dame wrote: » No they just sit up at night instead wasting time on baords because they are super-humans who don't need any sleep before going into work the next day. :rolleyes: It must be a very stressful job.
Trotter wrote: » Every exercise a child writes in my class, in 3 or 4 subjects a day, gets corrected by me.
randylonghorn wrote: » Rubbish, tbh. My mother usually spent 2-3 hours an evening marking homework. She taught 4th, 5th and 6th, and usually had at least 30 pupils between the 3 classes ... one year she had 38.
dame wrote: » Your friend must be doing her Dip year then. Teachers usually give up all those hours of prep every evening once they're over that first year. Ask any teacher (who has been qualified a few years) if you can see their lesson plans and they won't have many recent ones (or any at all) to show you.
dame wrote: » Primary teachers very very rarely spend time in the evenings marking work. They are usually expected to do a set of standard tests every year and will probably mark those outside of school, but otherwise they will generally mark things during the day. Secondary teachers might have more need to mark things outside of school hours (class tests, mock exams, etc). Then again, secondary teachers may have free periods during their day which very few primary teachers have. Those free periods can be used for marking. Primary teachers can do optional training (a few days) during the summer but doing it gives them "course days" that they may take at any stage during the next school year. I presume this is what kbannon was referring to? Secondary teachers have the option of supervising exams or marking exams, both of which they will be paid for (on top of their salary for working the rest of the year). If it's optional then they can't really complain about it.
dame wrote: » Hi folks, What do you think of the fact that teachers are entitled to a week off for their wedding? I'm not joking, if a teacher gets married during the school year they are entitled to the week off, paid. Is this not taking the piss? Also, I know of a teacher who took a week off to get laser eye treatment. Shouldn't she just have done this during the summer, or the Halloween week off, or waited until the three weeks off at Christmas, or even the Easter holidays??? (Some) Teachers are the laziest people in Ireland! They seem to have the weakest work ethic and strongest sense of entitlement I have ever come across outside of an umemployed person who has no intention of looking for work, ever.
Commander Vimes wrote: » i always felt guilty about this so to alleviate some of the stress, i never did homework
ItchyInside wrote: » ... but I strongly suspect you are just generalising and actually don't know what you are talking about.
Lil Kitten wrote: » I'm a newly qualified teacher and I wasn't made aware of this. But yea, we do get a handy number like travel tax back and a clothing allowance too. I teach senior infants but I'm in school at 8:30 every day and out at 3:30, I have a to stay until 2:30 but I'm not finished preparing til later. That's a 7 hour day. Although I'm only paid for under 6 hours. The government is promising 4000 new teachers and well, that many people don't want to apply for it so they might as well make it more appealing. God knows, I'm a psychcologist, nurse, parent, mediator, social welfare officer all rolled into one. I'm fekn knackered at the end of the day and I have 2 hours of lectures at night too. My sunday (DAY OFF) is spent typing up my weekly plans, my Friday is spent preparing them, as in looking through books and online. Do you think I get paid for my sunday or friday evening? NO. Mid terms and term breaks have at least one full weekend gone prepparing termlies, assessment, IEPS, cuntas miosuil etc etc.... Teachers also have to go to lectures and workshops in St. Pats and do online courses. Really, it's a job that you're NEVER finished training for. And it's not like we have a CHOICE as to whether there are long holidays or not, I'm sure you'd be whinging if the kids weren't getting holidays. And by the way, staff in my school also run a summer camp for the kids, a breakfast club and after school club because it's a band one disadvantaged school. But of course, we're totally lazy. I mean, I do nothing ALL day long....
knird evol wrote: » Towards what end.
ItchyInside wrote: » I'm embarrassed for you, you have no idea what you are talking about. Course weeks MUST be done during the summer, it is not optional. It is about teacher development, improving ourselves and the level of help we can offer our students, not just to get course days.
rainbowtrout wrote: » Dame, it seems that no matter what comment is made here that you have decided to construe it negatively. Grow up. If I choose to spend some of my free time on boards, that's my business. We could ask what you are doing wasting your time on boards. It should have nothing to do with anyone's profession
dame wrote: » Well, teachers here have said that they cannot correct work during free classes because they are spent supervising classes for other teachers who are absent. Must be a lot of absenteeism among teachers where you folks work!
Yes, I agree actually, the DES should be only training people for jobs that actually exist. That's why there are so many PE teachers around the country doing the Hibernia course in order to become Primary teachers instead. That's obviously not what they'd really like to be doing.
Lil Kitten wrote: » I'm a newly qualified teacher and I wasn't made aware of this. But yea, we do get a handy number in some rewards like travel tax back and a clothing allowance too (although I have no idea how to apply for these or seek info on it). I teach senior infants but I'm in school at 8:30 (latest) every morning and out at 3:30, I have a to stay until 2:30 but I'm not finished preparing til later. That's a 7 hour day. Although I'm only paid for under 6 hours. If I'm out sick my class will prob be split up or the principal will take them (not the end of the world). If out longer I think a sub gets a portion of your wage to pay for it, but I'm not sure on that... The government is promising 4000 new teachers and well, that many people don't want to apply for it so they might as well make it more appealing. God knows, I'm a psychcologist, nurse, parent, mediator, social welfare officer all rolled into one. I'm fekn knackered at the end of the day and I have 2 hours of lectures at night too (for honours degree). ON top of this, I'm doing my Dip and have MASSIVE folders and a HUGE workload. My sunday (DAY OFF) is spent typing up my weekly plans, my Friday is spent preparing them, as in looking through books and online. Do you think I get paid for my sunday or friday evening? NO. Mid terms and term breaks have at least one full weekend gone prepparing termlies, assessment, IEPS, MAKING RESOURCES, cuntas miosuil etc etc.... Teachers also have to go to lectures and workshops in St. Pats and do online courses. Really, it's a job that you're NEVER finished training for. And it's not like we have a CHOICE as to whether there are long holidays or not, I'm sure you'd be whinging if the kids weren't getting holidays. And by the way, staff in my school also run a summer camp for the kids, a breakfast club and after school club because it's a band one disadvantaged school. But of course, we're totally lazy. I mean, I do nothing ALL day long....
dame wrote: » Oh hi there Lil Kitten, I remember you ranting about being a teacher and all the vast experience you had of sorting out all their personal problems and making a huge difference in their lives (while you were still a student). [If anyone's interested then you can trawl through the extremely long Childfree thread in After Hours to see what a fool of herself Lil Kitten made with her bragging]. You're a prime example of the kind of exaggeration I was expecting here. How did all your teaching disadvantaged kids for that whole week in Africa this summer go?
Trotter wrote: » Dame.. If you're an engineer, would you think I was an idiot if I said most engineers are only half qualified and are doing dodgy work off the back of a now failing construction industry? You'd be right to think thats what I am, because I'd be generalising about something I know nothing about. I know and have spent time with plenty of engineers. Does that mean I know enough to judge their abilities and assess their daily workload? No. It doesn't.
dame wrote: » How long does it actually take to correct the same thing 30 times? I mean, let's say there are 30 copybooks, all with the same set of sums (about 20) in them. It's not rocket science. After the first two you'll know the answers off by heart and it's a simple tick. I'm just throwing this in for arguments sake but really, I can't see correcting be that hard (at least not for the basics in primary school, 30 essays of a few foolscap pages each would obviously take longer but there wouldn't be an essay every day).
InFront wrote: » I don't have anything against teachers in general whatsoever, and it amazes me that anyone can. However I do think there are some problems with the organization of the teaching profession that can probably give rise to laziness among a proportion of their numbers. One of these problems is the lack of performance testing. Now I know this goes on to a certain extent, but it doesn't seem to be taken very seriously at all. Teachers, and other publicly funded state employees need to be subject to performance testing, and under-performers should lose their jobs.
InFront wrote: » However I do think there are some problems with the organization of the teaching profession that can probably give rise to laziness among a proportion of their numbers.
InFront wrote: » One of these problems is the lack of performance testing. Now I know this goes on to a certain extent, but it doesn't seem to be taken very seriously at all. Teachers, and other publicly funded state employees need to be subject to performance testing, and under-performers should lose their jobs.
randylonghorn wrote: » If we look at more qualitative measures of a good teacher, and I don't see how we cannot, these are by their nature far more difficult to measure.
Terry wrote: » We had an alcoholic teacher in secondary school. I used to deliberately get thrown out of German because I knew I would be put in his media studies class and be given the task of camera man. Cheers, Gerry.
InFront wrote: » I think it's a bit more straightforward than you suggest.
InFront wrote: » We already have assessments for trainee teachers and for working teachers, why not upgrade these sorts of assessments to decide whether or not a teacher can continue teach or must go back into training, or change jobs?
InFront wrote: » Are you saying that the assessments that teachers go through to complete their training cannot be said to be accurate indications of quality?
InFront wrote: » Of course one can assess teaching ability ...
InFront wrote: » Teaching is not about having a job for life (nor did you suggest that)
InFront wrote: » it's about educating the next generation of employees.
InFront wrote: » Teaching is..... about educating the next generation of employees.
