fed up with school

alfja

Hi

Am on the look out for ideas.

Am ten years teaching, get good results, no major discipline issues, heavily involved in extra curricular, have a good rapport with most of the kids and am just increasingly fed up.

Here is what annoying me (in no particular order)

1. No discipline in school where I am outside of classroom. At least ten-twelve kids on corridor at any time. Two very good yearheads, that's it.

2. Principal has no contact with staff - in his office all day every day. kids do not know him or care about his opinion. Teachers afraid to approach him.

3. No support for extra curricular - have to beg principal for permission to attend sports/ debates/ entreprise competitions/ science competitions if in school time (obviously if at all possible these are outside school time which I have no problem with) When you return from these events there is never a hope of principal asking how ye got on, congratulating kids etc.

4. Kids very focussed on their 'rights'. No word about their responsibilities. Parents have same idea. Management terrified of parents.

5. IT in school is non existent. Sick of preparing stuff that I cannot use due to another IT breakdown.

6. Other teacher in my subject does nothing (apart from this it is an amazingly self motivated staff, standard of teaching in school is very good as far as I can see). This means kids come into me in Fifth Year clueless and I have to do the whole Junior Cert course to catch them up before attempting leaving cert. Principal, so quick to give out when you are giving up free time to do an activity with kids, does NOTHING about this. (I realise his hands might be tied, does not stop it being frustrating)

7. Horrific staff meetings. Tense is not the word.


I suppose this has all come to a head this week as I am just tired. I watch my boyfriend go to a job that pays twice as much every day with a lot greater job satisfaction. Also I had a long disillusioning talk with a colleague on Friday where I said that i would like an incidental inspection that showed all the flaws to an outsider ( kids hanging around corridor during class time that are intimidating to approach are a major bug bear of mine) and colleague stated (prob correctly) that if principal was challenged on this he would state that there were policies in place to deal with this ( we are very good at writing policies) and that staff were at fault.

rainbowtrout

Hard to know what to say about this. Not reasonable to say look for another teaching job as we all know what the situation is like.

Have you considered moving into management yourself? In a deputy principal role? Would this interest you? While not perhaps in the school you are currently in, you would have the opportunity to tackle some of the issues you've outlined in your post.

Jubo

Op, I'm not a teacher - but I am a parent of secondary school-going kids. I can't give any advice about your problems with the principal, but I would say - don't lose heart. Kids and parents need teachers like you and appreciate teachers that go the extra mile. It doesn't go unnoticed by everyone. I can look at the schools my kids go to and see the good and the unfortunately crappy teachers and tell the difference. The good ones stand out. Keep doing your thing!! Its what teaching is all about.:)

bdoo

I think may is a pisser of a month. Maybe things will look better in September! You're heart seems to be in the job but your tired head isn't at the min.

Give it a while it sounds like you'd be a great loss to the kids and that's why we do it after all not for some principal who wants to 'lead' a great school but do no work.

jimbo28

I feel your pain o.p. I am currently in a school that has a lot of the same problems you have described and then some. It really is frustrating not being able to go to work and enjoy it. I only started in my present school this year and boy was it a big career mistake to move here. The only reason I moved, was so that it would be closer to my other half. My previous school was a very academic school with bright kids that were willing to learn, it had sound practices and management were very fair and believe it or not, quite trustworthy, you always knew where you stood. My present school is the opposite in every which way. I have made up my mind that I will not be coming back next year, hopefully I will find a more suitable school, and if all else fails I have applied to go back to do a masters in my subject area but not in anything to do with education. Like yourself I have been teaching a number of years now and have come across both good and bad schools…………………..but above all what I am really sick and tired of is the politics. I came from the background of private sector workers, where the concentration was always on getting the job done on time and within constraint. Teaching in some schools seems to revolve around covering your arse and nothing else, and that makes for a terrible work environment. Its a pity, I really enjoy teaching but some schools just seem to have their own agendas and I for one am sick of trying to keep everyone happy.Roll on the holidays and the interviews.

solerina

I cant compare my schoolt to yours as my school has none of the problems you have, however I do think that everyone gets very tired at this time of the year, we have been all doing extra time to get our courses covered, and i know in my school we have had a good few late nights (PT Meetings, open night, subject choice nights, awards nights) etc....so I know I am pretty wrecked myself...those who knock our holidays generally dont realise that by this stage in May everyone is exhausted (students too), so I think that maybe things will look brighter in September OP....

Fuinseog

alfja wrote: »

Hi

Am on the look out for ideas.

Am ten years teaching, get good results, no major discipline issues, heavily involved in extra curricular, have a good rapport with most of the kids and am just increasingly fed up.

Here is what annoying me (in no particular order)

1. No discipline in school where I am outside of classroom. At least ten-twelve kids on corridor at any time. Two very good yearheads, that's it.

2. Principal has no contact with staff - in his office all day every day. kids do not know him or care about his opinion. Teachers afraid to approach him.

3. No support for extra curricular - have to beg principal for permission to attend sports/ debates/ entreprise competitions/ science competitions if in school time (obviously if at all possible these are outside school time which I have no problem with) When you return from these events there is never a hope of principal asking how ye got on, congratulating kids etc.

4. Kids very focussed on their 'rights'. No word about their responsibilities. Parents have same idea. Management terrified of parents.

5. IT in school is non existent. Sick of preparing stuff that I cannot use due to another IT breakdown.

6. Other teacher in my subject does nothing (apart from this it is an amazingly self motivated staff, standard of teaching in school is very good as far as I can see). This means kids come into me in Fifth Year clueless and I have to do the whole Junior Cert course to catch them up before attempting leaving cert. Principal, so quick to give out when you are giving up free time to do an activity with kids, does NOTHING about this. (I realise his hands might be tied, does not stop it being frustrating)

7. Horrific staff meetings. Tense is not the word.


I suppose this has all come to a head this week as I am just tired. I watch my boyfriend go to a job that pays twice as much every day with a lot greater job satisfaction. Also I had a long disillusioning talk with a colleague on Friday where I said that i would like an incidental inspection that showed all the flaws to an outsider ( kids hanging around corridor during class time that are intimidating to approach are a major bug bear of mine) and colleague stated (prob correctly) that if principal was challenged on this he would state that there were policies in place to deal with this ( we are very good at writing policies) and that staff were at fault.

you describe any number of schools. maybe the principal will retire soon and you might even get a new boss who can work a computer and not insist on snail mail.
if you PWT enjoy the hols and forget about the place.

evolving_doors

Sounds like your doing a good job in bad circumstances alfja. I reckon a lot of teachers would aspire to have all of those boxes checked even with a supportive principal

"good results, no major discipline issues, heavily involved in extra curricular, have a good rapport with most of the kids"

Maybe now that you're there 10 years you could consider putting your energies into playing a long game towards becoming more influential... i.e. Year Head/Board of Management/ Union Rep/Post of responsibility type career move. It seems as if you want to better the whole school and not just the students you teach.

Here's my 5 point plan

* Maybe you have to play the system a little ... Get to know what parents are on the parents council/BOM .. Get to know other teachers on the BOM and suss em out as to what goes on

*Go public with your extra curricular endeavours (you're getting no thanks in the school anyway) Send in the students' efforts into the local paper by way of photographs..or get a phtograper to come out..From my experience the local papers are often hungry for a ready made story.. even hold a small charity raising endeavour and get a photo of a cheque presentation.. Send in texts to radio stations wishing Xclass well in tomorrows match etc. get your students to do the same.


* If you havn't been doing them... do some courses that benefit the school. i.e. become a defibrilator trainer, special needs course, video, radio course so that students can put up work on youtube ..

* Work on garnering support from the staff, during staff meetings, talk in terms of 'the school' and 'what would benefit the students' rather than highlighting problems which is what other teachers seem to be doing (and who could blame them!). I reckon the majority of staff would always like better discipline, so maybe suggest some solutions that should be trialled at least. Mention what other schools are doing to solve such problems. Teachers are always keen to know what goes on over the fence.

* Work on the VP instead of the principal, I notice you don;t mention the vice principal ... have they any power? Sometimes the principal will give the day to day decision making to the VP to make the types of decisions you need made...


Forgive me if your doing all those things already, my point is, raise the profile of the school... and more importantly your profile... then position yourself to be in line for a VP job if/when it crops up. It could be a thankless job but if you have the parents/students/ and teachers on your side then that's half the work done....seems like the principal would have retired already if he was close to retirement, but also seems as if he may be going in the next 5-10 years by his attitude...

That's my 2 cent anyway, personally I'm not the management type but just from observing other teachers in the past that's how they got to become more influential.