Bad Teachers

[senseimichael]

Mdm Koh:

Hopefully MOE will do something about the workload problem. Professionals who are overworked will not be able to produce very high quality work. I know teachers who only sleep 4-5 hours every night and burn their weekends marking and planning lessons, thus giving up their personal family time.


I am sure there are bad teachers around, but for the majority who are conscientious workers, heavy workload is definitely one reason for the lack of comments on marked scripts.

I used to be one of those teachers. Sleeping 4-5 hours every night, weekends burnt, so that I can mark properly, give comments and plan, on top of all the stuff that I have to deal with for the school. I finally threw in the towel in 2002 and went overseas to teach (a very wise decision, to keep my teaching passion!).

Mdm Koh has hit the nail on the head why some teachers simply give up and do the bare minimum for the job, or even (gasp) less than the bare minimum. It's for the sake of their sanity.

[senseimichael]

alwayscheerfulalwayskind:

what is ORD?

Army term for \"about to leave or retire\". Teachers in that mood, well...

[senseimichael]

vinegar:

perhaps the school shld consider outsource the markings...

Perhaps only for the multiple choice questions, and only if a detailed analysis (each child's wrong questions, the class's wrong questions, etc). For sections that require writing, the teacher who teaches the class require intimate knowledge of what went wrong. My students, for example, know me as the teacher who refuses to treat a capital letter \"C\" as a capital letter if it is not twice the size of the \"h\" that follows after it. A bit anal, I know, but it fosters good habits of writing in the student.

[janet88]

Teachers do not get to enjoy quality of life if they are given so much work…preparing lessons and quality marking require time…if they can be taken off non-core stuff and perhaps having lesser meetings as well as CCA involvement, they can keep passion for teaching in the school. A friend’s hubby worked 12 hours daily as a teacher so that he didn’t have to bring marking home…6am to 6pm.

[senseimichael]

janet_lee88:

Teachers do not get to enjoy quality of life if they are given so much work...preparing lessons and quality marking require time...if they can be taken off non-core stuff and perhaps having lesser meetings as well as CCA involvement, they can keep passion for teaching in the school. A friend's hubby worked 12 hours daily as a teacher so that he didn't have to bring marking home...6am to 6pm.

I want to be home earlier (at least be present) so I took my marking home, marking them till anywhere from 10pm (happy!) to 2am (dead tired).

[janet88]

senseimichael:

janet_lee88:

A friend's hubby worked 12 hours daily as a teacher so that he didn't have to bring marking home...6am to 6pm.

I want to be home earlier (at least be present) so I took my marking home, marking them till anywhere from 10pm (happy!) to 2am (dead tired).

marking at home is comfort but it's taking you away from the family...but when you're done, at least you know you are already at home. 2am?

[senseimichael]

janet_lee88:

I want to be home earlier (at least be present) so I took my marking home, marking them till anywhere from 10pm (happy!) to 2am (dead tired).

marking at home is comfort but it's taking you away from the family...but when you're done, at least you know you are already at home. 2am?[/quote]

Thankfully, 2am is rare. 11pm to 12am is more common.

[TheAnswer]

senseimichael:

janet_lee88:

I want to be home earlier (at least be present) so I took my marking home, marking them till anywhere from 10pm (happy!) to 2am (dead tired).

marking at home is comfort but it's taking you away from the family...but when you're done, at least you know you are already at home. 2am?

Thankfully, 2am is rare. 11pm to 12am is more common.[/quote]

How do you strike a balance between work and family if working till 11pm is common? Never burnout? How about weekends?

[TheAnswer]

janet_lee88:

Teachers do not get to enjoy quality of life if they are given so much work...preparing lessons and quality marking require time...if they can be taken off non-core stuff and perhaps having lesser meetings as well as CCA involvement, they can keep passion for teaching in the school. A friend's hubby worked 12 hours daily as a teacher so that he didn't have to bring marking home...6am to 6pm.

It is very hard for teachers to stop all work at 6pm. Almost impossible.

[senseimichael]

TheAnswer:

How do you strike a balance between work and family if working till 11pm is common? Never burnout? How about weekends?

That is why I left. I must say, though, that the MOE of today is different from the one I left in 2002. Teachers teach less periods, and there are more support for them with their work. However, some things, like the tons of never-ending marking, never seem to change.