tommythetank
Mark Bowen
This actually doesn't happen, controlled assessments are done now, its basically like a long exam.
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Do teachers know the meaning of stress?
- Thread starter Crab.C.Nesbitt
- Start date
You seem to have a real bee in your bonnet about taking any advice or admitting that other people are contributing good ideas and opinions. Its only been a couple of weeks since you were babbling on about how you cant get anywhere in life without a degree, or that you didnt want to work for a professional services style company because you didnt want to be stuck in the office 9-5 etc. Let me tell you that you have a lot of growing up left to do before you understand what the real world is like.
I'm going to live in a generation where nearly everyone who's looking for a job will have some qualifications. The jobs market by then will be unbelievably competitive. Generation X never had that, they just had to prove themselves as hard workers etc. In an age where every single person will have GCSEs, it's going to take much more than that when I apply for a job. You can tell me about your experiences, and people you work with, but you can't tell me about the future. Most people from Generation X laugh at the idea of university and think it's full of time-wasters, just because more people go today rather than when they were growing up, when really it's just more accessible today.
rxl
Øyvind Leonhardsen
My 2 cents:
My wife is a primary school teacher and it depends on what school you're in and what the set up is like. She spent four years at a failing school where the pressure is immense. OFSTED on a regular basis and if you get substandard feedback that is on your record forever, and as someone else eluded to earlier some kids are just tits - even the young ones.
The work load is high. It's not 9-3 as some assume. My wife is often in school by 7 to prepare the classroom. Marks through her lunch hour, plans and prepares the classroom comes home and marks some evenings. During the smaller holidays she is working 90% of the time; planning for short term plans and long terms plans and sorting assessments.
Luckily she has now moved to a much better school and loves it. She does the same amount of work but it is so much more appreciated.
The summer holidays are usually too long but this year is the first year my wife is doing 'nothing' - usually she does summer playscheme.
The major change with schooling I think is the parents. When kids got a gonad*ing when I was at school you done everything to prevent your parents finding out, now the kids actively tell the parents if they've been 'disciplined' (losing 20 minutes lunch - ooohh) and they question why their child was disciplined. Same with the school work, so many parents won't even take 15 minutes in the evening to read with their children and then moan when the grades are low.
My wife is a primary school teacher and it depends on what school you're in and what the set up is like. She spent four years at a failing school where the pressure is immense. OFSTED on a regular basis and if you get substandard feedback that is on your record forever, and as someone else eluded to earlier some kids are just tits - even the young ones.
The work load is high. It's not 9-3 as some assume. My wife is often in school by 7 to prepare the classroom. Marks through her lunch hour, plans and prepares the classroom comes home and marks some evenings. During the smaller holidays she is working 90% of the time; planning for short term plans and long terms plans and sorting assessments.
Luckily she has now moved to a much better school and loves it. She does the same amount of work but it is so much more appreciated.
The summer holidays are usually too long but this year is the first year my wife is doing 'nothing' - usually she does summer playscheme.
The major change with schooling I think is the parents. When kids got a gonad*ing when I was at school you done everything to prevent your parents finding out, now the kids actively tell the parents if they've been 'disciplined' (losing 20 minutes lunch - ooohh) and they question why their child was disciplined. Same with the school work, so many parents won't even take 15 minutes in the evening to read with their children and then moan when the grades are low.
Lost Mango
Allan Nielsen
Yeah, because every group of 30 plus 11 year olds behave and learn in similar ways to that group of 30+ 16 year olds you have up next. Obviously ONE LESSON PLAN FITS ALL, just needs a little bit of honing. No biggie. :ross: The lack of understanding there is just immense.
Given that most parents seem to be unable to control or teach their one, two or three offspring in any meaningful manner and expect teachers to do that job for them should give you some indication of one of the stresses involved.
Are teachers more stressed than other jobs? More than lots of jobs certainly. More than all jobs probably not. It is hard, especially in bog standard state comprehensives. Much harder and more stressful then any office based or sales based jobs I've done.
Are teachers generally a bunch of whining, self-pitying drips? Most of the ones in the school staff rooms sitting around are.
As for hours - there is a hell of a lot of planning and marking to do on top of the 8+- til 4+- hours that tend to be 'in school'. Sad that I am, I worked it out and compared it to the job I had been doing previously with 25 days holiday a year .... the hours worked out fairly similarly over the course of the year.
If parents actually started looking after their kids and did just a little parenting, then teachers could get on with their job of teaching under a little less stress and maybe stop complaining as much (too much - which they do!!)
I'm sure over the course of a term for example you get to know what works with the children you have and what doesn't, that is what I was alluding to, nothing to do with one size fits all.
=D>
I work in a school, not a qualified teacher, but I do team teach quite a bit and see the amount of work they do put in. There are a couple of 'slackers', who work hard until the bell goes, but I would say the rest are fully committed & taking on the pressures of a challenging pupil base. There is a whole new curriculum being rolled out year on year, including new examinations (with no clear guidelines from Educ Dept - Scotland- and having to design all the lessons, trying to second guess what may come in the senior stage next year. ( in Scotland next year the two year standard grades - GCSE equivalent, will cease and the S3s (yr9) will continue with a common course & the S4s (yr 10) will do a one year set of qualifications. On top of that exam result pressure, an increasing amount of extra tuition , expected by senior managers and parents (free of charge); Self assessment, Inspectors...
I could go on, but gone are the days of my Geog teacher handing us a textbook & then proceeding to read the Racing Post!
spursman17
Stephen Kelly
Sorry what part are you referring when you suggest I'm "kidding myself"?
We hire graduates twice a year. Some of those that come through the interview door are bright sparks while some are idiots (we even had a kid turn up in surfer shorts during the summer hire scheme #-o).
Many who graduate with a > 2.1 are usually more than capable but the link between education and actual working skills are severed.
I find this common in our area of work for two reasons; 1) technology is a broad area which is fast paced and to this day is suffering from the days of being unstandardized. 2) Companies tend to have vast differences in software, many of whom favour their own self-made products.
This makes it hard for universities/schools to focus on a single area of teaching without taking the risk of students being taught in a small area of potential employers required skills. This is why they focus on a higher level, less specific skills and teach only the fundamentals of what's required. Those fundamentals give an understanding but no real useful skills.
We have proven within our own company that even people with grades below average (=< EÔÇÖs at GCSE level) can become successful employees with the right training and teaching focused on skills actually required in our work place).
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
I have one question for teachers..
Why do you have to write a lesson plan?
I mean, hundreds of teachers before you have written lesson plans planning exactly the same thing that you are planning. Why is there not just a book full of general lesson plans for each school year, that you can take and edit to suit your needs?
This puzzles me greatly.
Why do you have to write a lesson plan?
I mean, hundreds of teachers before you have written lesson plans planning exactly the same thing that you are planning. Why is there not just a book full of general lesson plans for each school year, that you can take and edit to suit your needs?
This puzzles me greatly.
tommythetank
Mark Bowen
This does seem to happen in my school, teachers write a powerpoint and use it every year.
Because things have to be taught differently. You do often see some teachers nick their colleagues' Powerpoints to teach lessons with, but again this isn't a 'One Size Fits All' kind of thing.
I keep hearing about this real world that is so difficult. If it is, you guys must be having to work a lot harder for your money than I am. Being a student is cushy in the sense that you have your parents to look after you (and then older students have the partying lifestyle) but as for the actual work students have to do, I dont think any amount of money could get me back to having to attend lessons/lectures, do coursework and exams etc
Compare it with working, I get given projects and then the rest is up to me... more often than not the deadline is set based on my estimate, I manage my own time and dont get told what to do. If I need to learn something I get to do it on the job while getting paid and if I'm stuck there are colleagues to help out. Even when I was working full time during the summer in my student days, I much preferred working even though it was a job that was strict in rules - you do your work then go home and forget about it. I dont know many people that would give up the "real world" to go back to being a broke student having to continually learn and pass exams.
Oh and as for then v now, I think its pretty irrelevant. What does it matter ? When I graduated, I was competing with graduates of the same year. I guess I'm just lucky these 70s geniuses didnt use their time machine to go into the future and steal my job. Im sure every generation thinks they had it tougher than the last, maybe it is true (the reality is it probably isnt) but one way or another the person is going to have to get up to speed to do the job. I much prefer an education system that manages to fully place you, rather than one that is so hard few will pass and the rest are unknown.
My industry is I.T, I work in an architect role but obviously this involves interaction with developers... if I want to find out about changing legacy systems I speak to the 50 year olds who know the history of it etc, if I want to talk about doing new work or getting something new done quickly, more often than not I speak to some keen 20-something whiz kid who will go away and get it done much faster and efficiently. They are so far ahead of the older generation it is unbelievable. Who cares if their exams were harder at school, give a new graduate a few years in a job now and they can catch up or overtake fairly easily.
southstand1882
Mitchell Thomas
Trust me. That's about to change!!!
?ú9k a year and rising. The country is a trillion in debt.
University numbers will drop like a stone over the next decade.....and for the better
We need more plumbers, electricians, mechanics and other blue collar workers. At the moment we import them and they send their money home!
Im an unqualified teacher, teaching only three days a week, and whilst id say it is stressful, id much rather be doing this than working in central london as a banker where the stakes are much higher...
But then i suppose thats why they get paid a brick load more than us! Which isnt hard tbh, because teachers pay is fudging abysmal
But then i suppose thats why they get paid a brick load more than us! Which isnt hard tbh, because teachers pay is fudging abysmal
Teachers should try working in a betting office with just as many grown men acting as ****s. I'd be a teacher all day long. Not saying its easy for a minute but the holidays....yeah I'd swap!
My maths knowledge is second to none however that's because I've worked on it to a high degree since I left school. Back then I couldn't be bothered so don't have the GCSE'S some of my mates did. Two of them who got A's still can't get ago 11 years on!!!
My maths knowledge is second to none however that's because I've worked on it to a high degree since I left school. Back then I couldn't be bothered so don't have the GCSE'S some of my mates did. Two of them who got A's still can't get ago 11 years on!!!
Absolutely. I didn't waste time going to university I went straight into a job, which I've still got, and contributed to the country which bought me up - something a high percentage of kids nowadays aren't interested in.
Not this again. I don't think I'm going to bother arguing this one with anyone on here again, other than by saying anyone can afford to go to university, and the new system is more affordable than the last.
The curriculum is always changing, therefore lessons need to be planned to meet these new standards. Boards are always on how teahers need to make lessons engaging for the students and current another why things need to change.
You might as well ask yourself why do footballers train everyday? The goal is always in the same place, the ball is round, so there is surely no point in training? Is that puzzling?
Sheikh Ma Nuggets
Tony Parks
I've never understood this notion of taking someone elses' job - one which you actually know nothing about - and judging whether they're either working hard, or 'know the meaning of stress'. It implies that you're not happy in your own job, doesn't it? Okay, well if you're so amazing that you feel empowered to judge everyone else - then go and get yourself an easier job.
There's different levels of stress and expectation in every job, be it the deliverables or the people you work with. Also, some people simply don't know how to plan their time properly, so end up stressing themselves out, when actually there's no need. Usually, that's when I often hear these ridiculous judgements made on other people.
I've had it myself too, in the past. I never look stressed, because I regimentally plan my work and I have rules for taking anything on. I've had colleagues in the past comment that I look like I'm not doing anything and obviously overpaid - and yet, in meetings, these are the people who - unlike myself - could never give definitive answers or reasons as to why there was slippage on a deliverable. Less time spent on worrying about others, and you'd do a better job yourself.
I think teachers do a great job and, personally, I wouldn't do it for all the silver in the world. If all you can criticise - because, some people just love to criticise - is that they get long holidays, then - well - it isn't much is it really? They're teaching the next generation; the generation that will, one day, succeed you and drive the economy and yet, naively, all you can do is criticise them?
If you hate your jobs people, go and get what you perceive to be better, or easier ones. Personally, I love a challenge and I thrive on stress - brings out the best in me; so, would I want a cushy, boring, monotonous job? No fudging way.
There's different levels of stress and expectation in every job, be it the deliverables or the people you work with. Also, some people simply don't know how to plan their time properly, so end up stressing themselves out, when actually there's no need. Usually, that's when I often hear these ridiculous judgements made on other people.
I've had it myself too, in the past. I never look stressed, because I regimentally plan my work and I have rules for taking anything on. I've had colleagues in the past comment that I look like I'm not doing anything and obviously overpaid - and yet, in meetings, these are the people who - unlike myself - could never give definitive answers or reasons as to why there was slippage on a deliverable. Less time spent on worrying about others, and you'd do a better job yourself.
I think teachers do a great job and, personally, I wouldn't do it for all the silver in the world. If all you can criticise - because, some people just love to criticise - is that they get long holidays, then - well - it isn't much is it really? They're teaching the next generation; the generation that will, one day, succeed you and drive the economy and yet, naively, all you can do is criticise them?
If you hate your jobs people, go and get what you perceive to be better, or easier ones. Personally, I love a challenge and I thrive on stress - brings out the best in me; so, would I want a cushy, boring, monotonous job? No fudging way.