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Cost of Marking the Mocks

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    #32
    Man City 10
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 759 ✭✭✭Man City 10


    spurious wrote: »
    People are leaving in droves to teach in places like Dubai where they seem to be having a great time. England would be pretty bad on the useless reports and meetings front. We like to slavishly follow the UK in our education system, paying no attention when they admit to mistakes. We had a child transferred to us from a UK school and he arrived with ten box files of 'reports'. Did any of us read them? No, we took the lad in our own class and had decided within ten or fifteen minutes that he was going to be fine. Ten box files of work by teachers in the UK that ended up skipped. What a waste of time.

    The pay thing isn't the worst, everyone has been hit paywise, I suppose, but it's the 'having' to do these reports and plans and all this 'strategy planning' which in my view is almost entirely useless.

    Instead of 3 hours doing that, let me take the kids who are behind on their projects, missed a few lessons, let me do something useful.

    There used to be loads of clubs in our school (drama, table tennis, electronics, chess, computers etc.), run in the hours after school by teachers who chose to be there in their free time, but now every second week or so we have one of these stupid compulsory Croke Park meetings that the entire teaching staff sits around bored stiff at and no-one stays back to do the clubs any more.

    How did we manage thirty years ago without all these meetings and this 'essential' planning and report writing - we just got on with the job.

    /rant over

    Tell me this so, Do you think all this problems and stuff came because of the recession??
    Like was this the same situation 6,5 years ago?


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    #33
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,188 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Man City 10 wrote: »
    Tell me this so, Do you think all this problems and stuff came because of the recession??
    Like was this the same situation 6,5 years ago?

    I suppose the signs were there from the early nineties as we hurtled headlong following the UK into mixed ability teaching, individual educational plans, individual behavioural plans, increasing class sizes, integration of children with special needs, school based assessment, all the buzz words, many of which the UK had decided were a bad idea, but we lashed after them anyway.

    The recession made it worse as it cut the funding, but it's not like we were awash with money whenever the 'good' times were. I had smaller 'remedial' class sizes when I started teaching in '84 than I had at the height of the Celtic Tiger. Now there are none. Everyone is thrown in together, so you could have a child reading ahead of her age sitting beside one reading seven years behind their age and we're trying to prepare for two or sometimes three levels of exam in the one class. Utter madness.


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    #34
    deelite
    Registered Users Posts: 2,876 ✭✭✭deelite


    The mock results are being given to the students in drips and drabs. For a 120 euro you'd think that you would receive all of them on a sheet of paper. Results are not being given to those who did not pay.

    However, my son's school has certain policies with regard to fundraising etc., and two of his answers were marked wrong - I feel based on his school's policies - which makes me think that actually the mocks were marked in-house. (And the two questions weren't going to make any difference to his results)


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    #35
    Man City 10
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 759 ✭✭✭Man City 10


    spurious wrote: »
    I suppose the signs were there from the early nineties as we hurtled headlong following the UK into mixed ability teaching, individual educational plans, individual behavioural plans, increasing class sizes, integration of children with special needs, school based assessment, all the buzz words, many of which the UK had decided were a bad idea, but we lashed after them anyway.

    The recession made it worse as it cut the funding, but it's not like we were awash with money whenever the 'good' times were. I had smaller 'remedial' class sizes when I started teaching in '84 than I had at the height of the Celtic Tiger. Now there are none. Everyone is thrown in together, so you could have a child reading ahead of her age sitting beside one reading seven years behind their age and we're trying to prepare for two or sometimes three levels of exam in the one class. Utter madness.

    Are you a professor or teacher at a secondary school and if so may I ask what subject/s do you teach


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    #36
    DublinArnie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,823 ✭✭✭DublinArnie


    I don't have to pay anything :D


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    #37
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,188 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Man City 10 wrote: »
    Are you a professor or teacher at a secondary school and if so may I ask what subject/s do you teach

    I teach at second level in Dublin, have been teaching since 1984 and in my time have taught many subjects, but History, ESS and IT would be my most 'common' ones. I am also involved in teacher training on a sporadic basis.


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    #38
    Bluestrike
    Registered Users Posts: 191 ✭✭Bluestrike


    I'm guessing you proabably wont tell us the school you teach at as its too personal and all that


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    #39
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,188 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    It's not that it wouldn't be right. I post here as a private individual, not representing my school.

    Just a comment on the 'dribs and drabs' mock results...
    Ours would be getting them back bit by bit from each teacher as they get corrected too, but we would always send out a mock 'result sheet' afterwards.


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    #40
    CathalRyano
    Registered Users Posts: 351 ✭✭CathalRyano


    spurious wrote: »
    For Junior Cert. the papers cost about 2.00-2.50 each, more for maps and photos etc. The CDs and DVDs are fairly pricey too.


    Personally, I don't see the point of mocks at all. I know what my students will get in the JC. I'd rather be covering the course.

    I, as a student doing the Junior Cert, prefer having mocks to do. It gives us a good indication of what it will be like to do our real Junior Certificate exam and is a real motivation to study for the Junior Cert if we do poorly in our mock exam. I think that having such a motivation to study during these 2 weeks that we complete our mocks is a better way of going over the course than 2 weeks of normal classes.


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    #41
    xoxox1994
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭xoxox1994


    EoghanIRL wrote: »
    I think some schools do the mocks aswell . But you are right about the jc . It still seems highly unfair thought . Firstly having a medical card doesn't have anything to do with paying for jc or a free bus ticket . People in my opinion should not be exempt from paying these fees . We're all in the same boat at the end of the day.

    I admit to be the owner of a medical card but for good reason. My dad is on a very low paying job and my mum unemployed at the moment. Both are very hard-workers but sadly there is little employment. The medical card is what is allowing us to live a very basic life and ease the pressure.
    If you were in the same both as us you would not be saying the above.


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    #42
    Man City 10
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 759 ✭✭✭Man City 10


    xoxox1994 wrote: »
    I admit to be the owner of a medical card but for good reason. My dad is on a very low paying job and my mum unemployed at the moment. Both are very hard-workers but sadly there is little employment. The medical card is what is allowing us to live a very basic life and ease the pressure.
    If you were in the same both as us you would not be saying the above.

    Medical cards for life !!
    I heard from some where people who even work full time are eligible for medical cards


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    #43
    Leopard_Star
    Registered Users Posts: 76 ✭✭Leopard_Star


    Well our teachers correct them in school for free,or they told us if we want them sent off to a different school to be corrected i think its 20euro each paper..but why bother!?


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    #44
    xoxox1994
    Registered Users Posts: 12 ✭xoxox1994


    Man City 10 wrote: »
    Medical cards for life !!
    I heard from some where people who even work full time are eligible for medical cards

    Its all depending on your wage, even some people who work full time, can be on CE schemes, Jobbridge for eg so dont always jump to they are cheating the system!! The people working full time may also be on low wages which is why they need the medical cards.


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