tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59372058226823975492024-02-07T11:50:11.639+00:00Ranting Teacher~Online ramblings since 2003~Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-24717274833006318532010-08-24T15:01:00.002+01:002010-08-24T15:38:47.719+01:00Twittermorphosis<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Do I come here often? Um, no, not much anymore... you might have noticed. Seven years have passed since I started "ranting" - that's a whole generation of secondary school students. I've changed schools, roles, and also now, I've realised, attitude. With this new decade I seem to have shrugged off my anger and frustration at the impediments of the job and have just learned to tolerate (or ignore) them. And I can attribute this to two main reasons.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Firstly, there's Twitter. Everybody's heard of Twitter nowadays, and I use it mostly as a personal diary or record of the mundanities I've been up to, and to "chat" with a number of friendly, funny, caring and lovely people from different walks of life. But I also "follow" a great number of enthusiastic and dedicated teachers, whose positivity and enlightening suggestions are inspiring. Some have developed "PLN"s - Personal Learning Networks (I think), which allow them to interact with subject / age specialists around the country and the world. Sure, there are those of us who come home after a tiring day at school and offload in 140 characters, and the beauty of it is that there is always someone there who knows exactly how you feel and cheers you up straight away. But overall, the positive experience that Twitter is for this ranting teacher has made me less ranting and more bantering.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Secondly, there's tutoring. Last year I began private tutoring for the first time, through absolute necessity. I found it immensely awkward to start with, from an ideological angle. I felt unsure about the exchange of money (even though I needed it!) because was it fair for these children to receive such an advantage just because their families could afford it? Then again, if it wasn't me taking the work, somebody else would have. And besides, it wasn't just affluent families who wanted tutoring for their children. The majority were the children of builders and salon owners etc - parents who were used to being paid for their trade. It was often the case that these teenagers had lost confidence in their own abilities, and needed their C grades to get into college. It made me sad to hear of children admitting that they didn't seem to learn anything because they were in a bottom set, and there were too many naughty children hindering their learning.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But what I gained from tutoring almost outweighed anything else: I gained a love of teaching again. I mean, a real <em>passion</em>. Here were children who (with one exception) were concentrating fully, willing and eager to learn, and whose moments of enlightenment were a real thrill to witness. I gained insight into how other schools tackled topics, and widened my own knowledge by researching areas I'd not taught before. And after a day of sometimes tiresome classes, or demanding management, it was quite often difficult to summon the energy to be enthusiastic for another hour or two. But after every tutor session I would feel enthused and energised because I'd had the opportunity to do what I'd entered the profession to do: teach, and make a difference.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And that in turn has had a knock-on effect on my classroom teaching. Working one-to-one with a wide range of abilities has enabled me to see why pupils find some things difficult, and inspired me to try new things I've learnt from their work with my classes. It's like a second-hand Inset: I've learned things from their teachers without having ever met them.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So there we go. Confessions of a not-so-ranting teacher. Because of Twitter and Tutoring I feel much more positive about teaching than I have done for years. That's not to say it's perfect, of course: still plenty to moan about! But I probably won't be saying it here. Instead, you'll find Ranting Teacher over on Twitter, along with a whole world of teachers who will amuse, support and inspire. So if you're not there already, come and say hello!</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-7230178408529310052010-04-12T17:33:00.002+01:002010-04-12T17:44:56.169+01:00Sun Stroke Seven<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Well I guess I have sunstroke, or there must be something else in the air I can blame. Today marks 7 years since I first published a post as "Ranting Teacher" and yet today, the first day back at school after the Easter holidays, I actually felt full of enthusiasm for teaching.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But then, beginnings are always exciting after the initial Sunday night/ Monday morning funk. I've had time off to relax, read, and catch up with all that stuff that life throws our way but we don't often have time to deal with in term-time (like repeats of <em>A Place in the Sun</em>). Therefore, early start aside, I feel refreshed, and the shining sun helps too. There are new units of work to commence, and my resources are made and ready for use. When they're schemes of work I've had a hand in creating, or there is the flexibility to follow my own interests too, I feel most enthusiastic to get started. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Of course, once the marking starts piling up again, and the students start playing up, and extra hoops to jump through suddenly appear in a couple of weeks, I might not feel so spritely. But this is also a joyful time of year because after an initial flurry of activity it'll be time to wave goodbye to years 11 and 13, and au revoir to year 12, meaning extra PPA time to plan more kick-ass lessons, or just simply stop for a moment and smell the roses. Happy third term everyone!</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-58655772454767917212010-04-10T20:45:00.002+01:002010-04-10T21:17:44.753+01:00The Facebook Effect<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yesterday I was thinking how my online presence has changed over the last seven years since I launched "Ranting Teacher". What I didn't consider was how the changes (advances?) in technology have affected the life of your average teen these days. But having just watched this week's new episode of "South Park", where one of the characters gets sucked into Facebook, it reminded me of school life once again, because although it may be satire, what happened in this episode is actually very insightful.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">For example, every member of my form group has got either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. I can't blame them for wanting to compare apps at the first opportunity, even though they aren't supposed to have their gadgets on show in school, lest I swoop in and wrestle their headphones from their very persons. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Texting mates in lessons (or even better for their phone credit - bluetoothing) is a matter of course these days. I used to dread what was happening when students looked to be fiddling with something under the desk, but these days it's with tiresome predictability that there's a mobile phone involved. If you're a teacher, just test this yourself: during any one lesson, furtively switch on your bluetooth and see how many (usually rude) names spring to life on your screen. With one persistant offender I decided to get through the only way I could. I wrote a note on a piece of paper my desk: "Get on with your work!". I photographed it and bluetoothed it to the dozy student, who foolishly accepted whatever file was being sent to him. Ok, we had a little laugh about it, but it did the trick. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But Facebook seems to be a huge pressure on teens. "South Park" wasn't exaggerating. The unlikeliest of students are "Facebook friends" and these alliances are seen around school too, for example when one student shouts something to another about their status updates or photos, and they have never talked to each other in your class before. That it's used for bullying, there is no doubt. That it's more important to be "Facebook friends" with the right people than to have the right trainers these days is becoming more apparent. A great equaliser? Not really. It's very divisive. Several fights broke out at school last term because of what somebody had posted on Facebook, with two opposing factions grouping because of their Facebook links. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Even stranger is that some of my colleagues have easily discovered Facebook profiles, with pictures of their personal lives plastered all over them. So? you might argue, teachers should be entitled to use Facebook as well as any other breed of human. But what disturbs me is that some of these teachers are "friends" with current students. There seems to be a professional line that has been crossed there. And when I hear from these staff some of the school gossip they have discovered because it was posted on a pupil's "Wall", I do wonder if I'm being over-sensitive about this, or whether it's excusable. After all, I'm often party to conversations between students that I'd really rather not hear. It doesn't just happen online - there's real life too of course! But online, things seem to escalate. An offhand comment by somebody can be jumped upon, undefended, and circulated widely before the poster has had the chance to rethink.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">My point is, that teenagers today are under pressures that weren't even imaginable when I was a teenager myself. Sometimes I wonder how different my teen years would have been with the internet and a mobile phone, and I always imagine it to have been vastly superior. Far better to woo a member of the opposite sex with a flirty text message or a "poke" on Facebook than to stand in a drafty phone box and hope the object of one's desires' mother didn't answer the phone instead.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But the other side to this is the added layers of social networking which can increase anxiety and turmoil in a teen's life. So something else to consider next time you hear somebody sneer, "What, you're not even on MSN? Won't mummy let you?" or banter about "Facebook friends".</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-60924166664073729152010-04-09T20:39:00.002+01:002010-04-09T21:20:01.833+01:00Spring forward<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's almost seven years since I took on the persona of "Ranting Teacher". Why did I do it? I'd moved from a wonderful school to one which was more of a struggle: bigger, unwieldier, messier, louder... I couldn't help but compare the two. So many things were frustrating me about that school that I felt I needed to vent my anger and frustrations somehow. Writing it down and putting it "out there" just made me feel better. But it wasn't such a bad school. (In its last two inspections it scored top marks and gold stars.) What was it that frustrated me? The parents? The students? The other teachers? Well, a combination of all of those things, alongside endless government initiatives, curriculum changes, and the constant demands on my time.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So what has changed in seven years? For "Ranting Teacher", it has changed from a slowly-coded html website, to this blogger site, and more lately, to a more frequent presence on Twitter where I've had the opportunity to have instant banter with a great range of great people.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">For me as a teacher, I have changed jobs, schools, and lost the anger I felt several years ago. But I don't think this is a good thing. I ranted because I cared about the job and the students, and was frustrated when I couldn't do my job properly because of external pressures or circumstances. That I don't rant so much any more is a bit of a worry to me. Does it mean I'm not so bothered any more? Am I just going through the motions? It feels like it sometimes.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">For me as a person, like anyone else I've experienced much change in the last seven years. Bereavements, break-ups, break-downs... In the last year or so my blog has been quiet, and it's because real life has got in the way much of the time. Maybe me and Ranting Teacher have a bit of a seven-year-itch.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But I know the ranting is still in there somewhere... because I still care about educating young people and I'm still passionate about my subject, and there are still so many impediments! The great thing about "tweeting" with other teachers is that I know I am in no way unique, and it's a great way to vent in a short and sweet (and not so sweet) way. Lots of teachers use Twitter to share good practice, ideas and developments instantly with colleagues around the world. I'm far more superficial with my banter but find the support from my Twitter friends immeasurable. So if you don't see me on here much, come and say hello on <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a>!</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-50026916809103658202009-10-14T23:33:00.002+01:002009-10-14T23:37:27.335+01:00Little Loners<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Canteen duty is something that can be dreaded for a number of reasons, but for me it is often the pathos of that twenty minutes. For surely there is nowhere else around the school where is it possible to observe the hard time that some children go through. The saddest type of child I see is the Little Loner.<br /><br />In lessons, the Little Loner is identifiable by their reluctance to join in group work. I combat this by sorting pupils into groups myself rather than letting them choose their own groups, and of course the benefits of this reach farther than simply inclusion of a shy or unpopular child.<br /><br />The Little Loner will sit away from other children if possible, and is usually quiet, but often knows all the answers; however previous experience has taught the L.L. that you don’t earn kudos from your class mates by doing what the teacher wants. The L.L. therefore often retreats into a shell, but some of them are not actually aware of other children’s sniggers and persist in shooting up their hand at every opportunity.<br /><br />I suggest if you have a keen Little Loner in your class, you move away from asking for “hands up”. One way to do this is to write each class member’s name on a card, and choose a card from the pack when you want somebody to tell you something. Or if your funding stretches to mini whiteboards, these are even better. Even disaffected pupils love to scrawl with a board pen on the slippery surface, and not only do you have every pupil (more) on task, but you also succeed in letting your keen Little Loner answer without fear of ridicule.<br /><br />But back to the canteen. It’s all very well thinking of ways to include the L.L. in your lessons. And for the majority of lunchtimes most schools have refuges for L.L.s: lunchtime clubs like chess, Warhammer or maths puzzles, where they are no longer alone, but in the company of those who also avoid the harsh world of the playground. L.L.s are usually well known to the school librarian, as they settle down into their usual spot to read or surf the web. But even L.L.s have to eat…<br /><br />It’s funny (peculiar not haha). Teaching has toughened me up so much. When I set out I was a bleeding heart who took seriously every bleat of “he’s bullying me”, and spent weekends worrying about something a child mentioned in passing. But when you meet about 180 children every day (form group plus five average teaching groups) it’s as much as you can do sometimes to even remember everyone’s name. (Seven weeks into the year and I still don’t know at least half of the pupils I teach.)<br /><br />Yet nothing tugs at my remaining heart-strings as much as seeing the Little Loner eating a solitary snack or lunch in the canteen. Often it’s a case of a packed-lunch-pupil who can sit straight down without the tussle of the canteen queue, and it’s not long before they’re joined by some friends.<br /><br />But sometimes packed-lunch-pupil dines alone on the healthy contents of their Tupperware box, and I have been wondering if there’s a correlation between the type of child who brings in a packed lunch and the probability that child will be more of a loner. Maybe there’s camaraderie to be had in the long queues to reach the canteen counter, or maybe the pushing and shoving toughens up children somewhat. (I could take this one further and wonder if having school dinners makes you more successful at getting served in pubs in later life… maybe there’s a PhD study in there somewhere.)<br /><br />But even canteen-queue-child can be a Little Loner. On duty in the canteen I may recognise a pupil from my lesson, nervously focused on her slice of healthy canteen pizza, or his Tupperware pot of tuna pasta or sliced peppers and hummus; they’re the children not daring to look around, and trying to block out the din and clatter going on just beyond the half metre radius that constitutes the “no go” zone around them. I’ve learnt from experience that the worst thing to do is give a sympathetic little smile. This works well in the corridors, when you may well be the first person to smile at Little Loner that day, as you both escape rapidly into the swarm of noisy pupils. But in the canteen, smiling at a L.L. is tantamount to flashing a spotlight onto their seat and superimposing a bullseye onto their forehead. And the L.L. knows this.<br /><br />There have been so many times when I’ve wanted to match-make between lonely pupils who I think would enjoy each others’ company. “Rosie, meet Emma, who also likes reading, and has two guinea-pigs as well!” And some schools have “buddy” systems that aim to do just this. But in the canteen, it just doesn’t work. Instead, the Little Loners sit at their separate tables, heads down until the deed is done and they can scuttle off to some sanctuary elsewhere. And it just seems to me the saddest thing for them to eat alone every day, in the midst of all the organised chaos of the canteen.<br /><br />And then my duty is over, and I scuttle off back to my classroom, to unwrap the foil from around my sandwiches and mark books as I munch… alone...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-68666686979394251562009-10-11T14:04:00.002+01:002009-10-11T14:11:16.902+01:00The BBC Programme<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Sunday: </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007zpll"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The Big Question </span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">- you have 7 days to watch this: Should teachers always set a moral example? It starts about 20 minutes into the programme. Features a Ranting Headteacher and Twitter's <a href="http://twitter.com/schoolgate">@schoolgate </a>- Sarah Ebner. Interesting issues plus added hot air! Well done Sarah for reminding the public about the behaviour and responsibilities of <strong><em>parents</em></strong>!</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> And well done sensible 12 year olds!</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-91295660060233020062009-10-11T13:09:00.002+01:002009-10-11T13:18:05.072+01:00Moral Maze<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Should teachers always set a moral example? This was a question posed on <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> on Friday evening by <a href="http://twitter.com/schoolgate">@schoolgate </a>– Sarah Ebner, a journalist at the <a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate">Times Online</a>. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />That she was asking this on a Friday evening, as I wound down at home after another hectic week with a glass of wine or more, brought out my more facetious side (first identified and labelled as such by my RE teacher over twenty years ago). But it stirred up some strong feelings, particularly amongst former headteacher and now education writer <a href="http://twitter.com/geraldhaigh">@GeraldHaigh</a>, a time-served teacher who clearly believes that “teacher” is a life-long vocation that stays with you even beyond retirement.<br /><br />I may be flippant about this on Twitter – after all, there are only so many things you can express in 140 characters at a time. But it’s been something I’ve been thinking about all weekend, and I do have strong thoughts and opinions on how much “being a teacher” affects our lives, and those hours when we’re not in the school building.<br /><br />I don’t think it’s necessarily a generational thing. In fact, different lines of morality weave through different generations of teachers. Today we are expected to at least appear to be upstanding members of the community, leading future generations by example. When I’ve taken PSHE sessions about the dangers of smoking and drinking, and pupils have asked me about my own experiences, I’ve felt like such a hypocrite by glossing over my own history like those times as a student (when I never dreamed I would evolve into a teacher) when I drunk so much I lost hours of an evening, or set my own hair alight waving a cigarette around, and so on.<br /><br />And yet when I was at school as a pupil, I remember well the two separate staffrooms: one which was safe to approach, and the other whose door resembled a dragon’s mouth with smoke curling round the edges as teachers chain-smoked their way through breaks. Even two years ago, before one of the most popular teachers I have ever known retired, the only complaint about him was from pupils whose books were returned to them reeking of smoke where they had sat in his study as he marked them, fag dangling from mouth. He’d even ignore the work-place smoking ban, and light up in his classroom as soon as the final bell went, and puff his way through staff meetings. How was that setting a good example?<br /><br />The other thing that springs to mind are those 80s songs like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJOLwy7un3U">Madness’s “Baggy Trousers”</a> </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> – “all the teachers in the pub, passing round the ready rub”… yep, these were the teachers of my youth, and from anecdotal evidence from those educated in the 1970s and 1980s at comprehensive schools, there are also many tales of violent ex-forces teachers, for example, who would threaten and abuse their pupils; I myself have witnessed a teacher pinning a boy against the wall by the scruff of his neck for what we now call “low-level disruption”.<br /><br />So in a way, I think it’s hypocritical to now expect teachers to be the bastions of civilization and morality in their own time, if it’s not affecting anyone else. It wasn’t such an imposition on teachers twenty or thirty years ago, so why now? So we can no longer smoke in the staffroom, and have a pint or two at lunchtime, and a good thing too in my opinion, but why extend restrictions on our personal lives beyond the school gate?<br /><br />However, that’s not to say I don’t think there should be guidance in place. It sends a shudder through me when I hear of my colleagues, mostly younger, who have <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a> pages and allow pupils to become their “friends”. I think if you are a teacher, and you have a personal Facebook page, then this should be absolutely private, and you shouldn’t allow access to pupils, and possibly their parents. There are so many people who don’t see anything wrong with allowing pupils into their social networks, so why do<strong> <em>I</em></strong> think it’s wrong? Well firstly, pupils are not our friends. There should always be some kind of professional distance between pupils and teachers, however friendly you are, or however many sports teams you take away on trips. If you erode that professional distance, then you open yourself up for all kinds of potential problems. My private life is just that. It’s why I write under a pseudonym. I would never want anything negative to reflect on my pupils, colleagues or school.<br /><br />What else? Well despite the way that previous generations have dealt with it, I don’t think that today’s teachers should drink alcohol or smoke in front of pupils. I know we’re only human, and that plenty of us do drink and smoke, but in the presence of pupils we are professionals, and should act accordingly. But in our own time, however, if we want to drink until we’re sick, then why not? As long as the pictures don’t get posted to Facebook where half the school can see them.<br /><br />And here’s where another argument comes in. Some believe that once you become a teacher, you are a role model and that label shouldn’t be taken off during evenings and weekends. And this is why I don’t like the label of “teacher”. If I go out for a few drinks with friends and start chatting to people, I don’t want them to know I’m a teacher, because at that moment in that pub, it doesn’t define me. I don’t want them thinking of their own children’s teacher when they hear me slurring my words after three pints of shandy. I don’t want them thinking how irresponsible I am to be doing what they too are doing in that pub at that moment.<br /><br />This reminds me of that frequent moment of surprise that young (and not so young!) children have when they see their teacher out of context, in a supermarket or the High Street. Children categorise their teachers as being that adult who they see at school, and often can’t imagine them elsewhere. I’ve even had 14 year olds go on for weeks in lessons about seeing me in the High Street, as if they can’t get over the surprise of one of their teachers being released from the school building for good behaviour, and actually having to buy groceries like a human being.<br /><br />And that’s fine with me. In school I am a teacher. I am a consummate professional, because not only do I get paid to be so, but I also believe that this is the best way to guide today’s youngsters to become tomorrow’s citizens. But away from the stressful classrooms and corridors, I feel I should be allowed to conduct my life as other adults do. As long as I’m not doing it in front of their pupils, or in the same pubs they’re drinking in, I don’t see the problem.<br /><br />Now there are many other arguments we could follow here. Should teachers be allowed to be members of the BNP? Should they be struck off for being caught drink driving or taking drugs? These are far more contentious, and perhaps for homework you could think about these issues for next lesson.<br /><br />As a post-script, if you do follow me on Twitter then you’ll know from my regular evening tweets that these arguments are mostly theoretical, and that a night out for me these days is as rare as a hen’s tooth. But it’s the principle of the thing!</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-13560083727968504962009-10-11T12:05:00.002+01:002009-10-11T12:10:41.968+01:00Slippery Ladders<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I wrote the following a little while back, in the immediate fall-out from a failed job interview. Of course, after the pain and frustration had subsided, I was reasonable enough to realise that, okay, maybe it was simply a case of somebody better than me getting the job each time. But I'm not going to edit what I wrote then, because it sums up how I was feeling, and still am to an extent. Here we go:</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I’ve got a problem. It’s making me really fed up, and I’m losing motivation. My problem is that I can’t seem to get a promotion. In the past year I’ve been for three promotions at different schools, and been interviewed for all of them. One of them was a small promotion and I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell up against the internal candidate. The other two were for bigger promotions and have concluded with feedback that it was between me and the candidate who was successful but that the other candidate had more experience in something or tackled an issue better than me or… whatever. Waffle all you like.<br /><br />But I’m getting worried. Because I hear of younger, less experienced people being given promotions or fast-tracked on special courses for those in the early years of their careers and I feel like I’ve missed the boat. Maybe I’ll never be given a chance. Maybe I’ll always be asked the same question: “So why now, when you’ve been teaching blah-de-blah?” With just that hint of suspicion as to my motives, trying to weed out some little secret that simply doesn’t exist.<br /><br />Well let me tell you why. I love classroom teaching: I love the banter with the pupils, I love helping them make progress, opening their eyes to new ideas, and I love that they make me open my eyes too. I love thinking on my feet, finding new ways to explain something in ten seconds flat for the one child that “doesn’t get it”, seeing children develop over the year, and making resources and lessons to move the learning on and engage the pupils. I’ve had different responsibilities in different roles, but to me that wasn’t the be all and end all of teaching. I was never upwardly mobile before because I had so many things I was enjoying, from trips to clubs and competitions: how would I get the chance to do all this if I was in charge and bogged down with paperwork and phone-calls, I used to think.<br /><br />But now I feel the time is right. I’ve stacked up enough experience in different roles to enable me to see that I could do a promoted job very well. I sometimes wish I was in charge because I can see a simple solution to something that others are not willing to try, or because I know that I could do it well – or better. I’m looking forward to five or ten years down the line and I can’t imagine staying in the role I’m currently in because I feel the need for a change and a challenge. I’m going stale and I feel the world moving on past me but the feeling is one of being trapped. I’m top of the pay scale and I want to try something new – so why won’t anybody give me a chance?<br /><br />So I really don’t know what to do next. There are only so many knock-backs I can take without feeling like a deflated balloon: no longer of use to anyone and hanging around in the corner long after the use-by date. If there’s no way I’m going to be given a chance to move on within teaching, then what should I do? I’m more than ready to move onwards and upwards, but if there are no opportunities for me, then maybe I should look in another direction. I just don’t know what or where.</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-31521074868486465072009-10-02T09:28:00.002+01:002009-10-02T09:43:05.139+01:00Twitter stole my blogging vibe!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Oh I have been quiet haven't it! I was sure I was going to have a summer off, not thinking about school, and that pretty much happened, which, as they say, was nice. There were also a thousand other things I wanted to do over the summer, but the best laid plans, as they also say... well, you know the rest. A wash-out of a summer, apart from those three days where I did manage to live the dream and read in the garden, but a break from the classroom whichever way you look at it.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But then there's the Twitter thing. I was going to be my usual aloof self but Twitter is a whole new way to connect with people on the i<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">nternet</span>. It's far more immediate than blogging like this, but as such, you probably end up revealing more about yourself. Which is a phenomenon which had me thinking about its uses in the classroom: how much more appealing to think you only have to type 140 characters instead of an essay! How great to have immediate feedback from others all round the world, and be able to join others in commenting on the news and random selection of "trending topics". What a relief to see your "tweets" slip off the bottom of the page after a few minutes, so you go more with ideas than first time perfection. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yep, I can see Twitter as a great educational accessory. I just wish the schools I know and indeed work in were far more geared up technologically to accommodate classes of students working with blogging tools like Twitter. I know it goes on in a number of classrooms across the world, because every now and again a teacher will ask fellow tweeters to say hi to their class or answer a question like how old you have to be to drive where you live. I'd love to work in a place where current technologies are used to inspire students but for the moment I shall have to wait until the infrastructure becomes available... or I find it somewhere!</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-71502067917057543382009-06-11T23:08:00.002+01:002009-06-11T23:11:50.972+01:00I think this must be a record<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Surely this is slightly ridiculous... I've just seen the first "back to school - buy new uniform" advert on TV. This is far, far worse than Easter eggs on Boxing Day.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-84266884139193558342009-06-11T22:39:00.003+01:002009-06-11T22:52:06.721+01:00Twibes<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">However twee all this Twitter language is, I'm enjoying tweeting about on Twitter (see - annoying and cloying all at once!) If you're on Twitter and are an educationalist or sympathiser, then do join the Tweecher twibe (I know, I know...). You will find it at: </span><a href="http://www.twibes.com/group/Tweechers"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">http://www.twibes.com/group/Tweechers</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's actually really inspiring to be in contact (via 140 character updates) with teachers who are so dedicated to putting ICT to fantastic use. And also hilarious to know that while I'm procrastinating over marking by arsing about online, there are others doing exactly the same. Plus there are journalists posting links to education-related news stories as they break. A fully rounded experience on a flat screen! </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I will post some of my tweets (arghh! the twerminology!) on here at some point soon, but until then, get on over there! </span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-71019590721169991482009-06-07T12:07:00.002+01:002009-06-07T12:15:02.578+01:00Foolish fools?<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I live in a shroud of paranoia. Don't get me wrong - I am very dedicated to being a good teacher because I believe educating our young citizens is one of the most important responsibilities in our society. But I do rant about the daily grind of what can be, at times, a difficult job - made even more difficult by poor attitudes, lack of resources and annoying colleagues and bosses. And at no point would I ever want to cause any embarrassment to those I work with.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So it's quite hard for me to get my head round the idiocy of two teachers recently who have made the news for their own brazenness.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The first is:</span><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8071857.stm"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">An English teacher at a West Yorkshire school has been dismissed for writing a book involving underage drinking, hints of drug use and "pupil fantasies".</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And the second is:</span><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2009/may/22/twitter-teacher-tweet"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Scottish teacher in trouble for tweeting about her pupils – and criticising the head</span></a>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-90147565119069682152009-06-07T11:12:00.003+01:002009-06-07T12:03:31.833+01:00Ranting Student<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I had this comment on my last post and I think it deserves an entry of its own.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Hate to say it, but I as a student completely disagree with what your saying.<br />Yes students misbehave, yes we talk alot.But have you ever thought that maybe<br />your teaching isnt up to scratch?? We talk cause thats all we have to do,<br />otherwise we are stuck listening to you whine on about how you can't teach<br />(which just so happens is true most cases than not)so really.. shove all your<br />complaints up your arse and STFU.You have been here before so give us some<br />slack, we do more work than you think.good day.</span></blockquote><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So let's look at this in detail...</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In a way, you've got to feel some pity for this student. The anger, the frustration - even if we haven't all felt such vehement passions as teenagers, we can recognise that being a teenager isn't easy.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But on the other hand, maybe this poster is just a rude and ignorant pest. Let's look at the evidence. Not the highest achiever in the class, I'll bet. My mind's eye's red pen hovers over about 7 errors, some of which may well be a result of the medium of communication, but others are errors which shouldn't be typed in the first place: <em><strong>your</strong> saying / <strong>alot</strong></em>... But what I see as a desirable correct use of our written language, others will dismiss as pedantry, so let's move on. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We talk cause thats all we have to do, otherwise we are stuck listening to you whine on about how you can't teach </span></blockquote></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Does any teacher seriously stand there and whine to the class that they can't teach? If so, then they probably deserve being put out to pasture. Or does this poster actually mean those times when a teacher is faced with such a class full of ignorance and rudeness that they stand there and tell the class they are finding it impossible to try to teach them? I know I've said something to a class who won't shut up before. I've told them straight that it's impossible to learn if you don't take part in the two-way process of teaching and learning. But that is when I've prepared a lesson for the class and they have just ignored whatever is in front of them in order to carry on their own conversations. So in my mind, the talking comes before the teacher frustration - and is the cause of teacher frustration.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Yes students misbehave, yes we talk alot.But have you ever thought that maybe your teaching isnt up to scratch?? </span></blockquote></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">It's a fair point that there are some people out there who are teaching without much of a clue. I've observed lessons by student teachers and experienced colleagues alike where the pace of the lesson is so slack that once pupils finish their task there is nothing else for them to do for a good few minutes, and they start poking each other, throwing paper, chatting, etc. That is a sign of poor teaching. But I'm aware of that, and I plan my lessons to avoid this kind of thing. And my despair often arises from when I've planned an interesting and resource-filled lesson but it doesn't even get off the ground because of the poor behaviour of students from the moment the lesson starts. It is so frustrating. And it always makes me feel utterly sorry for those students who are keen to learn but who are constantly interrupted by the chatting and silliness of those around them.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">shove all your complaints up your arse and STFU</span></blockquote></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Hmmm, here's where your arguments fall down, ranting student. This sums up the rudeness and lack of respect that many of today's teenagers feel they have the right to display in class. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">You have been here before so give us some slack,</span></blockquote></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yes, I was a teenager, but no, I have never been in that completely self-obsessed mindset that screams "me me me" and wants to be entertained rather than taught. We had our chats and our silliness, but we knew when to buckle down and listen to the teacher. And if I think about why we did that, it was mostly because of fear. We feared the consequences of bad behaviour - the threat of detention or a talk from the deputy head. We feared our parents being told that we had mis-behaved and their subsequent shame and our subsequent bollockings. And we feared that if we didn't learn then we wouldn't pass our exams and couldn't go to university or get good jobs. At times it seemed oppressive and of course led to rebellion in small subversive ways by many, and in bigger ways by a few, but that fear of failure is missing from many of today's pupils. Parents see schools as the enemy and take their children's side in disputes over detentions. Mediocre students know they can scrape the grades to get into university to do mediocre courses. Students feel untouchable because they see outlets for their lack of talent in the pipe dreams of reality TV if they fail at school; after all, haven't we celebrated and excused the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7sqAIPR50c">ignorance of characters like St Jade of Goody</a>?</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So, Ranting Student, thanks for your comment and insight into the mind of today's teen. </span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-22040261811779809282009-05-27T10:28:00.003+01:002009-05-27T10:51:33.188+01:00Muppet surprises<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">My year 11 teaching group were a mixed bunch: some lovely, some lively, some lazy, and some who made me livid. But in their en masse state, I'd been counting down the days to their study leave since before Christmas. There are two who I would miss, if I was inclined to do such a thing, because they have made me laugh until my sides have ached - usually unintentionally - and want to do well. But at least half of the rest make me want to turn on my heel and slam the door behind me, tell them to go and screw themselves, and hope they fail their GCSEs, because in our last couple of weeks most of them didn't seem to give a tuppeny toss about their impending exams. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In our last lesson I was trying to give them vital exam tips but only a handful were bothering to scribble notes and listen. I have, of course, been giving them vital exam tips all year, but they've had no sense of urgency so it all has to be reiterated. I had to send a couple of them out of the lesson for their rude and inappropriate behaviour. They seem to forget they have to come back for their exams, and therefore see no consequences for being complete muppets in their last few weeks.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But then one of those who I sent out made a surprise reappearance last week just after one of his exams. He sloped up to my room with another ne-er-do-well, both of them clutching sixth form prospectuses. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"Sixth form?" I spluttered. "I thought you wanted to do an apprenticeship?"</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"Nah, I wanna go sixth form," was the reply. "I'm gonna miss school. I wanna stay on."</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I barely disguised my sharp intake of breath and raised eyebrows.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"Do you think I can do (your subject) in sixth form?" This time his question made me laugh out loud.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">"Oh, you're serious? Um, well, let's see how you do in your GCSEs..." was my pragmatic reply. Because what I was really thinking was, "Please, no oh no oh no!" But I knew the school's response would be: "Fabulous! Another head to count towards funding. Let him do whatever he wants, and we'll even give him a special chair in the sixth form common room, right next to the pool table and within a cue's jab of the fridge"...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-24928753874197540922009-05-08T19:33:00.002+01:002009-05-08T19:35:39.776+01:00Twitter<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Just because everyone is twittering on about it, Ranting Teacher has signed up to </span><a href="http://twitter.com/rantingteacher"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">twitter</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. I may well get bored of it soon, but it seems a mindless way to spend a Friday evening...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-82051447658014002652009-05-08T18:01:00.001+01:002009-05-08T18:03:26.604+01:00Cracks<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Around this time last year I’d had my interview for my current job and had started to clear out years’ worth of rubbish from my classroom cupboard at the old place. I didn’t know that much about the new place, but it had seemed quite shiny and new. And the head teacher seemed cut from a different cloth to my previous boss.<br /><br />But two terms in and I’m starting to see the cracks beneath the gloss. I’ve been party to snide comments from one staff member about another’s handling of a situation. I’ve been told that it’s no surprise that some kids are allowed to get away with bad behaviour when the management turn a blind eye to it. But this seems to be the norm for most schools: certain misdemeanours are overlooked to avoid any fuss/ paperwork/ visits from angry parents. And the bad behaviour continues.<br /><br />At one school I worked in, the head teacher would come down on badly behaved pupils like a ton of bricks. The school was even singled out in the local press for by far the highest amount of fixed term exclusions in the area. Their spin was that we had a school full of ne’er-do-wells and a rampant drug problem, whereas we knew that most schools experienced similar problems but preferred to brush them under the carpet. At that school members of senior management spent their lunchtimes patrolling the grounds and keeping the smokers on their toes; at my current school I can see where the smokers gather each lunchtime from my window, and nobody seems bothered.<br /><br />One time this previous head teacher suspended a boy who had threatened firstly a younger pupil, then the head teacher, with a broken glass bottle. How was this suspension not the right thing to do? But the governing body over-ruled the head teacher and the boy was allowed to return to lessons. And so, as a staff, we made the decision that none of us would teach this boy because of the severity of what he had done, and we would even walk out in support of the head teacher. The governors backed down and the boy was eventually found a place in another school, meaning that the child he had threatened would not have to worry about a retaliation attack.<br /><br />In my last school, if a pupil swore at a teacher, and not just simply in front of them, it meant exclusion. But over the last couple of weeks I have heard all kinds of insulting language being bandied about, and had to report a couple of incidents to be taken up further. The only consequence for the offending pupils is to be placed on report, which is almost like a badge of (dis)honour for many of them. I find refuge in the “nice classes” and pity the poor children who happen to hear such foulness and altercations from a minority of kids who need taking in hand and showing that their actions will have real consequences.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-55699545276271303442009-05-06T22:22:00.003+01:002009-05-06T22:29:07.990+01:0010 O'Clock News of Eff-Off!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I've just been watching the <em>10 O'Clock News</em>. I think it's quite an achievement that I've stayed up this late. But now I'm thinking I should give it up - after trying to calm down for the last couple of hours after a manic day of heavy horribleness all round, I've just heard something that has made me panic to the point of needing more beer. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It seems that the latest news is that we will be expected to work until we're 70 to help pay off the national debt, accrued if I recall (and yes, I do) by greedy bankers. Those greedy bankers who have recently lost their jobs and are now looking to teacher training as a new career path. Hey, I have an idea... all those responsible for getting us into this financial mess, why don't YOU work until you're 70, because I'm not sure I could keep going for even the next decade let alone any longer...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-90596423376013540062009-05-04T22:03:00.002+01:002009-05-04T22:11:27.637+01:00Pandemic panic<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's been a lovely long weekend, in spite of the typical bank holiday grey gloom today, and a well deserved rest - after all, it's been a good two weeks since the last holidays. And still three weeks until the next break. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So you can understand why, when I sit here watching the 10 O'clock News and there's mention of schools closing because of this swine flu panic, my ears prick up and I rack my brains to think of any kids I teach who have just been on exotic holidays. Now it seems that this flu isn't as serious as first thought, wouldn't just a hint of it be a great excuse to "work from home" instead of going into work tomorrow? I have been sneezing quite a bit today, and confined myself to the house, eating chocolate to keep my strength up, and keeping my pyjamas on in case I've needed to take to my bed all of a sudden.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Oh, and a day off would give me the chance to catch up with all the marking I should've done today...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-84738922156229359142009-05-04T15:20:00.003+01:002009-05-04T15:42:30.300+01:00May Day<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Happy May Day! There's no dancing round maypoles for me today, but instead I've been ploughing through the monotonous application forms for new jobs in a last ditch attempt to find something more lucrative for the new academic year. The end of May is the deadline for handing in notices of resignation in order to start a new job in September, and suddenly there has been a flurry of adverts in the educational press for roles that would pay me more money and probably give me bigger headaches. So I've saved up the little hillock of brown envelopes containing glossy prospectuses and reams of exam results and statistics for today. And now my teacher reference number is burnt into my retinas, and I have managed to rewrite some old application letters to fit newish criteria, only to find that my printer has run out of ink and I have no "large letter" stamps. I sound like an excuse letter from a parent for a child having not done their homework.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">I have, however, assembled my applications into an order of preference, based on the following all-important criteria:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">1. How far away the school is. Too close and going to the pub in the future will become fraught with dangers like </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">bumping into sixth formers when off duty; too far and the future increase in diesel prices will render any increased salary worthless. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">2. What time the school day ends. 3.05 is in the lead so far, followed by 3.20. Anything beyond 4pm is just ridiculous - add a 2 hour meeting onto that time and you might as well have a regular job.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">3. The school uniform. Enforcing rules about doing ties up properly is just so tiresome. Dealing with polo shirts and sweatshirts is so much more simple.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">4. Exam results. There's a happy medium to aim for here: too high and the pressure to get good results year upon year becomes untenable. Too low and the school will probably be a nightmare to teach in.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">5. Inspection reports. Firstly, more points for those schools inspected within the last year - it means I wouldn't be walking straight into an atmosphere of paranoia and pre-inspection panic. But why is it that so many of these schools have negative comments about "small pockets of disruptive behaviour", "sub-standard accommodation", and "long-term staff absences"? It's a poor school that can't whitewash these things for Ofsted.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So there we go. Bank Holiday Monday is half-way through and I've not yet turned to the piles of marking I have to do for my current job. I've eaten too much chocolate to numb the pain of writing out the last five years' worth of training courses I've been on (who remembers that stuff? - and who checks?) and I've still got to visit relatives with my USB drive, a cheeky smile and a request to use their printer. I just hope it's all worth it...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-71626937798543731752009-04-13T21:35:00.002+01:002009-04-13T22:32:43.620+01:00Teachers demand pay increase<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'd been waiting for some official news on this after I'd heard whispers earlier today. The BBC (amongst others) reports that the </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7996920.stm"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">National Union of Teachers is demanding a pay increase for teachers</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. Now you will have your own opinion on this, and I wouldn't have even commented on this EXCEPT that the report on the BBC site just made me feel a little bit angry. Okay, quite a lot. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">And it was this section in particular:</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Responding to the conference decisions England's Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry said: "Teachers pay and conditions have never been better.<br />"We have increased their pay by 19% in real terms since 1998 which means the average teacher is on nearly £33,000," she claimed.<br />"We have also cut teachers' working hours, dramatically reduced the amount of administrative tasks they are expected to do, doubled the number of support staff and given them time outside of the classroom to plan and prepare lessons." </span><br /></blockquote></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Right then, that's take a look at that.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">1. <em>Teachers pay and conditions have never been better</em> - ignoring the lack of apostrophe for the meaning beneath, I beg to differ. I find my conditions quite deplorable at times. I'm sure you've probably noticed my discontent if you have followed this blog, for example. Poor buildings may be nothing new, but I'm sure when first constructed in the 1960s, many buildings were actually better than they are now. And the conditions? Well, knowing that I'm virtually powerless to stop children bringing in pornography and other 18-rated / illegal content on their mobile phones, or to enforce rules about attending detentions when parents dispute my professional judgement - no, to me these things do not make my working conditions better than they have been in the past.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">2. <em>the average teacher is on nearly £33,000</em> - firstly, what does "average teacher" mean? Outside of London, a salary of £33,000 is available to those who have gone "through the threshold" onto the second of the higher pay scales, which takes about a decade to achieve. "Average" therefore probably means taking into account those with management responsibilities plus those with the higher London wages. Secondly, how does this compare with other professionals such as solicitors, police officers, medical practitioners?</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Well done Bradford teacher Ian Murch, who said:</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"We take no lessons in morality from government ministers, who fit out their homes with stone sinks from Habitat on their expenses, who pay their husbands more than a teacher earns to be their personal assistants and who don't appear to engage in even a hint of performance management of what they get up to.''</span> </span></blockquote></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">3. <em>We have also cut teachers' working hours, dramatically reduced the amount of administrative tasks they are expected to do</em> - Ah yes, about that Teachers' Workload Agreement. Looks all fancy on paper doesn't it. We no longer have to collect money for field trips and other little jobs like that. But the amount of other paperwork has increased because we now have to juggle targets and statistics and prove we are accountable. To proceed to the upper pay scale, which allows access to the "average wages" bandied about earlier, we have to spend hour upon hour compiling folders full of evidence that we can teach, that we have attended courses, that we can number crunch targets and show all kinds of stuff to nobody in particular. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Put it this way: in years gone by, May to July were the best months to be in school. Years 11 and 13 disappeared on study leave and the remainder of the school became a more relaxed place. A few more free lessons to mark internal exams or create new resources ready for the new school year; end of term activities to chill out to; taking classes out into the open balmy air to read poetry under trees or collect water samples from the streams. But now there never seems to be any let-up. Children are often too unruly to take outside for lessons; budgetary constraints mean that timetables are reshuffled the minute exam classes leave so that you end up teaching random lessons in subjects you really don't have much idea about; and end of term activities are vetoed because the associated risk assessments are just too complicated.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So all in all, teaching today is more demanding and stressful than it ever was. Perhaps England's Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry should come and enjoy the ambiance of the average classroom and staffroom before making such paper-based judgements. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_McCarthy-Fry">Looking at her background</a>, it would seem that Ms McCarthy-Fry has had pretty much no experience of schools since her own education quite some number of years ago. She's worked for a multi-national defence engineering company and is now a chartered accountant, and <a href="http://www.sarahmccarthy-fry.com/biography">even her own website</a> states that: "Her main political interests are trade and industry, defence and the social economy." She's been the Schools Minister for precisely six months and eight days. So I really don't give much weight to her opinion at all. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">But the thing is, people are going to believe what this politician says, because it's a convenient thing to believe, that "we've never had it so good", when it's all such a load of hogwash. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">By the way, in the year 2007/2008, Sarah McCarthy-Fry claimed £144,498 in expenses. I was not able to claim any for all the printing I did at home, my travel expenses to and from school, washing off the dirty fingerprints from my car where little scrotes had messed around it during lunchtimes, the books I bought because my department's collection was sadly lacking, the electricity and home internet connection I needed to use to do my lesson preparation, and so on. Lucky MPs... just think of the holidays...</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-77137166540486453682009-04-13T12:34:00.002+01:002009-04-13T12:39:34.973+01:00Crackpots?<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The General Teaching Council, which snatches a chunk of our wages once a year to produce a rubbish magazine and tell us how we should be leading our lives, is mostly in the news for getting teachers kicked out of the profession for getting drunk on a Saturday night or nicking pens from the stationery cupboard.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But apparently, while a few pints (of wine) at the weekend is a no-no, hard drugs are perfectly fine...</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6011558&navcode=94"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Teacher in nightclub crack arrest goes unpunished by GTC</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">A science teacher arrested for possessing crack cocaine has escaped without punishment from England’s General Teaching Council.<br />Michael Swann, who teaches at Maltby Community School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct. But he avoided any further disciplinary action after he was praised by his headteacher for being a role model for pupils.<br />The judgment follows complaints from some teachers that the GTC - which is preparing to unveil a new code of conduct - has become too intrusive when dealing with teachers’ private lives. The number of tribunals involving out-of-school offences has soared in recent years.</span></blockquote></span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-537906746284475862009-04-13T10:20:00.002+01:002009-04-13T10:35:12.241+01:00Retrospective<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yesterday I was thinking back to when I first started writing as "Ranting Teacher". It started me thinking about some of the real characters I've taught over the years, and the clever - or downright bizarre - things that children have come out with. Now don't worry, I'm not about to do a "children say the funniest things" post, because most of the time they are situation comedies - you have to have been there at the time for it to retain a modicum of humour.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But it did remind me of something that happens to me every now and again. This year, being in a new school with rivers of mostly new faces coursing through the corridors, a weird sensation has occurred a few times. For a moment, I think I spot a face I recognise: a pleasant girl from my form group, or the witty boy from my Year 10 class, or a girl who made me a present after a school trip. But then the child turns around and I realise it's not them at all, and I also realise that it couldn't possibly be that pupil because they were in my old school not my new one. And I suddenly realise how much I miss certain pupils and other things of my last school.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Because the reason new schools can be so tough and dis-heartening is that you haven't yet built up sufficient relationships with the children that you teach. They still try to find your weaknesses and suss you out. But already some kinds of attachments are being formed. One of my classes, who drive me round the bend with their inability to concentrate and their random interruptions, are already asking me if I will be teaching them next year. Now I'm not that naive that I see this as flattery; instead I see it as a case of "better the devil you know", but what it has shown me is that they are starting to see me as a piece of the furniture, which is a positive thing unless they start etching in their initials and sticking chewed gum on me somewhere.</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-63651899966166060642009-04-12T08:51:00.003+01:002009-04-12T09:09:39.106+01:00Six years of moaning online!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's Easter Sunday. It's the 12th of April. And it's exactly six years since I posted my first whinge about teaching. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Back then, blogging was a word I was yet to hear, but I did have my own website which I painstakingly updated with shoddy html at irregular intervals. The website is still out there somewhere, although currently lurking and inaccessible while it has a spring clean. Since then, teacher blogs have sprung up all over the place - lots of them for the power of good: sharing useful ideas and analysing current education issues. This one, however, has been mostly about the moaning!</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">The second edition of my book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-Survive-Teaching-Practical-Guides/dp/0826493335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239523055&sr=8-1">Everything you need to know to survive teaching </a>was published last month, which is a little more positive than this website, in that I do have a good old whinge about stuff, but there are also tips on how to try to minimise the annoyances and traumas of the job. In fact, I was having a flick through it myself the other day to remind myself of some strategies that get filed away somewhere in my mind, before metaphorical boxes of other stuff get dumped on top of them, obscuring them temporarily. It's like going on these courses which teach your grandmother to suck eggs, and realising that in the business of everyday survival you'd forgotten you even had a grandmother. Or what an egg looked like. Or something.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">So there you are. Happy blogging birthday to me! When I started writing this, the Year 13s at my last school were in Year 7. The Year 11s have graduated from university, and/or had babies (in fact, one of them brought in her baby to show me a few months after her GCSEs), and/or have moved on and forgotten all about school. I have had a few interviews, got a new teaching job, and am still desperately looking round for something else to do instead. But until then, I'll keep ranting - it's so much cheaper than therapy.</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-19397119932434761632009-04-06T01:35:00.003+01:002009-04-06T01:40:26.331+01:00Just think of the holidays<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"Just think of the holidays," is a phrase I hear far too frequently when I'm sighing over my job. But now it is the Easter holiday period, and I find myself thinking of school - hard to avoid when I have boxes of books needing marking in most rooms of the house. This evening I have decided to be a rebel. Even though it's incredibly late (for me) on a Sunday night (Monday morning), I am forcing myself to stay up late, because it's what I always want to do during term time. Except all these great TV programmes that seem to be on late at night are in hiding and I've had to resort to rolling news reports to keep me going. Ah well, bed time then.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">Gah.</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5937205822682397549.post-9557296937850957452009-03-27T19:42:00.002+00:002009-03-27T19:45:36.468+00:00Boozers 2<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">A couple of weeks ago I blogged about <a href="http://rantingteacheruk.blogspot.com/2009/03/boozers.html">schoolkids drinking alcohol</a>. This is just to draw your attention to an article published on the BBC's website yesterday: </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7965675.stm"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">UK youths among worst for drink</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.</span>Ranting Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511994675532378693noreply@blogger.com0