:

Are you having a laugh? All the teachers I know turn up at 9.00am and are out of the building by 3.20pm. This nimby government panders to every beck and call of the teaching unions which means in reality, teachers get away with doing little work (no paperwork, etc..) for what is an obscene salary, particularly during a recession. Not bad bearing in mind they get 190 days a year holiday

And working late/from home? Don't be rediculous!

BUT that said, If you want an easy life, good salary, secure job and enjoy standing in front of 30 kids, then go fo it

:roll:

You clearly know a different bunch of teachers than I do.
Holiday is only around 55 - 60 days in fact (unless you also count your weekends as holiday in your job)

vwolf - on yer bike

I think there is a lack of perspective in the statement "only 55-60 days" in regard to holidays. Sorry, but that's around 2 1/2 times the average.

Come on now, its sh!t loads.

linsen

I know it is loads, as I have always said on here - holidays are fab, but I don't get 190 days a year. That is like saying the average worker gets 129......

When I started teaching, though, I was on £13000 a year and working till 1am most days.

gabriel959

Teacher holidays are good but have got a massive problem in my opinion, they occur when all the kids are off too (obviously!!) but that means that plane tickets and accommodation is usually at its most expensive! I personally prefer mine 30 days plus bank holidays that I can take whenever I want.

I actually think Teachers in this country don't have enough holiday, mainly because my wife works for a few days doing preparation and stuff (and that is after more than 10 years of doing the job!). Truth is it gets easier as you get more experienced but my wife works from around 8.30 till 4pm and then needs to do marking and the lot. In reality she just manages to finish by around 5.30/6.00. It all depends on how thorough you are though.

Salary is not that great either, at least for the middle management, in fact I don't think there is a point in being in middle manangement in teaching as the overheads are huge (unless you don't do that much!).

That aside and from what you are saying you sound like you would make a good teacher and I say go for it!!! If you get to a good school it will be almost impossible for you to leave, my wife in spite all the cons loves it!!!

always_tyred

gabriel959 wrote:

I actually think Teachers in this country don't have enough holiday, mainly because my wife works for a few days doing preparation and stuff (and that is after more than 10 years of doing the job!). Truth is it gets easier as you get more experienced but my wife works from around 8.30 till 4pm and then needs to do marking and the lot. In reality she just manages to finish by around 5.30/6.00. It all depends on how thorough you are though.

Sorry, but how is this different from any other job? I get that teachers have to do prep work, and work longer than their contracted hours, but I work more than my contracted hours and I don't think I'm particularly special. If the average teacher salary was 20% below the national average rather than 20% (or more) above, I'd understand. But it isn't. If you compare teachers to a myriad of other professionals working for similar wages, I think they do pretty well.

What's a starting teacher salary? About £21k? £25k in London? For a 22 year old newly qualified teacher, that's not too bad is it? You get an increment for not being crap, 60 days' leave and a cast iron pension paid into by your employer about twice as much as you'd get in the private sector. I've been in academia where the similar culture exists to pay rises, and I've been (and I am) in the private sector.

I wonder how may teachers who'd been in the private sector would have the gaul to complain about working conditions?

sarajoy

Well, let's stop quibbling about pay - I'm coming from the engineering sector which, considering it designs every aspect of life (between the disciplines it builds houses, bridges, infrastructure, computers, entertainment systems, gadgets, fabrics, cars, planes, trains, bikes, ever onwards ad infinitum), is woefully under-appreciated in this country.

People running multi-million pound projects which are high in the public interest - and all those incredibly highly specialised people working under them who have the lives of the public in their hands if they design anything load-bearing (for example)... are /not/ considered professionals. Can't always get a good mortgage. Are grossly underpaid. It saddens me.

Truth is that engineers tend to be geeky and a lot of us would be doing the same job whatever it paid. So market forces bring it down. Shame, really. It makes me sad that a young fresh-from-exams accountant or teacher is considered a professional yet an experienced engineer with many important projects under his or her belt isn't.

So, I'm hardly about to worry about teaching pay-levels, anyway. At least they're fairly transparent, I can go look up what I'm likely to be (or could hope to be) paid in an instant: http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit/lifeasate ... cales.aspx

always_tyred

You should try being a scientist.

sarajoy

Well indeed, I realise scientists have it even worse.

It's amazing the way money flows, but in a freeish market like ours I guess it follows the money-grabbers and not those that actually do the insanely difficult stuff...

I imagine that's mainly because they wouldn't do that stuff if they didn't have a love/instinct for it, and so like the engineers they would be doing it whatever they were paid (which is a pittance, in this case).

Roastie

sarajoy wrote:

Truth is that engineers tend to be geeky and a lot of us would be doing the same job whatever it paid.

Yup. Sometimes us engineers (and scientists and academics and teachers ...) are our own worst enemies.