Mushroom said:
Be realistic everyone! I taught, we did have a list. I wrote mine in my register. However, when you are teaching 5 lessons a day, doing lunch duty, after school catch-up, working at a pace in class to cover all the lesson content - sometimes you forget for that one moment about an individual child. And yes, some children do try it on. No need for any child to shout at a teacher, Just explain calmly. In my case, I could have easily checked my register. Taking items from children was always a minefield, and I didn't do that.
I would refer it on to Head of Year as this individual teacher should be spoken to, or it could be a problem in the system and information hasn't been passed on. To be fair the teacher did check with the pupil before they left the class (and probably worried about whether they were OK for the rest of the day - and that includes when they got home to their own family).
It sounds like it's about time that teachers take a stand. All statutory organisation employees are saying the same thing basically, and it starts with "We're too busy, we don't have time to ...". I heard the Practice Manager at my GP practice say it the other day and to be honest, I'm sick of hearing it.
Teachers are saying it, NHS staff are saying it, Police are saying it, they're all so damned busy faffing around with ticking boxes and filling in paperwork that they don't actually ENGAGE with anyone any more. So why don't these people who are too busy just stop for long enough to think and reassess whether their job title actually matches their actions any more. Why don't they start being inefficient in filling in forms and become more efficient at ENGAGING with HUMAN BEINGS?
Instead, they continue doing what they've always done and getting the same result - but God forbid they actually challenge the employers who are setting the bars higher and higher and narrowing down the circumference of the many hoops they provide for everyone to jump through. And no-one stops to question it.
I have grandchildren who speak at the rate of knots. Why? Because at school they have to hurry through life at the rate of knots so that their teachers can put the ticks in all the right boxes so that they can pass all their various targets and tests and satisfy some other body who comes round to check they're doing their job according to the book.
The workplace is now almost an OCD place, with people mindlessly following orders from the tier above without actually questioning what value those actions have.
Meanwhile kids will always have asthma attacks, hypos and epileptic seizures - I wonder what boxes they all tick in the great scheme of things?
If you're too busy to ENGAGE with the people you're supposed to be helping via your job - then it's time to slow down en masse and work to rule and tell the boss you can't fulfill their targets. If you're putting targets before getting to know the children you teach, then it's time to have a word with the Head and tell them you're not prepared to do that any longer.
My friend is a secondary school teacher and a very good one. He absolutely loves his job, loves teaching, spends the whole of his school holidays thinking up new ways to engage the children's attention - be he decided to take a drop in salary and work part time because he was sick and tired of the Head teacher interrupting his classes with yet another
'little form to complete for targets that will only take five minutes'.
There are some people who believe that over time, we're being turned into nothing more than SLAVES who work for lower and lower pay, worse and worse work conditions and who follow orders and ask no questions. With the advent of technology its so easy to churn out forms and keep everyone busy ticking the boxes and completing them. When they've finished one, give them another, keep them busy, busy, busy, doing nothing of any REAL VALUE to anyone but the EMPLOYER who gets richer and richer by keeping the minions too busy to even think any more.
Our kids in schools need to engage with PEOPLE not automatons. They need to be valued themselves as PEOPLE not automatons. They ARE individuals whether the powers that be like it or not or want to allow for that margin or not.
In this age of the God of Competition people are being hoodwinked into believing that the busier they are, the better rewarded they'll be and the better thought of they'll be and that appeals to some people's egos. However, it isn't true.
