English teachers,are you not worried about an unsustainable workload?

acequion

As a very dedicated English teacher with 25+ years behind me of mainly happy moments teaching a subject I love and awakening young minds to the delights of wordsmanship, plus introducing them to all sorts of interesting literature both high and low brow,I lay awake nights worried about the direction the subject is taking and the lack of recognition of the workload involved.

Earlier this week I met a Maths teacher in the school car who thought I was bleary eyed from a good 'ole late night and did a double take when I told him I had spent four solid hours the previous evening working on the new film for next year's comparative study, having already spent two hours straight after school correcting a final batch of six page essays for the LC's who will sit their LC next week. I'm pretty sure he thought I was exaggerating.Six more hours after a full school day and a late evening of CP duties coming up!! Not the kind of thing you will read about in the Indo,yet I suspect I am only one such English teacher trying to keep my head above water and do a decent job in all my classes,including my other,much less time consuming subject,French.

And now here we are in the firing line of these new "reforms" supposedly ready to kick into gear in September. Unless there are plans to separate out the junior and senior teachers and I very much doubt it,the already hard pressed English teacher will still have to put in hours swotting up the ever changing literary texts in senior cycle,hours correcting and providing feedback on the 4-6 page assigments.And in addition take on board the new CBA's for junior cycle!

Is this really sustainable? And in an Ireland currently having a love affair with the word "equality" is it equitable that English teachers should be saddled with a workload disproportionate to other subjects?

High time for some discussion on this!

Jamfa

acequion wrote: »

As a very dedicated English teacher with 25+ years behind me of mainly happy moments teaching a subject I love and awakening young minds to the delights of wordsmanship, plus introducing them to all sorts of interesting literature both high and low brow,I lay awake nights worried about the direction the subject is taking and the lack of recognition of the workload involved.

Earlier this week I met a Maths teacher in the school car who thought I was bleary eyed from a good 'ole late night and did a double take when I told him I had spent four solid hours the previous evening working on the new film for next year's comparative study, having already spent two hours straight after school correcting a final batch of six page essays for the LC's who will sit their LC next week. I'm pretty sure he thought I was exaggerating.Six more hours after a full school day and a late evening of CP duties coming up!! Not the kind of thing you will read about in the Indo,yet I suspect I am only one such English teacher trying to keep my head above water and do a decent job in all my classes,including my other,much less time consuming subject,French.

And now here we are in the firing line of these new "reforms" supposedly ready to kick into gear in September. Unless there are plans to separate out the junior and senior teachers and I very much doubt it,the already hard pressed English teacher will still have to put in hours swotting up the ever changing literary texts in senior cycle,hours correcting and providing feedback on the 4-6 page assigments.And in addition take on board the new CBA's for junior cycle!

Is this really sustainable? And in an Ireland currently having a love affair with the word "equality" is it equitable that English teachers should be saddled with a workload disproportionate to other subjects?

High time for some discussion on this!

Hard to have a discussion about junior cycle English with a directive still in place from the unions restricting it and many saying looking at the online resources is disloyal etc.

acequion

Jamfa wrote: »

Hard to have a discussion about junior cycle English with a directive still in place from the unions restricting it and many saying looking at the online resources is disloyal etc.

So,you don't think a discussion about the sustainability of an English teacher's workload going forward merits discussion??

Jamfa

acequion wrote: »

So,you don't think a discussion about the sustainability of an English teacher's workload going forward merits discussion??

I do but you have to be properly informed first. Thinking the oral task will be a huge amount of extra work based on assumptions rather than details may only cause unnecessary fears.

Frankly frank

acequion wrote: »

As a very dedicated English teacher with 25+ years behind me of mainly happy moments teaching a subject I love and awakening young minds to the delights of wordsmanship, plus introducing them to all sorts of interesting literature both high and low brow,I lay awake nights worried about the direction the subject is taking and the lack of recognition of the workload involved.

Earlier this week I met a Maths teacher in the school car who thought I was bleary eyed from a good 'ole late night and did a double take when I told him I had spent four solid hours the previous evening working on the new film for next year's comparative study, having already spent two hours straight after school correcting a final batch of six page essays for the LC's who will sit their LC next week. I'm pretty sure he thought I was exaggerating.Six more hours after a full school day and a late evening of CP duties coming up!! Not the kind of thing you will read about in the Indo,yet I suspect I am only one such English teacher trying to keep my head above water and do a decent job in all my classes,including my other,much less time consuming subject,French.

And now here we are in the firing line of these new "reforms" supposedly ready to kick into gear in September. Unless there are plans to separate out the junior and senior teachers and I very much doubt it,the already hard pressed English teacher will still have to put in hours swotting up the ever changing literary texts in senior cycle,hours correcting and providing feedback on the 4-6 page assigments.And in addition take on board the new CBA's for junior cycle!

Is this really sustainable? And in an Ireland currently having a love affair with the word "equality" is it equitable that English teachers should be saddled with a workload disproportionate to other subjects?

High time for some discussion on this!

Is your other subject junior cycle only??

acequion

Frankly frank wrote: »

Is your other subject junior cycle only??

No,up to LC also.

LeinsterDub

4 years ago you where complaining about your work load. Maybe you should manage your time better

freckly

acequion wrote: »

No,up to LC also.

Knowing how long LC French takes to prep and correct I am very very glad not to have English! I think French seems to be correction heavy. I hope the English teachers lead a good fight. I can't see where more assessment time is going to come from- both class time for presentations and actual marking and associated paperwork.

acequion

LeinsterDub wrote: »

4 years ago you where complaining about your work load. Maybe you should manage your time better

Time is finite,not infinite.The workload is disproportionate to the time available no matter how you organise that time.Therefore it enormously eats into free time.

And yes I possibly was complaining four years ago.But the situation has got worse,not better.

acequion

freckly wrote: »

Knowing how long LC French takes to prep and correct I am very very glad not to have English! I think French seems to be correction heavy. I hope the English teachers lead a good fight. I can't see where more assessment time is going to come from- both class time for presentations and actual marking and associated paperwork.

Thanks freckly.You're right that French also takes a lot of work. But it's nothing compared with English. It's far less time consuming to mark a batch of 100 word opinion questions than it is to mark a batch of 4-6 page essays. And at least the French course doesn't change!

evolving_doors

LeinsterDub wrote: »

4 years ago you where complaining about your work load. Maybe you should manage your time better

Unhelpful comment , member warned

Etc.