From my own experiences being in school, I never fully
understood or even thought about the responsibilities that my teachers had. Even
though I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, it wasn’t until quite a bit
later that I thought about the work that they had to do. I think a lot of young
people see teaching through rose-tinted glasses – it’s all singing and fun and silliness
with your pupils.
Nowadays, I feel as though students are more switched on to
what teachers have to do (marking, planning, assessment, data, blah blah blah) –
even though I did once get asked by a pupil if, during PPAs, I just get to play
on my phone and stuff…I wish! I know that pupils don’t always completely
comprehend what it takes to follow this career path, but they are definitely
more aware than I ever was.
I have had some ideas on why this might be.
First of all, pupils in schools are under so much pressure
to perform well in their exams that they must understand that there is pressure
on the teachers too. What’s that saying?...something rolls downhill? Anyway,
they know that school are under mounting pressure, year on year to get better
results, make more progress (that word makes me want to upchuck just a little
bit), get more A* - C grades (or whatever the number equivalent will be). Pupils
nowadays definitely feel more pressure from schools and see that teachers feel
this too (Performance Management nightmares anyone?).
Secondly, due to all of the changing policies and ‘best
practice’ updates, the workload of teachers has changed massively over the
years. I have recently come across some of my own school books and let me tell
you, the difference in what my teachers did and what I have to do is astounding.
Do not get me wrong, I am NOT degrading any of my teachers at
all. If it weren’t for them, I would not be here I am today and would not have
had the immense love of learning that they instilled into me. This is simply an
observation on the ever-changing goals that teachers are expected to meet.
When I look at my students’ books, there are longer,
detailed pieces of work in their books, with every error corrected and with
detailed feedback given on core written pieces, including strengths and
developments for their work. When I looked at my own school books, I saw the ‘tick
and flick’ style of marking, with answers to what must have been listening or
reading tasks in the front as well.
Over time, the demands of the job have changed to push more
of a focus on the production of longer pieces of work and more detailed
marking.
My third and final point for this is that pupils are far
more aware of the demands of teaching because of…wait for it…social media
*sigh*.
While a vast majority of pupils are not going to actively
follow the news or education-specific pages, we all know just how far a single
post can go. Perhaps pupils could be seeing posts that have been liked, shared
or commented on by a friend of a friend of a friend…, especially when I hear
students showing off just how many ‘friends’ they have on social media. Even if
they see these posts accidentally, the students are still seeing them. Is this
good or bad? I’ll let you make your mind up about that…let me know what you
think!
Also, in my opinion, news travels much faster now than it
did before the mass popularity of social media. Politicians, organisations and
unions are all able to share their grievances much easier now compared to 10
years ago, and can make their voices heard by many more people. I do feel that
as a society in general, we are more aware of the global issues that we face
now, and that young people are much more ‘caught up’ on what is happening in
the world nowadays…I highly doubt that when I was in year seven that I could
have had a political debate! (And yes, I have seen this).
As my dad always says, each generation is always so much
more advanced than the last.
Until next time
H x
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