Stuck run

[Clur]

I've had a few weeks off work to look after my elderly, not in the best of health, grandparents and to spend some time with my family. I've worked harder over these weeks than I have done in all my time in paid employment, going to bed knackered but fulfilled.

 

I am back to work tomorrow after waving my grandparents off a little earlier today and am dreading it. I soooo want to be at home with my family and have done for a long time, but knowing that financially it's impossible. So, nose back to the other grindstone, and boy am I not a happy bunny.

 

How do you get over your Monday/post-holiday grumps? I am thinking hot bath and a couple of glasses of wine before getting an early night in and dreaming about winning the lottery!

[jess]

I don't know but I am currently experiencing the same feeling so I'll be watching this topic too

[Janty]

I'm the same, I'm afraid.

 

New initiatives at school that take my time away from the important things.

 

[Couperwife]

I am very good at wishing the time away

 

if you work out how many hours you have left before the weekend, you can offer to do them all together and get the week over really quickly.

 

so it goes like this....

 

the time table at school is 5 hours of lessons a day for 5 days.

thats 25 hours, right?

so If I teach from now until the 25 hours are up, then the weekend starts at, hold on...

 

 

 

18:31 tomorrow (monday)

 

woooo, hoooo, the weekend is here.

 

 

 

unfortunately, senior management at school doesnt think its practical, but they do think its funny

 

it also makes most people laugh (and they come to me for a bit of light relief and a half term count down )

 

does this help??? I hope so (at least it made you smile?)

 

cathy

x

[Janty]

Thanks.

 

I used to love teaching...still love t e a c h i n g!

 

What I don't like is the paperwork that goes with it. Can I ask fellow teachers some questions to ascertain whether I just need to find a new teaching job rather than a new career...

 

In our school we have to e-mail senior management all homework for the week with sheets where applicable by Monday morning for them to be published on the website. If throughout the week it becomes evident that the children haven't got far enough with the work and we have to change what we set for homework, we have to e-mail new homeworks, etc. for the website.

 

Is this normal now?

 

We also have to re-do all our lesson planning onto set sheets, photocopy them in triplicate and hand them in to our various line managers for filing.

 

Is this normal now?

 

We are also expected as part of performance management to join extra committees that specialise in various aspects of school life. Not a problem as such for me as I voluntarily joined three anyway but this has been 'a straw' for some people.

 

is this normal now?

 

Now don't get me wrong. I am not complaining about having to plan my lessons and homework. I have never, ever gone into a lesson without planning it. It's just the re-doing on the set sheets just for the sake of it, the extra photocopying, the time it takes to transfer data, etc.

 

What really gets me is that lots of time used to be spent making lessons fun to be in. Today has mainly been spent with paperwork all over the table, printing materials to be handed in and stapling it all together. I never needed to print when it was just for me.

 

Sorry for the moan. I never ever wanted to be a moaning teacher.

 

[Guest]

The homework thing sounds a bit much.

 

I'm supposed to do lesson plans for every lesson but most of my are doing coursework so the plans are rather thin as of course we want to encourage the little darlings to work independently at their own speed.....providing they meet the deadlines......

 

One week into the new job and he is pushing a number of things in my direction - some I will do some I wont. He already mentioned "the girls thing" and there is NO WAY I@m running that again - I hate teaching girls on their own, even voluntarily in an after school club. Also I'm not doing after school clubs, I want to pick James up twice a week and spend time with him on other days - I can do planning and preparation after he is in bed and then for large chunks of the year the "club" I end up running is coursework catch up for the lazy so and so's who do naff all in class. Even then I prefer to run THAT club for an hour BEFORE school - I'm always there so I don't see why the kids shouldn't be.

 

They can like it or lump it - I'm good at my job, the kids love me and I get excellent results. If they want computer clubs for girls to be run then the NQT can do it, she's young, keen and doesn't know any better!

[Olly]

Blimey, this is turning into a teachers thread!

 

Re Pre-Monday Glums - I wish I knew the answer, Clur. I think hot bath and glass of wine are good; I always feel better if I'm got a lot of jobs done at the weekend, hate going back to work and still having ironing and washing hanging around.

 

I like something soothing on TV - costume drama preferably, but if there's nothing on then I'll watch a DVD instead. An early night and something good to read helps, too. It's worse when you've been off for more than a few days - I know perfectly well that by lunchtime tomorrow I'll be joking with my colleages and back into the rut, it's just that Sunday night feels like the last taste of freedom.

[Tessa the Duchess]

The weird thing is that although I've been retired now for nearly three years, I still feel that "Yippee it's the weekend" on a Friday afternoon and usually feel depressed on a Sunday night I guess after working for 40 years old habits die hard.

 

Tessa

[KimmyCustard]

I know exactly what you mean!

 

I am into my tenth week this week after having a full hysterectomy on the 7th July. I'm 39 and have no children so there is just me (and OH) to look after. Hence the desire for chooks! However....... I will HAVE to go back to work (I think in Oct), after having this freedom, I would love to go part time but the mortgage and holidays we have just wont let me! I really like my job (lucky there) but I do wish I could spend my time doing some drawing (which Im awful at), looking after chooks (yet to find out!), fostering cats (Mum volunteers for the Cats Protection League) and generally cooking and planting things that wont die!

 

Wine always assists in these matters and a large bar of Cadburys........

 

Kimmy

x

[alih]

not a teacher but always have to work on a Sunday night - and I still delay as much as possible every week - as I am now - whilst trying to instill in my children a "don't leave it till the last minute" ethos..hmmmmm but I feel sick at the thought of work tomorrow. Can't have too much wine as it will confuse my poor brain, but otherwise that would definitely be my denial drug of choice!

[Chicken Licken]

Janty, it sounds rubbish but I think it's the way teaching is heading. I have to be seen to participate in a host of activities to be allowed to progress to UPS 3 and prove that I meet all the P standards in oh so much detail - the paper trail is ridiculous. SMT make me and the rest of the department feel worthless and without value and we have only been back at school for 4 days Aaaaaagh.

 

There is only 1 solution....CHOCOLATE

[Chicken Licken]

My OH says the monday dread can be timed perfectly with the music for Antiques Roadshow... spot on tonight!!

[Plum]

Hey Cathy,

by your reasoning the weekend is over by Wednesday and you have to go through monday morning feeling twice a week.

[Jules.]

It's never easy going back to work after either the weekend or an extended holiday.

I find that the thought of work is much worse than actually being there- I do like my job, & I have to work for us to survive, never mind paying for holidays, Omlet cubes etc ( we do holiday though )!

I had most of my holidays from work in the summer, & am not off now until Christmas week

 

I bet when you have been at work an hour its like you have never been away.

[AnnieP]

Oh dear. I love my job. despite the paperwork and new initiatives that are always plopping onto our laps. The challenge is to keep it all fun.

 

Despite this, I still dislike Sunday evenings as I prefer being at home to being at work. Surely everybody does? Cure? I am currently in bed, with a box of wine on the side ( ) with football aid on the telly and the laptop on my bed, with two lovely doggies on the floor by my side.

 

And by the way, thank goodness I am not an NQT in Pengy's school!

[Looney]

My advice is always not to worry about Monday morning until it arrives (probably why I'm always in a rush on a Monday!).

 

I'm currently on Maternity leave so my first day back will come as a hell of a shock to the system.....I'm dreading it already....so that's my theory out the window!

[Couperwife]

Hey Cathy,

by your reasoning the weekend is over by Wednesday and you have to go through monday morning feeling twice a week.

 

 

no, you get the same amount of time off in the week, you just do all of the work in one go.

 

so, 25 hours worth of teaching, done in 25 hours (you just feel like having a nervous breakdown at the end of it )

 

I can get school holidays here sooner to, but that amount of teaching is just hysterical

 

cathy

x

[Plum]

youll be on your knees.

What do your pupils think of being at school all that time.

[Clur]

I bet when you have been at work an hour its like you have never been away.

 

I'm not certain that's a good thing Jules. I moved jobs and was promised the earth and it's delivered the opposite of what I moved for. I work (on a good week) 50 hours and am not seeing much more of my kids.

 

That said, the glass of wine and HUGE bar of Dairy Milk has lightened my mood a little, and I am turning in for an early night. Back on the bike tomorrow....!

[Cate in NZ]

I get a bit the same on a Sunday evening, and the inevitable pile of school uniform ironing and post Sunday lunch washing up does nothing to alleviate the mood. Added to that is the thing that I'm in a new job, in a new country and the dream job that seemed so very exciting at first (it would be challenging in the UK, but I'd know the ground rules there and would be up to it) is proving to be an uphill struggle. But, I work to live, not live to work, and dragging myself into work on a Monday morning and slapping a smile on my face goes some of the way towards providing me with the income to do the things that I want do. And, thinking positively, work can only get better as I master the new systems and skills

[Chicken Licken]

youll be on your knees.

What do your pupils think of being at school all that time.

 

 

I have discovered that school is much nicer without kids - I could go in and teach what I've planned with no interrruptions or silliness. I like it as a plan!!!

[Jen&Rog]

It sounds like we're all in the same boat! I've been having terrible Sunday night blues after starting at a new place (46 days so far and counting). I try not to dwell on it 'cos weekends are precious enough! Funnily enough I was thinking about re-training as a teacher but i can see that brings its own stresses! Keep on doing the lottery!

[Janty]

I do still love being a teacher but it's the paperwork that's killing us. However, I have been to the head today and told him that his teachers are sinking fast. I was a brave girl (it does help that I get on really well with him) and I think that he has taken a lot of what I said on board.

 

Fingers crossed!

[Clur]

I'm chatting to my boss too (tomorrow). Hope it helps