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

[EngTeach]

I am in the US (NYC). The gripes against teachers are universal I see. My official day is 8am -2:50.pm. I arrive by 7:15 each day and I do leave "on time". My question is do most people work 45 minutes before their day? If someone's office closes at 5, do they stay everyday for hours after? I leave so I can do my homework in the comfort of my home. Don't get me started on the fact that I buy my classes books and my own paper to create copies in addition to all the other personal money I spend each day just to do my job. My union is without a contract (again) and with no budget in NY state, I doubt we will have one anytime soon, which means no raise. Again!

To answer Boo's original question: we learn whatever the powers that be deem to be the next new trend in education that will save the world, Believe me, most of those work days would be better spent with the students. We have 2 before the new year starts, one in November and 1 in June. Not too inconvenient for parents who get a calendar in MARCH for the following school year. More than enough time to arrange child-care.

[B00]

In answer to one of your questions yes EngTeach, I do go into work half an hour earlier (And start working), and I don't get paid for it either. I have to sort the papers out, insert the suplements etc, and then get cracking in the bakery- so that products are available for customers at 7am. I and my other colleagues do this on what I suspect is a substantially less wage than what a teacher's on.

Also we do not get ot go home on the dot either. Especially if we're serving, we can't very well close a till whilst there's a line of shoppers.

[cazzz1975]

my hours when I used to work in the automotive sector were 7am -6pm, we had less holidays and perks as well.

[science_teacher]

Hmm, I don't know about primary but I know I get to school at 7-45 and leave at 6. It's a secondary school so yes I have to deal daily with drugs and violence although it's not always the kids. I get a fifteen minute break between period 2 and 3 and a forty minute break between 4 and 5. I am incredibly lucky to have a cup of tea made for me at first break as I normally have to drink it while collecting in all of the stationary which I have leant to pupils because they don't bring their own off the floor, clearing away any paperwork from the first 2 and getting out anything needed for the next 2. I normally lose at least the first ten minutes of lunch because someone is having a crisis or sometimes a kid who gets no attention from the adults at home just wants to chat. But you know what, I love it. I love the obscene amounts of holidays I get, over the last 2 days I have done diddley and am not going to start any work until next week when I have caught up with some sleep. BTW I would rather teach than 'train' but some plonker in an office keeps changing his mind about what we are meant to teach and how we are meant to do it. Also I am a relatively young female teacher and I have no plans to take any maternity leave any time soon, 120 other peoples kids a day is enough. I'm off to watch a bit of telly and do very little constructive. Enjoy.

[joeluke]

Where you teachers get the idea that you 'nanny/babysit' our children is beyond me

You're paid (handsomely) to TEACH them

Lots of people who work have tools of their trade, the children are yours and it's up to you to get the best out of them and end up with a fully-educated satisfactory end product

[jake-the-peg]

There are 400,000 qualified teachers no longer working in teaching.

http://www.independen...ofession-1854758.html

I have to wonder, if it's as easy a job as some of you suggest, why that should be.

[B00]

Just to clarify Jake, I didn't say it was an easy job. I daresay it isn't at all.

I was just agreeing with Joe's original point, that i believe given t5he amount of holidays that teachers already get, that getting extra days for training gets on my nerves.

I do however dislike the assumption from teachers that their job is somehow harder or more stressful than everyone elses.

[science_teacher]

I am pleased to hear that your children are well adjusted and have parents who take good care of them and talk to and listen to them however, surely you are not naive enough to believe that all children have such an advantage, especially those in disadvantaged areas. I never complain about having to nanny or babysit children but that does not take away from the fact that some kids hang around at the end of the day or during breaks for a chat with the only adult who will treat them equally.
Again it sounds like your children do not have this problem and you probably come from an area where this is not an issue but from someone who saw 1 parent out of 60 on year 10 (yes GCSE year) parents evening I think you need to take into account the kids whose parents don't give a damn about them. (before anyone starts I'm not saying that missing parents evening means you don't care, merely that some people miss it because they don't care).

[B00]

Ok science teacher, I will take that into account.

At my daughters school, whilst some parents are a bit rough and ready, they all pretty much care for their children, some of us even love our own ;-)

Same with our local high school, whilst the odd scandal may break out very very occasionally ,the majority of the kids are just the normal average type of teen, ya know ,morose and think the worlds against them but nothing dramatic.

[jake-the-peg]

Do you think perhaps they go on about the stresses because so many people bang on about the length of holidays they get and they feel challenged and need to justify themselves?

My next door neighbours are teachers and yes during the summer I look wistfully at his parked car as I leave for work.

I'm not queueing up for teacher training though!

[EngTeach]

I never assume my job is harder or more stressful than any other job. However, it is strongly implied that we do not work as hard as anyone else. Frankly, I do not know how people with children do have successful teaching careers given the amount of hours we put in at home. It is mandated in my school that we collect 4 pieces of work per child per day. (I teach approx 160 per day). It is also mandated that it be marked and returned the next day. When I worked retail the hours "at the store" were longer, but I worked fewer hours than I do now with all the work that is done at home. I am not complaining about it at all, but please note that though the kids leave at 3 or 4, our work goes on for hours and hours after that.

[science_teacher]

Ahh it makes me feel warm and fuzzy to hear about people who care about their kids and as I mentioned earlier I love my job, yes it's hard and stressful but no more so than my husbands job (he works in a shop) and a million times more rewarding.

[B00]

I too work in a shop, and I have to say, it's not rewarding at all, so good on you science teacher, least you're doing something you love. :-)

Now, stop bleating on about how hard done by you with your god knows how many holidays a year, substantial wages, and shorter working days than the rest of us, hehe.

[mollykins]

They get paid in the holidays so it isn't like they'd have to be paid overtime I don't think.

[EngTeach]

For many of our students we are the ones
Who they tell when they are sad
Who they ask about sex/drugs/relationships
Who they ask where to get birth control
Who they tell first that they are pregnant/need an HIV test
who provides them with a smile and pat on the shoulder just because
Who gives them our coat off our back in the dead of winter b/c mom has shot up the money and there is no heat or coat
who buys them groceries
Who calls the teachers of their younger siblings for a conference
Who buy prom dresses
Who take their picture at graduation b/c they have NO FAMILY there
Who buys notebooks, paper and pens b/c no one at home will

All this is done while reaching the individual learning needs/styles of 34 teenagers and doing it successfully.

Yes, many parents nurture their children, but far more do not.

[factor-fiction]

eddie- new teachers do start at the bottom of the payscale except in exceptiona; circumstances.

Yes, the 6 week summer holiday sounds great, and it's very welcome, but teachers do go in school in the holidays- at my school we will be in for 5 days over the summer when pupils aren't in and we'll all be marking exam papers, preparing materials for new courses, planning for curriculum changes, finding out all about the new Year 7 pupils, and preparing September's lessons.

Imagine a teacher's day. Maybe 6 one hour lessons in a day. Okay, sounds quite a short day. Then think of the materials that are needed for each lesson- a lesson plan for the school records/inspectors, maybe some presentation slides, several sets of laminated cards for a starter activity, perhaps copies of some newspaper articles, worksheets for pupils (including differentiated ones for the more able and less able pupils) and then maybe a homework sheet. This preparation will take a couple of hours a day. Then at the end of the day the teacher has books from maybe 150 pupils which need to be marked. Even at 1 minute per book that's 2.5 hours of marking. And the teacher will be expected to complete a post-lesson evaluation form for each lesson.
Oh yes, then there may be a couple of parents to see, several phone calls to make and an after-school detention class or a revision class, and occasionally a parents' evening until 9pm.

[chelle7272]

There are plenty of jobs, including mine, where a lot of planing and research and follow up goes on outside usual working hours, so teachers aren't alone in that.

The original point was about INSET days and with which I completely agree. We do not get a lot of notice that these are coming up and they are changed at a moments notice.
I'm also expected to attend parent's 'evening' between 9 -12am (part of my core working hours) with sometimes less than a weeks notice, and then the school closes in the afternoon!
If I can't find cover I can't go and then I get a stroppy phone call telling me I don't care about my child's education because i couldn't make it. I had called and tried to get a later appointment they said they would call me back and didn't, yet i get that call.

[science_teacher]

Hmm, I've never heard of a parents evening being in the morning before, mine have always been after school and my school also tells us in September when we get our timetables the date of every inset day. In fact this year (just to make some of you happy) we did one of our inset days over 3 'twilight' sessions so didn't close the school for a day. I totally agree that parents morning would suck and I don't know the school you're talking about but I made phone calls to parents who wanted to talk to me but couldn't make it (my choice though not the schools)

[factor-fiction]

I agree, chelle, that lots of professions, not just teachers, do lots of out of hours planning. I was just making the point that I think many people totally underestimate the work teachers do in term time and in the holidays.
Regarding INSET days I would complain to your school if you don't get notice about these. At my school the dates are published in the calendar so parents get plenty of notice and should already know all dates until July 2011.
Were things really any different before they were called INSET days?