Teacher Training days........

[joeluke]

............What I want to know is what do teachers actually do on the increasing number of 'teacher training days' that tend to pop up each term?

Yes, I know the obvious answer is 'teacher training' but why can't these days be incorporated into the quarter of a years hoilidays teachers get each year?

Working parents have a hard enough job arranging childcare during the aforementioned quarter of a year school holidays without having to arrange more for these days

[joeluke]

Mosaic#s post almost made me feel sorry for the downtrodden, hard-done-by poor teachers...........and then I came to my senses!

A 9 - 4 job with, say, an hours lunch equates to 6 hours actual 'work' - hardly a standard 7½ hour working day is it?. So why shouldn't they do marking in their own time? They are handsomely paid, receive a quarter of the year + off in holidays and yet still they whinge

[joeluke]

^ Mosaic's

[Mosaic]

Eddie: 'very few start on the lowest scale' - wrong.
Most of my colleagues have been in school since 7.30. Nobody will leave before 4.30. Many have worked through breaktimes and lunchtimes doing crowd control or 'yard duty'. This time of year there is planning and preparing, cleaning and sorting for next year. Come september all hell breaks loose again. Simple answer is, you do it and see how long you'd last.....

[joeluke]

Crowd control/yard duty = standing around in the playground chatting to a colleague

[ummmm]

They are in the school about 8am and leave about 4pm.

Are you at work today Joe?

[Mosaic]

Leaving school rarely means you stop working. It means you are taking work home to do in the evening. Yard duty - dead easy. Drug dealers, paedo's lurking, fights breaking out (between those pesky kids that we mind for you free of charge).
No, come on, it's obviously dead easy and a doddle - so why aren't you doing it?

[joeluke]

You don't 'mind our kids free of charge'

We pay through our taxes and you are handsomely paid to do it

[B00]

Oh c'mon mosiac, now you're floundering? LOL

I'm damn sure the vast majority of schools dont have those kind of problems you're describing! Least I haven't seen many 5 yr old drug dealers at my daughter's school, though rest assured, i'll be having strong words with the diddy dealer if i spot them!

And like Joe says- we do pay for schools, via our taxes. And you don't exactly do al lthis out of the goodness of your hearts do you? I'm sure your sizeable salery softens the blow of dealing with those ghetto kids somewhat. ;-)

[cc1]

Re all the stupid comments re hours, think I'll be A Vicar, a job which entails a couple of hours on Sunday, the occasional wedding,christening and burial, with a nice looking house thrown in.
Beats having to act as a universal nanny to enable parents to work, remembering not to get the dears to attempt anything they don't like, such as work, and God forbid anyone should traumatise them by raising a voice.
Seriously, the best antedote is to get into schools and actually see what teachers have to cope with.

[B00]

Well in fairness cc1, i did ask mosiac whether he or she agreed with teacher training days ,and she or he declined.

I can only assume it's because they quite like the extra days holiday?

[B00]

sorry, meant, declined to answer.

[cazzz1975]

most of my daughters teachers are young women that are in the job for barely a year then pregnant/maternity leave for the next 6 years, absolutely screws up education

[craft1948]

One of my nephews is head of media studies in a large inner city comprehensive. He's never stressed out, loves his job, and takes 3 holidays abroad each year.....what is he doing wrong?

[EngTeach]

Mosaic- never going to win this fight. I have given it up years ago. I spend my 40 minute prep time running copies and calling parents. I also work at home from about 4pm until 10pm on nights I am not at my 2nd or 3rd job or not taking classes. I also have a 40 minute lunch time. I teach 5 periods, do hall patrol 1 period, prep 1 period and have lunch 1 period where i tutor and entertain parents who pop in to "chat". We can't move our lunch back 20 minutes if it starts late, nor are parents required to make appointments.

I get "laid off" for 8 weeks each summer. No pay. My pay is for work done Sept 1-June 30. The city holds a portion of my pay hostage to dole it out over the lay off time, thus ensuring I do not qualify fro unemployent pay like other seasonal workers.

[tinkie]

O.K.Mosaic, how come you are on this website, when the schools haven't broken up yet, do you get paid for this, but hey you could be marking if this is a free period, and I worked at a school for 7 years so I do know what I am talking about.

[annie0000]

I finish work early to collect my kids from school - I have to cut it fine though, but when I am driving up the road home, at least 2 teachers drive past me in the opposite direction. Now, i get in my drive at 14 minutes past 3 with school finishing at quarter past.......

[Mosaic]

You're right Ed, not a school I recognise, and as pointed out earlier teachers do huge amounts of work away from school.
Boo, I did actually reply to your point. I said I do not believe terms of contracts should be changed on political whim - this is why inservice days were introduced.
Eng teach - you're in the states or canada, yes? The grouse being expressed here is that teachers in the UK generally have permanent contracts and so year-round salary.
Love the point about being a vicar!
BTW Boo, you get primary kids that are into drugs and violence now. If you're lucky enough to live away from this, you're doing fine, but many aren't.

[36TEAK36]

I can understand teaching at a senior School being quite stressful, hundreds of teenagers to teach/control, it can't be easy.

However, I do think the life of a primary School Teacher is somewhat easier. A class of 30 kids to teach for a year, the same stuff you tought to last years class of 30 kids. Even the lessons tought are the same, using the same photocopied paperwork that are used every year. OK, so the kids work needs to be graded (all 30 of them), and chances are there are a couple of unruly kids, or troublsome parents to deal with, but Mosaic makes it sound like the middle of Beirut with a few Paedos chucked in for good measure. I just don't but it myself. And to say that it is free childcare is an insult to all taxpaying parents.

Even when there is a Parent/Teachers evening, the kids don't have to go into School until 10.30 the next day because the Teachers are owed the time. Is 16 weeks Holiday not enough?

Sorry if I have offended anyone, but Teachers and their obcene Holiday entitlement is one of those subjects that really gets up my nose.