No one will win or lose an argument like this by citing 'a teacher I know'. It teks all sorts, as they say.
Some of the stuff written on here is total BS. I am a teacher. My day starts at 7. I get no lunch and finish at 5. I then spend two hours with my kids before then working while 11. Thats 14 hours a day. I work 7 hours on a sunday. So thats 80 a week. The myth about 13 weeks holiday is bollocks. I consider myself a good teacher, anyone who says its easy clearly aint a good teacher. Would you want them teaching your child?
For the record i earn nowhere near 30k. I have also been to uni and am very well qualified. Thats what teachers are mad at.
What many do not understand is that teaching is far more than being in a classroom and marking books. A modern teacher has to plan the lessons, complete reports on each child, review lessons and meet levels of teaching standards. Adamski, complaining that you work long hours and earn less than 30k is not a good idea. Many others do exactly the same. Trainee solicitors, accountants, surveyors and countless other professionals who have also been to uni work just as hard. They have far less security of employment than you. You are tarred by the old teachers who had it good. They took advantage and benefited from really good conditions of employment and now the govt wants to reign it all back in. You have my support but only just.
I have taught for 19 years now. I'm not striking over pay. There is a misconception that that is what this is about and it isn't. I do ok and appreciate the salary I get. I'm striking because Gove is demonising and destroying our profession, trying to turn the public against us in true Tory divide and rule fashion. I'm striking because I don't want unqualified teachers in classrooms teaching my children. I'm striking because I don't want five year olds tested then branded failures . I'm striking because I'm fed up with children being short changed by an exam system that gives two different grades to two different children for the same mark because one happens to live in Wales. I accept I have a good pension, but don't accept now having to work to 68 instead of 63when the average life expectancy of a teacher when they retire is two and a half years. There are numerous other reasons and a bit of research from the naysayers might open their eyes. If not then that's up to you. My reasons for striking are sound, and based on what's right for children and education not what I get paid. I am a socialist and make no apologies for that, as I see Gove destroying everything I value about a state education system.
And without teachers there would not be anyone qualified for any other professions. Teachers are the key to a successful economy & their position should be recognised not demonised
Never heard of distance learning? On a separate note, I can't grasp all this working at weekends malarkey. Surely a teacher with say 5 years experience would not need to start from zero for every single lesson in terms of preparation? Can't they refer to the lessons they prepared a year earlier? Clausal verbs or or the geography of Burkina Faso muust be pretty much the same each year......
A/ - but without (some) education, how might a person make use of distance learning? B/ - surely that doesn't apply, the way various 'education' ministers/secretaries have monkeyed around with the curriculum. Michael Gove has made several radical changes in the last 3 years, for example.
The sooner the worlds top university lecturers record the best lectures possible and teach these world wide via the internet the better.We can then sell off Cott Road Campus to developers to have a thriving residential community.We can off load many third rate academics and they can join in the push to improve our economy or work from home doing video conferencing seminars for students experiencing difficulties with the aforementioned lectures. If this model is seen to work in practise we can bring in similar strategies in schools.This will save masses of prep time for teachers as the nations best teachers can have prepared the lessons with the best technology available.Teachers can be on hand to help struggling pupils.Obviously this reduction in stress and extra work could lead to a more streamlined and less expensive system.We could also send in extra resources to help in areas of deprivation to give all kids a better chance of decent qualifications regardless of post code and money.
My wife has been a teacher for 35 years.She goes in at 7 and gets home at 6,works at weekends too.I tell her to ease off a bit because it makes her bad tempered being overworked.I'm not going to put up with it much more she can choose between that four eyed ****er Gove and me.
All pupils should be taught the same essential stuff.This can be reviewed annually to ensure it is up to date and relevant.The lessons can be devised by the best in the teaching profession.Front line teachers can deliver these lessons with the very best resources made by the very best at the job. It is pointless having thousands of teachers of varying aptitudes devising their own version of a particular subject.This could not be tolerated in competitive industry due to its cost and inefficiency. As with the healthcare system in the UK ,we cling to the belief that we are still top of the game-we are in for a very rude awakening. We must become efficient and stop accepting existing practise will always be ok. It is ridiculous if all teachers really are needing to put in the hours claimed on this board.No amount of pension can justify losing many years of normal living. I am not advocating teachers get into a cushy number routine(have a look at GP pay and conditions if you need clarification)but we must end the slavery described on this forum
Horses for courses. What I taught one group of children once won't necessarily work again. Also, since you last taught that lesson, your professional development may have led you to alter your method of teaching. Your lessons should be based around the needs of your class, not merely recycled. A good teacher is a reflective one, whilst it's not always necessary to reinvent the wheel it needs to be considered what will/won't work. Working a lot of the weekend isn't always the case and sometimes there'll be more work on one weekend than another. I distribute my work and life balance sensibly over the weekend, but I'm certainly kept busy most of the time.
"Never heard of distance learning? On a separate note, I can't grasp all this working at weekends malarkey. Surely a teacher with say 5 years experience would not need to start from zero for every single lesson in terms of preparation? Can't they refer to the lessons they prepared a year earlier? Clausal verbs or or the geography of Burkina Faso muust be pretty much the same each year......" If you were a teacher who never paid any attention to each child's targets, their specific special educational needs, their preferred learning styles, changes to the curriculum, improved practice due to reflection on previous work etc etc then that might work. If you are a professional that tries to meet the needs of every child in your class then no you can't just repeat.
Distance learning: not every teacher invented/discovered the knowledge that they are 'teaching', the vast majority are 'enablers' presenting the knowledge then checking the knowledge has been absorbed (or not). With distance learning, the student is given the books/dvds etc and gets stuck in, then does an assignment which the tutor critiques. In many cases the tutor has a fulltime job in industry (not teaching) and the tutoring is a useful/lucrative aside. Gove: is he the new bogeyman? Surely the 9 times table doesn't keep getting updated?
Just weakens your overall argument mate when you come out with wilfully childish stuff like that. Further, re: Gove, I take it you never have had any consistent objections with any ministers serving the government? Youâve respected, if not agreed with, and never made a âbogeymanâ out of anyone through regular and consistent disapproval with their running of their departments. Under New Labour for instance, I take it you explicitly supported all government offices and policies until they left in May 2010 and certainly never felt you had any prolonged recourse with any of them who made decisions that concerned your profession/job.
Exactly. But ignorance of what happens in classrooms/learning enviroments of 2013 just illustrates how out of touch these people are yet doesn't stop them making ill educated comments and arguments that simply make them look stupid. I have a rule, if I know **** all about something, I say nothing or admit that I nothing about it. Seems like some people lack the self confidence to able to do that. It’d be really useful if people, who don’t work in education and never have, had the chance to work in an inner city secondary school for a month. Shadow a teacher , help in class, see some of the paperwork and maybe have a go at planning and delivery to get the feel of it. I realise that, for many valid reasons, this will not happen in the REAL WORLD (to use the parlance of this forum). I suspect some would do well, some would love it, but in the main, the arse would fall out of the many.
