I like teaching. I can do it. I'm not going to give up. However, I quit my job at the school and will never go back there again. This is hatred! And I'll tell you why, informs Ukr.Media.
Time
A teacher works 18 hours. Apart from the hours the teacher spends at the blackboard, it is not known how much time the teacher actually works. No one cares, and no one takes into account this extra time, except for substitutes, no one pays him for overtime.
If he is also satisfied with his upbringing, he may feel like he has 24/7 psychological and organizational emergency help.
Bureaucracy
The amount of paperwork a teacher has to prepare is staggering. While it’s not surprising that you need to provide a curriculum vitae (a plan of what and when you will teach for each class) or a professional development plan, I was surprised by other things.
Of course, a lot depends on the school, but…
Imagine that you want to make classes more attractive for students and you take them to workshops, say, at a community center. Of course, you need to make a list of participants – there is nothing strange in this. You need to make an itinerary for the trip (even if it is a two-hour trip) and it must correspond to the curriculum or educational program. In addition, you need to get parental consent for the trip. And pay attention – the set of documents must be delivered to the management a week (or two) before the planned departure. Then get permission from the school principal, and that's it, you can go with the students for an hour to see an exhibition of photographs from France. Honestly, I don't feel like doing anything – just preparing the package of documents takes several days.
I could endlessly multiply examples: plans, reports, protocols, notes, signatures, dates… Documentation is the most important thing.
Theater of the Absurd
The above point is enough to justify the fact that this job is simply absurd. And I'm sorry to say it, but it doesn't look like it's going to get any better. In schools, the idea is that the student and his safety come first. I say theoretically, because let's take a prosaic situation: the need to go to the toilet. Of course, the student, teachers, have no physiological needs. So the child asks if he can go to the toilet. And you have an amazing dilemma: let him go and risk something happening to him (you can't take your eyes off the student), or don't let him go and prevent him from satisfying a basic need.
And here we have again a ridiculous mismatch of expectations, because: students should not be overly stressed, but they should be expected to produce results. They need to teach correctly, but you can’t neglect the implementation of the program. That is, if students don’t understand something, you can’t spend several lessons explaining it, because you will miss the program (and be responsible for it). The student comes first, but only in an ideal school.
Atmosphere
I was lucky to find wise leadership and excellent teaching staff. But even there the atmosphere was often nervous. Constant rush, unexpected substitutions, poor information flow, documentation “for yesterday”, broken copier, queues for computers, etc.
Improvement
A teacher is obliged to improve and improve his workplace. In school, the main thing is that there is a piece of paper for everything. A certificate, a diploma, a certificate. It does not always matter whether you really learned something at the training.
As a foreign language teacher, I learn the most from scientific publications. I visit blogs, fan pages, read articles. That's where I find ideas for non-standard lessons, innovative ways of teaching, memorizing… But, unfortunately, bloggers don't issue certificates, so this is not a form of improvement.
In order to show that I was really improving my skills, I had to go through several “certified” trainings. At the same time, on average, in 1/5 of them I learned something new, in 1/5 I heard about something I had known for several years, and the remaining 3/5 were completely useless.
Fatigue
I believe that a teacher should approach a lesson with maximum energy. To focus students' attention, convey knowledge, and arouse interest, he must infect them with his energy and enthusiasm. Young people feel this.
It is physically and mentally exhausting work, but very rewarding.
Unfortunately, it's hard to maintain a high energy level when you have 6 lessons in a row and only one break in between. It often happens that the teacher, entering the classroom, just wants to sit down and relax a bit. Then it's hard to talk about a good lesson.
Expectation
A teacher has to meet the expectations of the school principal, students, and parents. This is hard to accept. Students want lessons to be interesting, enjoyable, and effective. It is not true that students do not want to learn. They usually do, but they never want to be bored in class. Well, my expectations match.
The parent side is a little different. Most often they would like their child to have a traditional notebook entry and instant feedback on their child's progress (or lack thereof). I would like that too, but unfortunately, if you teach several classes, you simply don't have time to keep parents informed of any problems (or successes).
On the other hand, management expects you to ensure that children are educated, parents are satisfied, exams are passed well, and documentation is updated on an ongoing basis.
Money
Considering a 40-hour work week, school doesn't pay that much. The thing is, these salaries don't even match the responsibility, education, time, and effort put into the job. In my opinion, the pressure of expectations and time is not even compensated by paid vacations.
I have worked in several schools, and my impressions are the sum of experiences from different places. I have resigned from my job at the school, but I am not going to quit teaching altogether. I am also sure that I do not want to be a bureaucrat, and unfortunately, the role of a teacher is increasingly reduced to this.
