Secondary Thinking about becoming a teacher

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mcgrath_truther said:
what do you do with your time in lessons where you have like 5 students present.

it's exam week and i've got a split year 9/10 class and like 90% of my class has ended up being year 10s and they're all absent as they're not required at school for exams.

it's a snoozefest now and it's only going to get worse
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If you have laptops give them a project on a topic of their interest. For example, if they're into footy get them to research a topic involving footy and make a presentation in a format such as PowerPoint.
 
I heard on the radio this morning the possibility of paying kids $50 a week to attend school. Thoughts? IMO it will create a lot more problems than it will solve.
 

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raskolnikov said:
If you have laptops give them a project on a topic of their interest. For example, if they're into footy get them to research a topic involving footy and make a presentation in a format such as PowerPoint.
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i ended up giving them a small project about the english language which ended up being interesting and engaging for them, thankfully
 
raskolnikov said:
I heard on the radio this morning the possibility of paying kids $50 a week to attend school. Thoughts? IMO it will create a lot more problems than it will solve.
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Why would this even come up as a possibility?! whoever come up with this must be on the drugs they confiscated off the kids they want to pay to come in
 
burge13 said:
Why would this even come up as a possibility?! whoever come up with this must be on the drugs they confiscated off the kids they want to pay to come in
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Soon enough the students will want to use teachers as their own personal slaves and have everything done for them. Wait I think this is already in progress 🤔.
 
Teacher bashing season in the Herald Sun with 2 articles in one day:
Teaching methods to blame for poor Maths Results..

There was another one about the increase in teachers "rushing" to get students diagnosed for funding.

There isn't a rush, just more students being picked up that teachers are needing to make extensive adjustments that are going above and beyond what we physically and mentally can do.
 
12 or 13th year and although I don't want to learn or do anything else given certain financing would it be possible to have one year on and one year off. I might be going crazy 🤪 😜 as teachers do but the way it would work is, you pick up a 12 month contract in a place that is remote and struggles to attract teachers. After that year is done you return home and well don't do nothing you work relief (if you can make it work) it's possible to get 2-3 days a week to make ends meet ( assuming you are single) or have a very supportive partner who will be the "bread maker". Holiday pay would be the major down side but would cancel out with no assembly items, reports IEP, SEN data entry, planning, assessing, constant parent meetings ect.

Anyone thought of this or have done it perhaps over a 2 - 4 year period?

Maybe even 6 month contract then 6 months off they are floating around.

Thoughts?
 
pacemaker said:
12 or 13th year and although I don't want to learn or do anything else given certain financing would it be possible to have one year on and one year off. I might be going crazy 🤪 😜 as teachers do but the way it would work is, you pick up a 12 month contract in a place that is remote and struggles to attract teachers. After that year is done you return home and well don't do nothing you work relief (if you can make it work) it's possible to get 2-3 days a week to make ends meet ( assuming you are single) or have a very supportive partner who will be the "bread maker". Holiday pay would be the major down side but would cancel out with no assembly items, reports IEP, SEN data entry, planning, assessing, constant parent meetings ect.

Anyone thought of this or have done it perhaps over a 2 - 4 year period?

Maybe even 6 month contract then 6 months off they are floating around.

Thoughts?
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I did CRT in Melbourne for a bit. Pros are little admin work. In at 8:30. Out at 3. Also if you have a shit class you only have them for one or two days. Cons are no holiday pay and you don't get to build a rapport with the students. Not if you're going through an agency and working at a different school every day like I did anyway, If I did CRT again I would get in with one school. We have a CRT at our school who only works with us and so it's like she's a regular. The kids wouldn't even know she's a CRT. Also, teaching primary CRT is a lot more fun than secondary. Primary kids, especially the younger grades, love having someone new in the class and they're like putty in your hands. Secondary kids just love seeing how much they can get past you. Primary I actually felt like I was teaching. Secondary was basically monitoring them while they do their work and making sure they don't kill each other. When I retire I may do 1 or 2 days a week at one school to supplement my super but it's not something I would do as a career choice.
 
Really struggling mentally at the moment. I keep getting slammed with little things (nitpicking) from Prin:

- Why was Student F on the oval kicking a footy at 3:20? (Clearly I didn't send him to do that when he asked to go to the toilet).

- I saw you too close to student R with their parent... it was invading the students space? Why? (I was just leaning and saying he had a great day and to keep it up tomorrow).

- Student R was in the sensory room for the whole last hour. Why? Did you let the parent know they did no learning last hour? (I knew he was in the sensory room and ES was instructed to do 5 mins and the student chose not to come back.. I had 20 other students to focus on).


I have had no positive comments to boost morale this year and pretty PO'd and flat tbh.
 
Jack Richards said:
Really struggling mentally at the moment. I keep getting slammed with little things (nitpicking) from Prin:

- Why was Student F on the oval kicking a footy at 3:20? (Clearly I didn't send him to do that when he asked to go to the toilet).

- I saw you too close to student R with their parent... it was invading the students space? Why? (I was just leaning and saying he had a great day and to keep it up tomorrow).

- Student R was in the sensory room for the whole last hour. Why? Did you let the parent know they did no learning last hour? (I knew he was in the sensory room and ES was instructed to do 5 mins and the student chose not to come back.. I had 20 other students to focus on).


I have had no positive comments to boost morale this year and pretty PO'd and flat tbh.
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This sounds toxic AF. I don't know your school's structure - do you have another AP/LT you could speak to? Even a union rep?

Personally I'd be readying my KSC to GTFO - but I don't know your personal circumstances. Don't these ******* Prins know who holds the power in the job market at the moment?
 
Suspense said:
This sounds toxic AF. I don't know your school's structure - do you have another AP/LT you could speak to? Even a union rep?

Personally I'd be readying my KSC to GTFO - but I don't know your personal circumstances. Don't these ******* Prins know who holds the power in the job market at the moment?
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Sadly I cannot trust any of the other leaders as I have heard how they have been speaking about staff behind their back
 

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Kram said:
One of the dumbest and laziest blokes I went to school with has been promoted from vice principal to principal.
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When I was teaching at one school (many moons ago) we foot-soldiers kept a little scorecard on the staff room notice board on which we kept count of the Head’s “educational thoughts”, during morning recess when we were all together and he liked to hold the floor. I think in one term there were two 😀. A leader he was not.
 
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copped a spray last week by an AP because i took a bit of time to make lessons in a class i'm teaching (out of area, as a grad). i'll cop the taking a bit too long to make lessons, but i seek feedback that comes in 3-4-5 days later from people who work 3/4 days a week, or i get told the lessons i make are fine by leading teachers, then get told i've done the wrong thing.

their grand suggestions for fixing these issues were: moving offices onto the other side of the school from all of my classes and making a calendar for all my work. keen on neither of these.

i've also noticed that many, many people at my school are profoundly terrible communicators.
 
mcgrath_truther said:
copped a spray last week by an AP because i took a bit of time to make lessons in a class i'm teaching (out of area, as a grad). i'll cop the taking a bit too long to make lessons, but i seek feedback that comes in 3-4-5 days later from people who work 3/4 days a week, or i get told the lessons i make are fine by leading teachers, then get told i've done the wrong thing.

their grand suggestions for fixing these issues were: moving offices onto the other side of the school from all of my classes and making a calendar for all my work. keen on neither of these.

i've also noticed that many, many people at my school are profoundly terrible communicators.
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Someone at our school went to our SEIL (the person above our Prin) over the way the staff have been spoken to by leadership.

Hope this resolves issues but I highly doubt it.
 
Jack Richards said:
Someone at our school went to our SEIL (the person above our Prin) over the way the staff have been spoken to by leadership.

Hope this resolves issues but I highly doubt it.
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probably a good idea, i won’t bother with it though. already stressed and anxious enough, wouldn’t want to become even more stressed over potential retaliation
 
mcgrath_truther said:
probably a good idea, i won’t bother with it though. already stressed and anxious enough, wouldn’t want to become even more stressed over potential retaliation
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Don't be afraid to follow this up in any form. Speak to your union rep, speak to the regional staff, go through the OHS processes, document everything. Talk to your mentor about the ways that grads are meant to be supported. Find another mentor if they're shit campaigners. Casually read a couple of pages of your local agreement / industrial conditions before bed each night, it'll help you get to sleep and teach you a lot about your rights in the work place.

A lot of principals will push things are far as staff let them. But they can't and won't retaliate with a personal grudge if they'll know it'll come back to haunt them later. This doesn't mean go looking for every fight or not let anything slide, but don't be hesitant to talk to people about the different ways of pushing back or standing up for yourself.

Knowing that there are systems which can support you to respond to authoritarian pricks is empowering. It can definitely help with stress having that certainty and being able to draw boundaries. It can help you to help others who are in the same spot later down the track.

I'm so lucky to have experienced really strong unionist cultures at the various schools I've taught at, which meant I didn't have to work in a toxic school workplace to deal with the worst of this stuff alone. But I've also seen friends who've been able to change the toxic workplaces they've entered for the better because they've had these conversations, had them again and again, and normalised this way of thinking.
 
bUCKET__ said:
Don't be afraid to follow this up in any form. Speak to your union rep, speak to the regional staff, go through the OHS processes, document everything. Talk to your mentor about the ways that grads are meant to be supported. Find another mentor if they're shit campaigners. Casually read a couple of pages of your local agreement / industrial conditions before bed each night, it'll help you get to sleep and teach you a lot about your rights in the work place.

A lot of principals will push things are far as staff let them. But they can't and won't retaliate with a personal grudge if they'll know it'll come back to haunt them later. This doesn't mean go looking for every fight or not let anything slide, but don't be hesitant to talk to people about the different ways of pushing back or standing up for yourself.

Knowing that there are systems which can support you to respond to authoritarian pricks is empowering. It can definitely help with stress having that certainty and being able to draw boundaries. It can help you to help others who are in the same spot later down the track.

I'm so lucky to have experienced really strong unionist cultures at the various schools I've taught at, which meant I didn't have to work in a toxic school workplace to deal with the worst of this stuff alone. But I've also seen friends who've been able to change the toxic workplaces they've entered for the better because they've had these conversations, had them again and again, and normalised this way of thinking.
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This. She is the union rep (person who went to SEIL). He hasn't replied in 3 weeks so she is going to follow up.
 
bUCKET__ said:
Don't be afraid to follow this up in any form. Speak to your union rep, speak to the regional staff, go through the OHS processes, document everything. Talk to your mentor about the ways that grads are meant to be supported. Find another mentor if they're shit campaigners. Casually read a couple of pages of your local agreement / industrial conditions before bed each night, it'll help you get to sleep and teach you a lot about your rights in the work place.

A lot of principals will push things are far as staff let them. But they can't and won't retaliate with a personal grudge if they'll know it'll come back to haunt them later. This doesn't mean go looking for every fight or not let anything slide, but don't be hesitant to talk to people about the different ways of pushing back or standing up for yourself.

Knowing that there are systems which can support you to respond to authoritarian pricks is empowering. It can definitely help with stress having that certainty and being able to draw boundaries. It can help you to help others who are in the same spot later down the track.

I'm so lucky to have experienced really strong unionist cultures at the various schools I've taught at, which meant I didn't have to work in a toxic school workplace to deal with the worst of this stuff alone. But I've also seen friends who've been able to change the toxic workplaces they've entered for the better because they've had these conversations, had them again and again, and normalised this way of thinking.
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i'll look into it. i've had an informal talk with the union rep (as i'm fortunate enough to share an office with him) and i'm considering taking it further if it continues
 
mcgrath_truther said:
i'll look into it. i've had an informal talk with the union rep (as i'm fortunate enough to share an office with him) and i'm considering taking it further if it continues
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the irony of this is that i had the follow up meeting last week. it had essentially been a **** up on their behalf.

1) i'm a grad teacher teaching out of area which she did not know.
2) i've had some personal things happen at the beginning of this term, which people i share an office with were aware of, and they provided verbal evidence upon being informally prodded for questions by another AP (lol).
3) the above was backed up upon a meeting with a LAL regarding feedback that i'd sought when they asked me how i was travelling.
4) i forgot to mention it but i'd taught a 5 week unit of lessons (9 humanities, the subject area that the school gives the least priority to) and they (again, didn't take the time to do the research) scolded me for teaching it in the 5 weeks, instead of the 9 that the term goes for (in comparison, term 2 i fit it all in for the term, because i missed about a class or so per week for incursions, or just like 80% of my students being absent for excursions, camps, inter-school sports etc.) and she, upon asking the LAL for humanities basically got the same thing that i'd told them, that "we usually miss a lesson per week so the 15 lessons generally fit, excluding the summative assessment and revision lesson(s)"
5) they also told me that "some senior staff at the school have higher expectations for each other and fail to recognise a grad might need help instead of a telling off" like come the **** on lol

it ended with them providing me essentially with a non-apology apology for them having the first meeting in the first place without doing all the research and gathering all the required information that they should have before it came to this point, and then talking about what i'd want to teach next year.

all in all, kind of funny, i guess, in retrospect.


one thing that i've noticed, and this has been a whole year thing, is that people at my school are terrible communicators. when i get a new student added to my class i'm rarely, if ever, notified of this happening. very annoying
 

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Secondary Thinking about becoming a teacher

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