OK let's play spot the difference. I'm opening myself for all sorts of offensive observations but the focus is supposed to be on the two pieces of planning. I have learnt in recent meetings that the principle behind planning is to not make any significant attempt to write down what you are actually going to teach. The Exhibit A plan is not to be trusted. Exhibit B is a fine accurate account of my teaching strategies. The reason why? I put ticks on it. Putting ticks and initials next to a plan proves you did it apparently. Now doing this at the end of the day or week perhaps I can see some point in. Currently however I have been asked to go back over 11 weeks of planning in 12 sets of plans and put little ticks against all my plans. A bit tricky as some of the plans had already been thrown away. It's called registration. Here is the gist of the conservation that followed when I confessed to "losing" the previous term's plans.
"You should not have done that those plans are the property of New South Wales Education Department."
"Sorry about that"
"You will have to print them again"
"Will the school pay for a new ink Cartridge?"
"No put them on a USB stick and print them at school"
"Then what."
"Go through your plans and register them properly."
"But I didn't know about this"
"It was on a handout you were given in week one. If these things are given to you you must read them."
"But in England registration is what you call a roll"
"You're not in England now. You should have asked"
"I didn't know what the question was."
"That's not my problem."
"So can I just go through and tick everything. I can't remember everything I did in February."
"No you must cross reference with all your books."
"that would take ages"
"You have three development days. Use one "
"But reports are coming up and I'd like to take one then to help me get on top of them."
"Nobody else has a day to help with reports, why should you?"
"why do I have to register it anyway what's the point?"
"I'm accountable we could both go to court, are you willing to take that risk?"
"Yes is that alright?"
"No!"
So any teachers out there with any hatred of box ticking be glad you are not a teacher in NSW.
Is the conversation above 100%? About 90% it is a combination of various conversations with two of my senior colleagues rather than a one off dialogue but every quote is pretty much accurate. My favourite one is the prospect of getting a criminal record for not ticking boxes. Oh well I didn't come out here to find things the same I suppose.
While I'm at it. Here are the other things that make my school day a little bit longer. Sorry to bore any Non teachers who read this.
- Duties are everyday rather than once a week (Twice a day if you have after school duty)
- Assemblies are only once a fortnight( I will never see an assembly because they "kindly" gave me my Non contact time during the assembly)
- Non contact time is two one hour (hardly worth getting your books out) slots.
- I plan two subjects back home. I plan twelve here.
- Teaching assistant support was one hour a week last term but it is somebody else's turn now.
- Document wallets,boxes of tissues, paint palettes and glue sticks are a luxury the school can't afford. My paint palettes are chinese take away containers and the other three you ask parents to bring in or pay for. We have 13 rugby balls to teach two classes. 5 belong to the school and I borrowed 8 from David's garage (sorry Joel and Liam if you're reading this).
- It is my turn with the computer suite this term. This means my pupils will have 4 lessons each this year. I may also start getting into trouble for using the school data projector.
- We only get 11 weeks holiday instead of 13. (Cue non teachers sarcastic voice "Only 11 weeks? Oh POOR you!")
3 plus points:
School day finishes at 2:45pm. Note for non teachers. That is when the children leave. Not the teachers. Not most of them anyway.
You get long service leave (not much use to me).
We get the Queen's official birthday off. God bless her. Presumably this is the only thing that is preventing Australia from becoming a republic.
Despite all this the staff over here keep smiling (occasionally through gritted teeth) and the children are learning... I think.
4 comments:
I say you should go "dahn" for a ten stretch. Perhaps if not doing your job was a criminal offence here too it might buck our ideas up as a profession generally. I'm all for it. If you need someone to testify that you are normally fastidious and border on OCD when it comes to ticking boxes, filling in forms, er, doing shopping lists etc., I'm your man. But you have to remember that ignorance is no defence, and I hear Australian prisons are hell.
By the way, photographically speaking, I think you should have frowned when holding the "BAD" plans and smiled when holding the "GOOD" ones. It would have made the casual blog viewer's interpretation of your predicament all the more clear.
Brings back memories of those lovely pink harrat forms... remember them? Aaaah those were the days indeed. Anyway, as I am currently up to my bloody ears in QCA short and long writing tasks with their sodding unfathomable mark scheme, I shall send no simpathy whatsoever!
:-)
Sorry
sympathy
:-(
Oh God! Harrat Forms!!! I had forgotten those too! And it brought back memories of Modbury Books!!!
PS I have sympathy too, obviously. I thought I had better mention that as it may not have been instantly apparent from my earlier comment. Or my general demeanour....
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