I am meant to be marking. Again. Aaargh, sooo much marking!
Today after school we were in the staffroom. I had already missed one phone meeting due to a drama with crazy "H". By "we" I mean lots of the young teachers. And we were all complaining about why things are so tough and bad at our school. We concluded that it was because we were all over-worked and stretched too thinly to get things done properly. On the one hand we have a lovely £30m new building. On the other hand, we have so few staff to cope with everything that we are all continuously just trying to keep our heads above water.
I regularly work a 50+ hour week. Get into school at 7:45am, don't leave till 5pm, do a couple of hours of marking on an evening, work Sat morning/Sun night. Yes, I could probably manage time better, and yes I am still new to teaching so I am still learning, but surely that is a bit nuts? I'm not even a massive perfectionist. Yes I put in effort when I plan lessons and make resources - I want my lessons to be good, so perhaps this takes more time. But I guess the key thing is that once I am in school, that's pretty much it, I'm running around all day. Today I had 10 minutes spare for lunch, and one free lesson in which I was filled in loads of forms and chased up various tutor things, but the rest of the time was spent doing stuff. I don't understand, how do people get things done so that they are not working, or thinking about work, AAAALLL the time?!
On the plus side I hit the gym this morning, was ace. On the minus side, this was because I didn't sleep last night, and when I did I had nightmares, so humph. On the plus side all my lessons were awesome today, genuinely good with no trouble (perhaps because some of my naughty Y10s were stoned in the afternoon, or so I suspect...). On the down side there was loads of drama with various kids and fights and exclusions etc.
I think the worst thing today was speaking with J, my form co-tutor. She's an NQT like me, but she's one of those people who's really amazing at her job, always on the ball, always giving that little bit extra, always doing good things, loved by all the kids etc. But today was the first time I've seen her seem to be under the same stress and pressure as everyone else. She said she had an awful day and she was upset about it and about all the horrible things that happen in our school. I am sad about this because I feel like she's been broken down too. I hope not though, all we can do is bounce back each day and try again. But it's frustrating when no-one seems to fix anything, there's just too much to sort out for anything to actually be sorted.
Woo, one more day of school before a training day, oh yeah! Oh wait, the marking.
Today after school we were in the staffroom. I had already missed one phone meeting due to a drama with crazy "H". By "we" I mean lots of the young teachers. And we were all complaining about why things are so tough and bad at our school. We concluded that it was because we were all over-worked and stretched too thinly to get things done properly. On the one hand we have a lovely £30m new building. On the other hand, we have so few staff to cope with everything that we are all continuously just trying to keep our heads above water.
I regularly work a 50+ hour week. Get into school at 7:45am, don't leave till 5pm, do a couple of hours of marking on an evening, work Sat morning/Sun night. Yes, I could probably manage time better, and yes I am still new to teaching so I am still learning, but surely that is a bit nuts? I'm not even a massive perfectionist. Yes I put in effort when I plan lessons and make resources - I want my lessons to be good, so perhaps this takes more time. But I guess the key thing is that once I am in school, that's pretty much it, I'm running around all day. Today I had 10 minutes spare for lunch, and one free lesson in which I was filled in loads of forms and chased up various tutor things, but the rest of the time was spent doing stuff. I don't understand, how do people get things done so that they are not working, or thinking about work, AAAALLL the time?!
On the plus side I hit the gym this morning, was ace. On the minus side, this was because I didn't sleep last night, and when I did I had nightmares, so humph. On the plus side all my lessons were awesome today, genuinely good with no trouble (perhaps because some of my naughty Y10s were stoned in the afternoon, or so I suspect...). On the down side there was loads of drama with various kids and fights and exclusions etc.
I think the worst thing today was speaking with J, my form co-tutor. She's an NQT like me, but she's one of those people who's really amazing at her job, always on the ball, always giving that little bit extra, always doing good things, loved by all the kids etc. But today was the first time I've seen her seem to be under the same stress and pressure as everyone else. She said she had an awful day and she was upset about it and about all the horrible things that happen in our school. I am sad about this because I feel like she's been broken down too. I hope not though, all we can do is bounce back each day and try again. But it's frustrating when no-one seems to fix anything, there's just too much to sort out for anything to actually be sorted.
Woo, one more day of school before a training day, oh yeah! Oh wait, the marking.
