Teachers' Strike: Is your kids' school on strike today?

jap200

Caroline_a wrote: »

There seems to be a lot of complaining about how awful it is being a teacher. However, nobody is forced to do this! If it's that dreadful, find something else. I would suggest that there must be reasons why teachers stay in their jobs that have nothing to do with dedication to their pupils - same as the rest of us. Work is hard whatever you do.

As with anyone else, people will stay in a job if there is no alternative for them. However, the fact that 40% of new teachers quit within 5 years says it all - they are leaving in droves.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/15/ofsted-chief-teachers-quitting-scandal

I doubt that my husband will make it to 5 years and to be honest, I hope he doesn't. Many schools now find it very difficult to recruit teachers in certain 'shortage' subjects such as maths, science and languages - there are not enough around because they are leaving!

Just telling people to stop moaning and leave their jobs - which is what you are effectively saying - is easy to say and might help that individual if they can find another job, but where does that leave our schools?

The reason for teachers leaving the profession needs to be addressed.

Nobody would deny that a soldier posted overseas or a hardworking nurse doesn't have a highly stressful and difficult job - but you don't see them getting hammered in the press and in chat forums do you - or criticised for wanting to improve their working conditions? Also, this is not a competition to find the most stressful job - nobody is claiming (as far as I can tell) that teaching is THE worst or most stressful job, we are simply discussing it in an objective way.

Idiophreak

Caroline_a wrote: »

I did see a post on Facebook last night from a soldier who pointed out that he is paid similar to a teacher's pay, although his conditions of work are a lot worse and his hours are certainly longer when he's on a tour. His point was that soldiers don't tend to moan about it, they just get on with it.

Sorry, is this a joke?

So he was on facebook *moaning* about how soldiers don't moan?

Couldn't make it up.

Caroline_a

Idiophreak wrote: »

Sorry, is this a joke?

So he was on facebook *moaning* about how soldiers don't moan?

Couldn't make it up.

No he was on facebook pointing out that no matter how awful his job is he can't strike.

GobbledyGook

Caroline_a wrote: »

No he was on facebook pointing out that no matter how awful his job is he can't strike.

So because someone else chose a job that doesn't give the option to strike no-one else should strike?

I don't get this 'some people have it worse' mentality. If your job is worse then do something about it. Don't expect other people to think 'oh well the binmen/bankers/soldiers' have it worse so I'll just shut up and accept the endlessly increasing pressure on my job because it could be worse'.

poet123

pollypenny wrote: »

When my two were young I'd go home around 4. It was their time until 7, then I'd start again, working in bed, usually falling asleep at 12 or so, having buckled my specs and OH ranting that he wanted to come to bed.

All English teachers work long hours. And it would be every working day, especially if you teach mostly exam classes. How long do you think it takes to mark a set of 20 A-level essays?

My son is an English teacher and comes for tea on Sunday most weeks. After tea he settles down with marking, last week he went home at Midnight and he had been marking solidly all evening That is the way he spends at least 3/4 evenings a week. He also never leaves school before 5pm.

Buzzybee90

Why do some teachers think they're holier than god.

It's a job, do it, if you don't like it then leave.

Caroline_a

That really wasn't the point I was making. The point was that there are parts of teaching that aren't that bad, including their pension which is streets away from most peoples'. Only one union out of 7 teaching unions are striking. Does that mean that they are acting for the others?

I just think that teachers do themselves no favours by all this 'poor me' attitude.

lostinrates

Idiophreak wrote: »

My wife spends an *incredible*

Marking, also, isn't really a great use of teachers' time when you think about it. I can't believe that you couldn't pay someone half as much and just give them the guidelines on how to mark each piece.
.

Seems to me this is important for a teachers for two reasons.

Firstly to see where there student's are struggling for their individual and collective benefit.

Secondly to see where their teaching plans might be routinely failing and succeeding for improvement in teaching concepts or confirming their methods are indeed working.

Tiddlywinks

Caroline_a wrote: »

That really wasn't the point I was making. The point was that there are parts of teaching that aren't that bad, including their pension which is streets away from most peoples'. Only one union out of 7 teaching unions are striking. Does that mean that they are acting for the others?

I just think that teachers do themselves no favours by all this 'poor me' attitude.

There are parts of every job that 'aren't that bad'.

Armed forces personnel, to use your last example, don't have it that bad for a lot of the time... good pensions, nice leave allowance, cheap accommodation, lots of forces discounts, clear career path etc.

However, some of those ex forces personnel (personal knowledge here, not just random quoting from Facebook) who have served in operations have sampled teaching and did not stick it out. Why? Some schools are hostile environments, some have security guards and regularly experience violence, hours are long, parents and kids 'know their rights' and paperwork is never ending... It's just not worth it when you can go elsewhere with less aggro and constraints... and these are people well used to working hard and demonstrating commitment.

Idiophreak

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

Why do some teachers think they're holier than god.

It's a job, do it, if you don't like it then leave.

A lot do. In fact, many PGCEs have a drop out rate of 50%+

As above, plenty drop out in the first 5 years.

Does that make you happy?

You need to think about the importance of education to the country as a whole. Better education in a country means better opportunities for everyone in that country. Better education means lower crime rates. Better education means lower taxes due to reduced burden on the health service and benefits system. Better education means a continued supply of people to heal you when you're sick, help you buy houses, protect your rights and make cool stuff for you to use.

When you consider all of that seriously, you might conclude that it's critically important we have the best people teaching our children. We currently operate in a system where this isn't always the case. Many talented teachers are quitting the profession not because of inability to do the work, but because of unwillingness to sustain the workloads they're faced with.

lostinrates wrote: »

Seems to me this is important for a teachers for two reasons.

Firstly to see where her student's are struggling for their individual and collective benefit.

Secondly to see where their teaching plans might be routinely failing and succeeding for improvement in teaching concepts or confirming their methods are indeed working.

You need the marking to be done for those reasons. I still don't see that it needs a teacher to actually do the marking itself. If someone else did the marking and presented the data (and qualitative comments) to the teacher, they could be absorbed in a fraction of the time and there would be more time for the teacher to identify appropriate responses to the findings.