Day to day supply cover in schools.

[sgtkate]

I wouldn't pay today's teachers in buttons - seriously.

 

Me neither. The exchange rate is terrible. I'd pay them in pounds sterling.

[Jobean]

Just so you know I actually have a degree, a masters degree and hold down a very good and well paid job with good holidays. I own my own home outright with no mortgage, have two cars which I also own outright with no finance or loans and own property in Dubai and Tenerife, so you couldn't be more wrong.....oh and I'm not even mid-thirties so I've got plenty of time to enjoy my life!!

 

I so thoroughly enjoy it when people couldn't be more wrong like you are with your statement!!!

 

Sounds like you owe a lot of your success to a good education there! What a shame you are so quick to lambast the profession that helped you on your journey.

[bethanywalke]

It's amazing how many parents throw their children through the doors at 7.30 when the teachers are arriving so they can be fed and entertained over breakfast, enjoy a solid lunch and then engage in every after school activity going before being picked up (if they don't forget) in the early evening, to return home for a quick tea and bed (the tea sometimes doesn't get provided - placing that piece of ham between the bread can be a taxing business). That isn't just the low-income parents I'm referring to.

 

Schools shouldn't be free childcare services.

 

From what I remember it isn't free?

 

Again, you are talking about a minority. I think the people you're referring to are more career people who had kids just because it was part of their "plan" not that they really wanted them.

[ll49]

Sounds like you owe a lot of your success to a good education there! What a shame you are so quick to lambast the profession that helped you on your journey.

 

I absolutely loved school, and had some fantastic teachers that made learning fun but I honestly cannot recall never having one day away from school due to teacher's striking, or hearing about any of our teacher's complaining about their jobs/holidays/pay etc.

 

Obviously my university degrees were paid for (by my parents) so that's different, but again the majority of my lecturer's were fantastic and helped make university such a great experience.

 

As I said in a previous post I wouldn't be a teacher for a gold pig - but my point right from the beginning isn't that teacher's don't do a good job, or that some of them don't have a constant battle with both students and their parents, it is simply that they don't have the hardest/least paid/worst holidays in any profession yet it is something as a society we are constantly hearing about.

Edited October 13, 2015 by ll49

[Jobean]

I absolutely loved school, and had some fantastic teachers that made learning fun but I honestly cannot recall never having one day away from school due to teacher's striking, or hearing about any of our teacher's complaining about their jobs/holidays/pay etc.

 

Obviously my university degrees were paid for so that's different, but again the majority of my lecturer's were fantastic and helped make university such a great experience.

 

As I said in a previous post I wouldn't be a teacher for a gold pig - but my point right from the beginning isn't that teacher's don't do a good job, or that some of them don't have a constant battle with both students and their parents, it is simply that they don't have the hardest/least paid/worst holidays in any profession yet it is something as a society we are constantly hearing about.

 

Odd as it may sound and slightly off subject, I can't remember much about school at all, other than where I went and who my friends were! Of the subject I now teach, I couldn't name one teacher, I just always liked it!

 

Teachers didn't strike as much in the past as they were not so harshly regulated and measured, yet still managed to provide excellent educations. The content they were delivering would not become obsolete without notice or pay conditions changed with no warning. Despise all that happening within the four years I have done the job, I would never 'complain' to pupils, it's not professional, so that aspect is not much different.

 

I would like to add I can totally see where you are coming from with the last point. I entered the profession after 5 years in banking (not a math teacher though!) and 2 before that in retail. I find some teachers who have only ever been teachers can be blinkered as to the rest of the working world. Whereas I hope I can see the pros and cons of the profession.

[ll49]

Odd as it may sound and slightly off subject, I can't remember much about school at all, other than where I went and who my friends were! Of the subject I now teach, I couldn't name one teacher, I just always liked it!

 

Teachers didn't strike as much in the past as they were not so harshly regulated and measured, yet still managed to provide excellent educations. The content they were delivering would not become obsolete without notice or pay conditions changed with no warning. Despise all that happening within the four years I have done the job, I would never 'complain' to pupils, it's not professional, so that aspect is not much different.

 

I would like to add I can totally see where you are coming from with the last point. I entered the profession after 5 years in banking (not a math teacher though!) and 2 before that in retail. I find some teachers who have only ever been teachers can be blinkered as to the rest of the working world. Whereas I hope I can see the pros and cons of the profession.

 

I can still remember school as if it was yesterday, from what the classrooms looked like, can remember how it felt walking down the corridors when it felt like school was the whole world (which I guess it was back then), I loved our school dinners, and school trips were brilliant! I'm so grateful I've got such good memories of school because I know it's the worst time of some people's lives due to cruel bullies etc.

 

I also think it's great how honest you are, and maybe you've hit the nail on the head about how you can see this from both sides due to having experience in different professions.

 

I hope you will be remembered by the children you teach now when they are adults as fondly as I remember so many of my teachers.

[Jobean]

I can still remember school as if it was yesterday, from what the classrooms looked like, can remember how it felt walking down the corridors when it felt like school was the whole world (which I guess it was back then), I loved our school dinners, and school trips were brilliant! I'm so grateful I've got such good memories of school because I know it's the worst time of some people's lives due to cruel bullies etc.

 

I also think it's great how honest you are, and maybe you've hit the nail on the head about how you can see this from both sides due to having experience in different professions.

 

I hope you will be remembered by the children you teach now when they are adults as fondly as I remember so many of my teachers.

 

Cheers I like to think Internet debates don't always mean arguing with others for the sake of it!

I'm currently on maternity, so my only hope right now is that they remember and respect me when I go back in 8 months!

[ll49]

Cheers I like to think Internet debates don't always mean arguing with others for the sake of it!

I'm currently on maternity, so my only hope right now is that they remember and respect me when I go back in 8 months!

 

Oh I'm sure they will. If you were a fly on the wall you'd probably hear them right now saying to the teacher covering for you 'well Mrs X didn't do it like that', 'that's not what Mrs X said' etc etc.....I'm sure they'll be thrilled to have you back :-)

[bethanywalke]

Yes some of the children can be dreadful. They haven't been taught any of the basic rules, or manners, at home. Too many parents expect the teachers to do it for them - and then they complain like mad when the school tries to actually discipline their obnoxious children.

 

Totally agree, I remember when children getting in trouble in school and getting in worse trouble at home. Now if children get in trouble at school there are parents that will come ranting and raving to the school screaming that their obnoxious little monster is innocent.

[jemson]

Terms and conditions in teaching now are far more challenging than they have been over the past 20 years. One of the results of this fact is that lots of talented professionals are leaving the profession, many within the first five years of their career.

 

Schools are now being run as businesses and this does not marry well with individuals who enter teaching as a vocation.

 

Educational standards are compared with the likes of China which is irrelevant and is being used a stick, appropriately enough, to batter over-worked teachers with.

 

The general public seem to have more sympathy than they did a few years ago and I`d attribute this to the media. Programmes like Educating Yorkshire allowed folk to have a look at life in everyday schools. Also the bleating parents to children who demand to be educated despite breaking clear school rules regarding uniform on the front of `papers helps people empathise with teachers too.