LOCAL LINKS


Read LIFELINE

here (our village newsletter) and 

the East Farleigh Grapevine!


West Farleigh Sports Club for football, cricket & great parties


All Saints church services...

 

...and hall for hire

 

Loads of useful contacts 


Links along the valley: parishes, churches & halls


follow me on facebook

Follow us

on Facebook

 

Subscribe to our events email!

A Day in the Life of a Teacher

Posted on 7th April, 2016

Many people consider teachers to have an “easy” job, perhaps because of the “long holidays” and “short days” involved, and don’t forget that they get weekends “off” too! However, from my long fourteen years of schooling, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that their job is anything but easy. In fact, I think teaching has got to be one of the most stressful jobs out there. Think about it, teachers don’t just show up in the morning and expect to give a perfect lesson. Every lesson is planned meticulously beforehand, with learning objectives and activities to engage a class of students. In addition to this, if homework is set, which is expected by the senior leadership of the school, this has to be marked thoroughly in order to help the student achieve the best they can. All this work is completed OUTSIDE of their work hours, meaning it cuts into, if not completely diminishes, their “long” holidays. Many teachers also run extra-curricular clubs to help students either before school, lunch or after school. For example, my psychology teacher is in school before eight every morning, ready and available to help us if we need it. Without this extra support, I can honestly say I would not have achieved the grades that I now have, so I consider this to be essential. This is just a snapshot into the life of a teacher. They do so much work that is not recognised, and honestly, they aren’t paid for. However, if you think the stress ends there, you are mistaken because when exam season arrives, I’m pretty sure every teacher will suffer from a raised blood pressure. There is so much pressure for students to achieve good grades, that if they don’t, the blame will ultimately go to the teacher. It doesn’t matter if the student put in zero work. In my school, a class full of low grades means the teacher is more often than not out. Think about this for a second. To ensure job security for themselves, a teacher needs to get a whole class to want to try in their exams. Even in the most studious of schools, this is near impossible. However, low grades will reflect back on the teacher, whether it is their fault or not.

 

Anyway, the point I am getting to is that being a teacher is not easy. I know a few teachers who have quit because of the stress that comes with the job. Therefore, this new proposal to increase the hours in a school day is ridiculous. Most people look at it from the side of the students: when are they supposed to do their homework? What about after-school activities? etc. I’m thinking about the decreased time for teachers to complete all of their work. As it is, I have teachers telling me to choose a paragraph of my essay for them to mark, because they don’t have time to mark it all. I am in my last year of A Levels and my teachers don’t have time to give me feedback on my work.

 

George Osbourne is offering 25% of schools in England a pot of money to increase these school hours. How about instead of this ludicrous idea, the money is used to REDUCE THE SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS! If there were more teachers in the school, the workload could be shared out, meaning less work (and therefore less stress) for each individual teacher. My school, containing over 1,300 pupils, has two psychology teachers and one competent physics teacher. ARE THEY MAD? No wonder they feel overworked!

 

The point is, extending school hours is not going to higher the nation’s standing in the education league tables. I’m guessing that this is what it’s all about. There is no point in adding another hour to the day if all the teachers are going to be burnt out by the time they get to it!            

Make A Comment

Characters left: 2000

Comments (0)