Bad Teachers

[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.

[janet88]

Marking is a teacher’s worst headache…1 class of 40 x number of classes x diff level. Yet there are some teachers who can still moonlight.

[senseimichael]

janet_lee88:

Marking is a teacher's worst headache...1 class of 40 x number of classes x diff level. Yet there are some teachers who can still moonlight.

You shall always find time for what is important. For some teachers, the tuition is not for the money, but for the satisfaction of having a bunch of children you can truly teach, instead of having to \"deliver a syllabus\".

[osim]

One thing I cannot reconcile is how come teachers are allowed to moonlight as private tutors? When they don’t get enough rest, how can they do their job well? I also hear them complaining being overworked by MOE, so how do they have time to give tuition.


When I was working, if I had to do work at home, it’s work from the company that employed me. Sometimes, I would spend time to read up info to learn and enhance my work proficiency and all these extra time spent was for my actual work , not some moonlighting work.

I think MOE must explicitly disallow teachers from padding their pockets at the expense of giving the children the best in their teaching job.

[Mdm Koh]

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.

I don't think it's about the marking... It's about how all the work piles up, so much so that the teacher is not just a teacher, but he or she also has to be responsible for many different non-teaching tasks.

Teachers moonlight for various reasons. Some of them want to make more money so that they can lead more comfortable lives. Others want to try out tuition or other part-time jobs, because they want to have something to fall back on should they decide to throw in the towel.

[Mdm Koh]

osim:

One thing I cannot reconcile is how come teachers are allowed to moonlight as private tutors? When they don't get enough rest, how can they do their job well? I also hear them complaining being overworked by MOE, so how do they have time to give tuition.


When I was working, if I had to do work at home, it's work from the company that employed me. Sometimes, I would spend time to read up info to learn and enhance my work proficiency and all these extra time spent was for my actual work , not some moonlighting work.

I think MOE must explicitly disallow teachers from padding their pockets at the expense of giving the children the best in their teaching job.

But it can also be argued that teaching tuition helps teachers to hone their skills in the subjects? I think one reason could be that MOE doesn't recognise that being a tutor is a \"real job\". Because tutors are not working for companies and most don't register themselves as owners of a tuition business. Teachers are explicitly disallowed from owning businesses or working for other employers.