Teachers

[Roose]

Teachers are handcuffed from the start. Even the ones that care and want to improve the lives of their students have to play by the rules set out in front of them.

Of course you have the old, lazy bitches that have tenure and do not give a shit, but they are fading away.

Need to make teaching a more attractive job.

[Silvercry]

As many on here have already said - there are good and bad people, therefore you will also find good and bad teachers. Just like there are good, hard-working students, and horrible students who refuse to participate in their own education (like not handing in assignments, answering questions, participating in debates) and still demand a certain grade.

I teach 15-19-year-olds in the Danish gymnasium (kind of equal to the American high school). I did not choose my job, because I got low grades in university (as some have assumed in this thread). I received rather good grades, actually. But my passion is for teaching. This way I can deal with multiple aspects of my subjects (which are English and Psychology). Take psychology for instance: Yes I could have become a counsellor/consultant and work primarily with work related psychology like stress levels, conflict solving or coaching. But as a high school teacher I get to deal with several aspects of psychology, like children's development, personality psychology, social psychology and the list goes on. I really enjoy this part of my job.
Of course, I also chose this job, simply because I enjoy working with teens. It's an interesting age with so much going on in my students' lives. Being a part of their development on a personal and an educational level, is something you have to enjoy as a teacher.

As for teachers being lazy, I can only speak for the Danish education system, and there is a general feeling in Denmark that high school teachers are lazy, overpaid, and do not teach enough. I absolutely resent this point of view. As a teacher I spend 4-8 hours daily on teaching - that does not sound like a lot to some, but you need to remember we spend time on preparation for every single lesson we teach. I need to find a suitable text for my students, make work questions and so on. Correcting essays takes forever! I usually have 30 students per English class, and I currently teach 3 English classes. That's 90 essays every 14 days or so. People don't think about this very much, but it takes just about 20-30 minutes correcting just one assignment!

In Denmark we also have special project weeks (called AT - if anyone is familiar with it :-)). During these weeks (7 weeks per 3 years) the teachers no longer act as "teachers". We become supervisors, or tutors if you may, and guide our students through writing a small assignment on different subjects. This means very irregular work hours, as students need supervision/help/ask questions in general during the evenings through e-mail or over the telephone.

Calling teachers lazy is simply not having enough insight to their work hours in general. Our teachings go beyond the classroom hours. On a regular week I can easily spend 60 hours on my job.

[Neazy]

Calling teachers lazy is simply not having enough insight to their work hours in general. Our teachings go beyond the classroom hours. On a regular week I can easily spend 60 hours on my job.

This is exactly why the good teachers in America are rare. 60 hours a week at 30k a year is $12.50 per hour assuming you work 40 weeks out of the year, which is about what teachers work when you factor in the days that they have to show up for but students don't. For comparison, I made $12.56 an hour at 17 years old when I was still in high school.

Most teachers in America are NOT going to put in all that extra work (grading assignments on their own time, preparing detailed lectures, etc) that makes their work week 60 hours instead of 30-40 because they still get paid the same.

[Adam Jensen]

My mothers a teacher so I assure you its #1.

[LolretKJ]

The best teachers are the ones who know the rules, and know how to break them while flying under the radar to get their class the best education possible. I had a few of them in High School, and those are the teachers I still talk to today.

[Silvercry]

This is exactly why the good teachers in America are rare. 60 hours a week at 30k a year is $12.50 per hour assuming you work 40 weeks out of the year, which is about what teachers work when you factor in the days that they have to show up for but students don't. For comparison, I made $12.56 an hour at 17 years old when I was still in high school.

Most teachers in America are NOT going to put in all that extra work (grading assignments on their own time, preparing detailed lectures, etc) that makes their work week 60 hours instead of 30-40 because they still get paid the same.

Well, I do not disagree with you. There are probably teachers out there, who seek to grade assignments during lessons (when the students are working in groups or something like that). But maybe it's just me and the school where I teach, but I would say most, if not all, of my coworkers are very competent teachers who care very much about their jobs.

Oh, and to make matters worse (for us teachers), yes, you are right, we do have long vacations and vacations during the year due to holidays and what-not, BUT even during vacations we actually work (again we're correcting essays, that were handed in just before the holiday, or prepare the next huge theme for our students, fill out forms on what the students have already been through and studied and so on). Because of this, I would claim that I work a lot more than 40 weeks a year.

Maybe I'm just very thorough with my work as well, but I really don't like showing up for a class feeling like I'm not 100% prepared for the lesson.

[Zhangfei]

Well, I do not disagree with you. There are probably teachers out there, who seek to grade assignments during lessons (when the students are working in groups or something like that). But maybe it's just me and the school where I teach, but I would say most, if not all, of my coworkers are very competent teachers who care very much about their jobs.

Oh, and to make matters worse (for us teachers), yes, you are right, we do have long vacations and vacations during the year due to holidays and what-not, BUT even during vacations we actually work (again we're correcting essays, that were handed in just before the holiday, or prepare the next huge theme for our students, fill out forms on what the students have already been through and studied and so on). Because of this, I would claim that I work a lot more than 40 weeks a year.

Maybe I'm just very thorough with my work as well, but I really don't like showing up for a class feeling like I'm not 100% prepared for the lesson.

That's what makes us good teachers. I plan 100% for the lesson and always have back up stuff for the lesson in case something goes wrong.

To be that prepared takes more than forty hour a week.

[Adam Jensen]

Well, I do not disagree with you. There are probably teachers out there, who seek to grade assignments during lessons (when the students are working in groups or something like that). But maybe it's just me and the school where I teach, but I would say most, if not all, of my coworkers are very competent teachers who care very much about their jobs.

Oh, and to make matters worse (for us teachers), yes, you are right, we do have long vacations and vacations during the year due to holidays and what-not, BUT even during vacations we actually work (again we're correcting essays, that were handed in just before the holiday, or prepare the next huge theme for our students, fill out forms on what the students have already been through and studied and so on). Because of this, I would claim that I work a lot more than 40 weeks a year.

Maybe I'm just very thorough with my work as well, but I really don't like showing up for a class feeling like I'm not 100% prepared for the lesson.

Yeah people who claim that teachers don't work during the summer should come spend the summer with my mother.

[Vvhooya]

I mostly hate them all.

Well the reason I got into a top university in my country is because I can score high on the tests, but the assignment and presentation marked by some teachers are just really pisses me off, there is a gr12 teacher gave me like 60s in the finals, he is racist and always give good marks to the people he likes, and gives people like me who he hates a unfair horrible mark its just sad. But during the next semester I retake this course and meet a different teacher, this time I did well and got a 85 avg from her, after I gets my university offer and scholarships I can just laugh at him.

[hiragana]

some that put the extra effort in were great. most were shit. Also uni teachers while usually less willing to give up time are usually infitately more knowledgeable than school teachers, to whoever suggested otherwise.

Edit: i do know some great teachers myself. I personally believe that regulations on teachers should be more strict, so pupils get better teacher and good teachers get better pay.

[Zhangfei]

some that put the extra effort in were great. most were shit. Also uni teachers while usually less willing to give up time are usually infitately more knowledgeable than school teachers, to whoever suggested otherwise.

Edit: i do know some great teachers myself. I personally believe that regulations on teachers should be more strict, so pupils get better teacher and good teachers get better pay.

The teachers in the UK have some of the most extensive and stringent regulations in the world. Their hands are so tied it's a joke.

[Morsker]

I'm really disappointed to see so many people saying teachers "mean well". Maybe they mean well in their 20s, but by the time they've been in the system 5 or 10 years even, they've already been completely corrupted, and just put on videos and hand out multiple-choice exams.

Just because we recognize the importance of the profession doesn't mean we should respect the people in the profession. They are almost all bad.

[TJ]

In my experience I found that most teachers were assholes until you get to 16+. There was this one teacher who was generally just an asshole when I was first in secondary school and when I finished my mandatory education I stayed on further for optional higher education and chose the subject that he taught, I now respect him as a teacher and look at him in a different light. Same with our form tutor, I always disliked him but I remember meeting him in the cinema watching the same film as me about 2 years back and we had a good conversation and he is a genuinely nice guy, I was also very saddened to hear that he has throat cancer.

You might say it has something to do with you maturing but that's not just it, it is indeed a factor but most teachers just seem to change and treat you different as you get older no matter if your attitude/behaviour has altered or not.

---------- Post added 2012-11-08 at 02:08 AM ----------

Edit: i do know some great teachers myself. I personally believe that regulations on teachers should be more strict, so pupils get better teacher and good teachers get better pay.

I would like to see that, the teacher I mentioned was far above other ones and we learned a lot more in his lessons than we did with other teachers. He treated us with respect so you always felt similar and not like they're superior which is unfortunately how some decide to teach but the most important thing was that he kept the lesson interesting by adding videos/pictures and generally socialising with us which creates a much better learning environment. Don't get the impression that the guy was a pushover because if you didn't do the assignments/essays then he wasn't going to let it slide. Definitely the best teacher I ever had.

[Zhangfei]

I'm really disappointed to see so many people saying teachers "mean well". Maybe they mean well in their 20s, but by the time they've been in the system 5 or 10 years even, they've already been completely corrupted, and just put on videos and hand out multiple-choice exams.

Just because we recognize the importance of the profession doesn't mean we should respect the people in the profession. They are almost all bad.

Do you have anything resembling statistics to back this up? I've seen some pretty lazy teachers that still have plenty of variation and adaptability.

This sounds like a ridiculous stereotype.

[Haven]

Varies on an individual basis.
Some are excellent, and actually make the students work their brains without students realizing this.
Some are simply reading leactures without paying attention to the auditory.
Some are high-class specialists in their field and barely speak human language, although you can be astonished by a glimpse of things you actually do understand from their gibberish.
Some simply fail at everything else and thus become teachers.