Covid-19 discussion

[DougieK]

My daughter, who has been working from home 2 days a week, returns to full time work on the 1st of June (in the office).
Anyone else been given a "return to work" timeframe ?????
Gra

I'm back next Tuesday, first day of yr 11 and 12 are.

im taking bets a few will be choked on opening day

Back at school. Be quite a while before we're allowed to wrestle again. Still relevant though.

[ChrisTaylor]

My daughter, who has been working from home 2 days a week, returns to full time work on the 1st of June (in the office).
Anyone else been given a "return to work" timeframe ?????
Gra

I'm back on Monday, even though Grade 3-6 students (my customer base) aren't back then. I'm a science/technology teacher, and my program is all hands-on -- whether they're using computers or doing simple woodwork or messing around with little experiments. I haven't heard for certain yet, but I'm quite confident all of that's going out the window for at least the next few months. So I'm back, but won't be in Kansas any more.

[Mattblack]

My daughter, who has been working from home 2 days a week, returns to full time work on the 1st of June (in the office).
Anyone else been given a "return to work" timeframe ?????
Gra

I'm back on Monday, even though Grade 3-6 students (my customer base) aren't back then. I'm a science/technology teacher, and my program is all hands-on -- whether they're using computers or doing simple woodwork or messing around with little experiments. I haven't heard for certain yet, but I'm quite confident all of that's going out the window for at least the next few months. So I'm back, but won't be in Kansas any more.

As a father of 2 primary school children, I applaud you, DougieK and all the teachers out there.
You all need to have your salaries doubled and a public holiday in your honor....you couldn't pay me enough to do your job, I only had a taste & it was fkn awful.

[ChrisTaylor]

My daughter, who has been working from home 2 days a week, returns to full time work on the 1st of June (in the office).
Anyone else been given a "return to work" timeframe ?????
Gra

I'm back on Monday, even though Grade 3-6 students (my customer base) aren't back then. I'm a science/technology teacher, and my program is all hands-on -- whether they're using computers or doing simple woodwork or messing around with little experiments. I haven't heard for certain yet, but I'm quite confident all of that's going out the window for at least the next few months. So I'm back, but won't be in Kansas any more.

As a father of 2 primary school children, I applaud you, DougieK and all the teachers out there.
You all need to have your salaries doubled and a public holiday in your honor....you couldn't pay me enough to do your job, I only had a taste & it was fkn awful.

We have job security. And at present, or at any other time when things are lean or precarious, that matters more than almost anything.

I mean, yeah, early on in your career there's year-to-year contracts, and it's a bit rubbish ... but once you secure ongoing work (or you're a CRT who'll accept anything and everything) you're good to go. Now, that's problematic in some ways ... but a thousand and one times, in the past few weeks, I've been thankful for the security afforded by this role. Not everyone is so lucky -- and that includes people who perhaps assumed they were in a high-demand, untouchable industry. You won't catch me complaining or asking for anything extra (not that I'd say *no*, of course).

[DougieK]

You all need to have your salaries doubled and a public holiday in your honor....you couldn't pay me enough to do your job, I only had a taste & it was fkn awful.

Mate I honestly do f all most of the time. I'm a CRT an my job is basically 'here is the work, sit down, shut up and do it'. I get lots of work because I don't really mind which class I end up teaching, despite being an English / History major, due my appearance and general demeanor I'm infinitely better equipped to teach a bunch of yr 9's PE or something I don't know how to do than a bubbly 22 year old that thinks the most important social issue of the last 5 years is fing dumbledores sexuality, that has absolutely zero chance of controlling a bunch of 14yo's that realise she doesn't know their names.

but once you secure ongoing work (or you're a CRT who'll accept anything and everything) you're good to go. Now, that's problematic in some ways ... but a thousand and one times, in the past few weeks, I've been thankful for the security afforded by this role. Not everyone is so lucky -- and that includes people who perhaps assumed they were in a high-demand, untouchable industry. You won't catch me complaining or asking for anything extra (not that I'd say *no*, of course).

Pretty much described me perfectly. Crap at the time, but knowing you have something to go back to is unbelievably re assuring. I get paid pretty well considering i'm in the door at 830, out the door at 3.15 and dont' take work home with me.

[DougieK]

As a father of 2 primary school children, I applaud you, DougieK and all the teachers out there.
You all need to have your salaries doubled and a public holiday in your honor....you couldn't pay me enough to do your job, I only had a taste & it was fkn awful.

I thought i'd make a seperate response for this bit in particular.

Teaching really, really isn't that hard. It's all the other garbage that comes along with it that causes 1st year teachers to have a 54% attrition rate. The actual act of actually teaching a classroom full of kids is quite good fun and very rewarding, but constitutes about 20% of what you actually have to do when you're in a full time role. Pretty much what put me off, and pushed me towards CRT.

[ChrisTaylor]

As a father of 2 primary school children, I applaud you, DougieK and all the teachers out there.
You all need to have your salaries doubled and a public holiday in your honor....you couldn't pay me enough to do your job, I only had a taste & it was fkn awful.

I thought i'd make a seperate response for this bit in particular.

Teaching really, really isn't that hard. It's all the other garbage that comes along with it that causes 1st year teachers to have a 54% attrition rate. The actual act of actually teaching a classroom full of kids is quite good fun and very rewarding, but constitutes about 20% of what you actually have to do when you're in a full time role. Pretty much what put me off, and pushed me towards CRT.

This. Working with kids isn't so hard, and most children are basically decent. The ones that cause you a lot of grief are generally dealing with a world of unpleasantness at home (even if they don't have the maturity or perspective to know that home isn't an ideal environment). The job is a lot of fun. When I was a classroom teacher I was teaching kidified versions of Hamlet and Macbeth to Grade 3s, and they dug it. It was so much fun reading a text that made even the most screen-addicted kid scream and drum their hands on the floor at the end. In my current role we're messing around with tools, or messing around with really simple electronics, or taping cardboard onto Coke bottles to make aerodynamic bottle rockets. In my current role I have three curriculum areas to get through, but I'm essentially my own person -- no one's telling me what to do, so long as I'm keeping the customers safe. It's almost non-stop fun. It can be draining sometimes -- the amount of 'social energy' required, as someone who isn't otherwise extroverted -- but that's what the money is for, and that's what fishing is for.

It's the bloody paperwork that's the mind-numbing bit, and the meetings for the sake of meetings, and the very occasional parent (but as a male teacher I don't run into too many of them -- most of the moments of aggression I've witnessed or heard about have, unsurprisingly, been directed at female staff). Those 'occasional' parents also tend to come across as people who'd get aggressive in Woolworths, or have a go at healthcare workers, or like they couldn't go through a week without getting in some kind of altercation. In a classroom role especially it's not uncommon to double- or even triple-handle assessment data, even when a more efficient solution is glaringly obvious ... it's government work, after all. The job is pretty good -- I mean, I think some people who get into this forget that it's a job, and that any job has moments of unpleasantness. Our conditions are pretty good. While there can be varying levels of prep work over the holidays, and in first few years you lack flexibility about exactly when you can go on holiday yourself, at the end of the day we're working for ~40 weeks but getting paid for 52. In my wife's case (pregnant, and also a teacher) the conditions are fantastic -- her job is held for seven years when she goes on family leave (not that she'd step away that long), and she's basically assured of being able to return to part-time hours whenever she feels up to it. The job was neatly compatible with her daughter's school hours, back before the kid could be trusted with a set of keys. When someone whinges about this job (and it has its moments, sure) they come across as having a certain amount of privilege.

[cobby]

And how do you go about keeping up with the new fandangled changes to working things out? It's mightily embarrassing to have a teacher email back a year 8 maths test with a giant fail mark because the way you learnt to work it out in apparent ancient times and advised the kid to do is the complete opposite of what 13 year olds learn now. Even though the answers to all 63 equations were correct....

[DougieK]

And how do you go about keeping up with the new fandangled changes to working things out? It's mightily embarrassing to have a teacher email back a year 8 maths test with a giant fail mark because the way you learnt to work it out in apparent ancient times and advised the kid to do is the complete opposite of what 13 year olds learn now. Even though the answers to all 63 equations were correct....

Did you see the firefighter maths video on facebook?

This is, exactly, the problem. People keep on trying to fix things that aren't broken. An awful lot of the meetings, paperwork, training, accreditation, etc comes from higher ups trying not to get sued. You're expected to redesign the wheel, but using squares, every second week. Chris might have a different opinion but i feel like about 50% of the time I spent doing 'things' that someone decided were necessary was a complete waste. The endless staff meetings that dont' seem to actually do anything, the new 45 minute training video that tells us things like 'wash your hands', the constant revision of literally everything you do and teach, it's just freaking endless. The last thing the agency i worked for emailed me was literally 30 minutes of government training that amounted to 'wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze'.

[purple5ive]

And how do you go about keeping up with the new fandangled changes to working things out? It's mightily embarrassing to have a teacher email back a year 8 maths test with a giant fail mark because the way you learnt to work it out in apparent ancient times and advised the kid to do is the complete opposite of what 13 year olds learn now. Even though the answers to all 63 equations were correct....

THIS I WILL NEVER ******* UNDERSTAND!!!

the kids get taught a different way to work out how many apples johnny has.
whatever happened to 1+1 =2