The week before autumn half term and a week off, I had parent-teacher conferences. They were scheduled for two different days after the school day, which at my school ends at 3pm, with appointments from 3:10 until 6:30! Coming from a California school where I was used to having four days of parent-teacher conferences with school ending early at 12:45 to allow teachers to have as many of them as possible during contract hours, this was a bit of a shock and it was exhausting to teach all day and then have 3 hours of parent meetings, with 31 scheduled between two evenings! Chris's school had all of them in one evening after school!
The required work load outside of "contract hours" has been one of the biggest changes for me teaching here, and I have found it really challenging and draining. In my previous school in California, every Wednesday the students finished school at 12:45 so that teachers could have a staff meeting or planning time together. This is a common practice throughout all elementary, middle, and high schools in California, with school either ending early or starting late. I don't think that's a common practice here, and staff meetings at my current school happen every Wednesday after school from 3:15 until 4:30ish, sometimes 4:45, sometimes 5:00 pm. There isn't an official end time, and every teacher stays until the head teacher stops talking. Each year group has weekly Planing Preparation Assessment (PPA) time, so every Wednesday my students have different teachers in the afternoon so that I can meet with the other teachers in my year group. But to be honest, my team's time is most often interrupted by the assistant head teacher overseeing our planning and giving us more things to do!
I see a tremendous difference in workload for teachers. I worked really hard while I was teaching in California, but I controlled a lot of the workload I was doing based on what I felt like I needed to do for my students. Currently, I'm constantly told I need to do x, y, and z and not given the time to do it, so it's done outside of "contract hours." My school also has a completely insane number of extra activities going on during and after school!
I think one of the main reasons for this difference is the level of power of the teacher unions. The teacher unions in California are really politically strong, with school districts also having a teacher union that falls under the state, and then having union representatives at each school site. Here in England, there are more teacher unions so they are less strong, teachers at schools can belong to different unions, and there are not representatives at the school level. In California, the unions are constantly fighting for better working conditions for teachers, which results in stricter regulation of contract hours, compensation for duties outside of the contract, higher pay, etc.
I've realized I should have been more grateful for the teacher union I was part of and all the work that went into protecting my professional and personal life while teaching in California! if teachers aren't protected, it leads to high burnout, stress, mental health problems, teacher turn-over, and teachers leaving the profession all together and this is an ever increasing problem here, as well as in the US.
The required work load outside of "contract hours" has been one of the biggest changes for me teaching here, and I have found it really challenging and draining. In my previous school in California, every Wednesday the students finished school at 12:45 so that teachers could have a staff meeting or planning time together. This is a common practice throughout all elementary, middle, and high schools in California, with school either ending early or starting late. I don't think that's a common practice here, and staff meetings at my current school happen every Wednesday after school from 3:15 until 4:30ish, sometimes 4:45, sometimes 5:00 pm. There isn't an official end time, and every teacher stays until the head teacher stops talking. Each year group has weekly Planing Preparation Assessment (PPA) time, so every Wednesday my students have different teachers in the afternoon so that I can meet with the other teachers in my year group. But to be honest, my team's time is most often interrupted by the assistant head teacher overseeing our planning and giving us more things to do!
I see a tremendous difference in workload for teachers. I worked really hard while I was teaching in California, but I controlled a lot of the workload I was doing based on what I felt like I needed to do for my students. Currently, I'm constantly told I need to do x, y, and z and not given the time to do it, so it's done outside of "contract hours." My school also has a completely insane number of extra activities going on during and after school!
I think one of the main reasons for this difference is the level of power of the teacher unions. The teacher unions in California are really politically strong, with school districts also having a teacher union that falls under the state, and then having union representatives at each school site. Here in England, there are more teacher unions so they are less strong, teachers at schools can belong to different unions, and there are not representatives at the school level. In California, the unions are constantly fighting for better working conditions for teachers, which results in stricter regulation of contract hours, compensation for duties outside of the contract, higher pay, etc.
I've realized I should have been more grateful for the teacher union I was part of and all the work that went into protecting my professional and personal life while teaching in California! if teachers aren't protected, it leads to high burnout, stress, mental health problems, teacher turn-over, and teachers leaving the profession all together and this is an ever increasing problem here, as well as in the US.
Comments
Post a Comment