The Word Cloud

14 Comments

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  by CJ 3 months ago

  I could have written this, Deli... I know exactly how you feel. I am supposed to be going back in April, and the closer it gets, the more I realise I don't really want to return. Teaching has become such a political hot potato - Academies; free schools; teachers being Public Enemy Number One in terms of pensions, being nothing more than workshy freeloaders who have 'had it good for too long'; the complete lack of anything even approaching morale; targets, targets, targets, targets, targets; Michael Gove making it his personal crusade to kick out any teacher hired in the Labour years (we know what he's up to...); the goal posts in terms of what makes a good lesson changing almost daily (seriously - lessons once deemed good to outstanding are now deemed satisfactory if you're lucky since they changed the criteria *yet again*)... it's a mugs game, and I am fed up of being a mug.
  
  The papers like to report how only a handful of teachers have been sacked over the years - and do you know why? Because if you think you can treat teaching like the game politicians are so keen to paint it as, it will chew you up and spit you out in bubbles. I now have two very small children (one of whom does not sleep), and I look at that amount of stress (even working part time, it's stressful - you don't know what is going on, the kids think you're a soft touch 'cos you're not there all the time, your colleagues pile work on you because 'you have the time to do it'...) and think 'I just don't want that any more'. But what else is there? I'd be a fool to give up my job in this current economic climate.
  
  Good luck, Deli... and let's just hope things change for the better. I don't think they will - but let's be optimistic! xx
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  by Deli 3 months ago

  I have a friend who is on anti-depressants. She's a really bubbly person, but the job is slowly "killing" her. She has taken to marking 40 papers with a blue and black pen beside her, so she can add commas which have been omitted, to "up" the marks. Ridiculous but true. There is nothing in this about teaching and learning. What happened to going to school to learn something. The stress and expectations for teachers is...well insane really. There are some that say, "but what about all those holidays?" and my response is, "Go and teach for six weeks and then comment." It's not fun anymore. It used to be. It is simply one way to become so disillusioned, frustrated - constantly wondering how to do the best for the kids when everything is against you. Thanks Elysia. I wish I could think of something positive to say to you, but I perfectly understand why you don't want to go back.
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  by Jill 3 months ago

  Not a teacher, but always interested in educational matters. Empathise and wish you 'Good Luck', Deli - and Elysia, of course.
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  by Gerilyn 3 months ago

  My best mate is a teacher and last week she had a visit from one of her first ever pupils when she taught reception class. She's moved schools now and teaches Yr 2. Then this 15 yr old boy came to her classroom and gave her a huge hug. He was only 5 when he was in her class but he said she was the best teacher he'd had all the way through school! She was crying when she told me that- said it made all the crap she deals with all worth while.
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  by Mcallan 3 months ago

  My wife would agree totally. She is about to take early retirement from teaching about three years earlier than she would have wished, simply because she can't take it anymore. She feels undervalued by the new bitch (sorry...new head) and is getting out before her health spirals downwards. So yes...good luck to all teachers out there!
  Mac
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  by Vanessa 3 months ago

  Ouch Deli - you must not be working in a very good environment.
  
  I had my moments in teaching but overall I loved cracking the hard nuts. Since I have had children, I have been unable to go back and miss the job - I loved teaching (Maths). Even though it was challenging, it was rewarding - a teacher has the power to transform someone life. You don't get that in many jobs (I used to work in business before changing vocation). Due to my husbands job, I now tutor and find it really rewarding...but, I can see where you are coming from. I have not taught for ten years and I have a feeling things are not as I left them. There is a definite 'take it again' attitude in place now.
  
  Hang in there, or try to fing a new post at a school that deserves your enthusiasm. We are crying for secondary teachers on the Isle of Wight - come down here and get some sea air!
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  by Deli 3 months ago

  Thanks guys. I too have had some fantastic moments in teaching - too many to describe and am friends with many of my ex-students. I guess the current "system" makes life so difficult to be yourself and actually enjoy helping kids learn. That is my problem and because of this, so many kids are disengaged, disinterested and it makes me very sad. I taught in a school recently where there weren't any smiley faces - I'm talking about staff now. That is tragic. I like laughing with staff, with kids. In my first teaching job back home, the Principal said "You will learn from them as much as they will learn from you" and I've always taken that philosophy with me. I enjoyed much laughing and learning along the way, but it seems as though those days are gone.
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  by Vanessa 3 months ago

  Hang in there...the is always light at the end of the tunnel...
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  by Skylark 3 months ago

  Deli, I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience and I'm sorrier that I'm not surprised. I'm very lucky in the school where I work - we may have to put up with all the crap that the government and media hurl at us but we are a very 'think-outside-the-box' school with a headteacher who is willing to find creative ways for us to tick boxes without having to completely change our ethos and principles. But even so, the paperwork/assessment hoops we have to jump through can get us down. I started out in teaching 12 years ago - I lasted 4 years as a full-time teacher and then I had to take a break because I was depressed and had ended up on anti-depressants - the last straw came when I had to drive myself to A&E with chest pains and a tingly arm. Turned out to be nothing but stress but it scared me enough to realise that I had to make changes. I took a 9-month break from the job and when I returned, I did supply for a little while and then got the job that I'm now in working part-time, job-sharing a class. Best move I ever made in terms of the school, my colleagues and the hours I work. And, as it happens, it has fitted in perfectly with having kids too! I would never consider returning to full-time teaching - even if I have to consider it for financial reasons, I will always look at other ways to supplement my income first.
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  by CJ 3 months ago

  You're very fortunate, Skylark - my school are trying to force me to up my hours so they can avoid having to hire a replacement a member of our department who retired last year. I've now told them if they make me work full time, I'm leaving. Sad thing is, I think that's probably what they want... there are 3 part timers in my department (we all have young kids and one has a medical condition which means she can't work full time), and they've tried it on with all of us. Unfortunately, I am the easy target - one has the aforementioned medical condition, and the other has an autistic son, so they're looking to me to take the fall. I'm not happy, and very worried; I am not prepared to miss my girls growing up (I always promised myself I would be there for them, and even working part time is a wrench), but at the same time, we have bills to pay... :-/
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  by Skylark 3 months ago

  I don't think they can offer an ultimatum of 'you must work full-time or you must leave'? You are on a part-time contract so they can only persuade you....? If I were you, I would stand your ground - until your girls are at school, you are not in a position to work full-time, no discussion. Don't allow them to pressure you to change.
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  by CJ 3 months ago

  Unfortunately, we have to reapply to the head every year for our part time hours (if we used to be full time) and 'if the timetable does not support it', they can make us up our hours. So if they decide, like they have, that they do not want to hire anyone new, they simply refuse your application for a continuation of your part time hours and default back to your full time contract. I have asked union bods about this, and it sounds like pretty standard practice across the board. What makes it even worse is that the woman doing next year's time table is someone I consider a friend, but she can be a little on the selfish side, and she has already told me she hates me working part time... although when I told her last week that if they forced my hours up, I'd leave, she looked quite shocked. I don't think she thought I'd actually do that. Luckily, my HoD understands - when I said that my as much as I love my job, my priorities lay with my kids, she said she'd be worried if they weren't. So we'll see. But until then, it's just another worry I don't need (as it happens, I am going back for 2 days a week for the summer term - this fiasco doesn't begin until September).
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  by Skylark 3 months ago

  Hmmm, sounds like you're relying on their goodwill. Hope they realise that it's better to have you part-time than not at all....
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  by CJ 3 months ago

  So far, my HoD is supporting me (she is a real diamond), but the bean counter has us up against a wall (a bean counter who, by the way, wants to become a 'non-teaching Head'. I mean, come on! How can you be a Head without any classroom experience?!). And this is the big problem when you start running schools like businesses. Yes, I understand that budgets have to be considered, but they're taking this to stupid levels. No matter how much you crunch the numbers, we need another member of staff. We've lost two (retirement and new job), plus another is on secondment to deputy head for 9 months... and they want to make that up out of three part timers? We have 5 days between us (two of us work 3 days, one works 4 but wants to reduce to 3) - that doesn't cover 3 members of staff at all. It's a massive mess, Skylark, and it is stuff like this that makes me want to bail, not the kids. I will stand by my convictions here, though - no compromise. No more than three days, or I'm out. I am a mother first and a teacher second.