Teacher mums chat thread

[caz81]

i will be doing full time, we need the money!! would love to go part time but that wont happen for a few years!
yay history_girls that you are the union rep - i will prob end up with loads of qs over time, we did not have any union in the school i was in & as a result they used to break all the rules

 

[history_girls]

naughty naughty naughty school!

It has done my career no favours being a union rep but the staff love me! Although I have to say the highlight has been being asked my opinion on the new staff room design as a union rep! loved being nosey - although i did say 5 unisex toilets was not a good idea!

 

[cupcake]

hi ladies, i am on maternity leave now, but i only get 1 and a half months as it was my first i year teaching in that school, usually you get 3 months but i only worked for 6 months.
glad i am on leave it was exhausting, i was working 3 days a week but on each of my days off i was preparing and marking. i teaching english as a second language.
i dont know what i will do next year as i am not going back til september and not to that school again. it was an elementary school and i prefer teaching older kids. anyway teaching doesnt make much money where i live and so i will have to see if its worth going back to it. i do love to teach so hopefully we can make it work.

 

[New2Bumps]

I'm not sure I can afford part time really but I'm sticking my head in the sand and am hoping we find a way! J, same here with Ofsted looming. Hope they visit before I go back but I fear we'll be in a category...

 

[New2Bumps]

Ladies, was just thinking, maybe I could do some exam moderation or marking of papers, or home tutoring for some extra cash. Does anyone have any any info/experience?

 

[charlieann]

:wave: secondary technology teacher here
i returned full time in nov.

 

[history_girls]

charlieann - how is it full time? I'm going back full time for last term and have been promised by OH if it is really hard I can do full time. any tips? Do you have to be super organised and do all school work at school and not home?

All I know about exam marking is it is mainly in July, does pay about £800 and produces 3 busy weeks I think!

 

[Jchihuahua]

I'd like to do some moderating or marking too. I wonder how you apply to do it.

 

[caz81]

i mark for edexcel, i applied online, been doing it for 4 years & happy to answer any qs you have about it!

 

[history_girls]

Caz - does it really interfere with home life when marking? The only person I know who does it always looks like he is going to have a nervous breakdown round about marking time! I thought it might be good for the kids I teach to mark but don't know if it is worth it. Can I be cheeky and ask how much you get paid for it and how long it takes you?

Are you going to continue doing it when you go back full time with your lo? i would love the extra money if I'm honest and I am quite a quick marker.

 

[charlieann]

charlieann - how is it full time? I'm going back full time for last term and have been promised by OH if it is really hard I can do full time. any tips? Do you have to be super organised and do all school work at school and not home?

i found it really easy getting back into things. i had a hand over week with my cover whiched helped me ease back into it.
i don't tend to do too much work at home as i get in at 7.30-8am due to traffic and parking problems, so i have extra time in the mornings to get organised. ive not got a form group this year so i also got that as gained time.
as we work on a carasol (sp?) system i usually only do written marking for 1 KAT and at the end of the project. The rest of the time any teacher assessment is verbal and i get the kids to do a lot of peer and self assessment.

 

[thelilbump]

i don't suppose any of you teach secondary english do you?

 

[history_girls]

Sorry secondary history - but you have my ultimate respect! I think you've got the hardest job in the world!

 

[Cattia]

i don't suppose any of you teach secondary english do you?

I teach 6th form English - GCSE resit as well and lots of level 2, functional skills, ESOL as well as A level and IB. I taught in secondary for three years but I don't know if I could go back to it now.

I was an A level marker and moderator for AQA English Lit. I marked the old unit 6 which was a three hour exam. THe pay was almost £6 per paper, but it could take 40 minutes to mark one paper - kids write a lot in three hours, and sometimes you can't even read their 10 pages of scribble! I also moderated Lit A level coursework for 3 years which was far better than marking. Tbh when I was marking I was working until midnight every evening and 12 hours a day at weekends to get through it. It was only for 2 weeks but I would not be able to do it with LO. Moderating I found far more interesting, easier and the deadlines are not so tight so organising your time is way easier. If I go back to it in the future I would prefer to moderate, am thinking of applying to do some IB moderating as the way they mark their coursework is a mystery to everyone it seems.

I also used to do some private tutoring and was wondering about going back to that. I used to do it locally, just a couple of hours per week one to one. It was lovely work, nice middle class girls whose parents were worried because they had only got a B in their GCSE mocks! Very little prep, just going over past papers with them really and building their confidence in writing skills and exam technique.

 

[history_girls]

Ineresting on marking - I always suspected it was a time consumer. Also sounds good on moderating. I am sure that one year our moderator didn't even read our coursework. One girl's coursework was called and she was pregnant and missing for most of year 11 and she had clearly copied out of books / web and her tutor whilst she was off had clearly given her pointers which she had left typed in her work (e.g. insert here more info on.....) we commented on it and knocked a few marks off thinking it would be clearly moderated down. nothing!

Think I might avoid marking for a while!

 

[Cattia]

Ineresting on marking - I always suspected it was a time consumer. Also sounds good on moderating. I am sure that one year our moderator didn't even read our coursework. One girl's coursework was called and she was pregnant and missing for most of year 11 and she had clearly copied out of books / web and her tutor whilst she was off had clearly given her pointers which she had left typed in her work (e.g. insert here more info on.....) we commented on it and knocked a few marks off thinking it would be clearly moderated down. nothing!

Think I might avoid marking for a while!

When you're moderating you only look at a sub sample for each centre, so of you call 20 folders from one centre you might only look at 6 of them, and if they are all within tolerance then you approve all the centre's marks. If one or more of them is out you look at the whole sample and if there are any in the sample that are out you call in a wider sample. It is quite possible that your 'dogey' student was not in the sub sample so slipped through the net. I have to say that it IS possible as a moderator to not read CW, nobody would actually know, as you don't annotate the scripts. I guess most people are not quite so unscrupulous, but hypothetically, you could get away with it once your marking has been approved by your team leader!

 

[history_girls]

i never knew they did't look at the whole sample! i keep telling my colleague that we are too over obssessed with making sure our coursework is all exactly as it should be.

The old HOD (now an assisstant head) used to dictate coursework from the front of the room! I totally understand why they are getting rid of coursework! Controlled Assessment should mean more student work!

 

[Cattia]

I agree, I sometimes think CW is waaaay more work for us than it is for the students! There is just too much pressure on teachers to get students high marks and the students are often not willing to put in the work and produce work way below their target grade. You can tell when a centre has given their students too much help, or obvioulsy weaker students are coming out with things that don't sound like their own words, but unless you can track down a source, you can't really prove it. The really stupid ones were those who lifed straight from the internet. I have found whole paragraphs in some CW taken straight from a website, and then the student scores nothing for the whole essay.

 

[poppy]

Hi girls! I am an English and Support for Learnind teacher in a secondary school in Aberdeen - quite a tough school, behavior-wise. I have been teaching for 8 years and recently returned to work three days a week after having my son, Tristan. It is tiring but definately worthwhile for me although I really miss the wee man during the day - especially, like someone else mentioned,when you are faced with cheeky teenagers!

Good thread - nice to meet some fellow teachers on b&b!

 

[poppy]

Hi girls! I am an English and Support for Learnind teacher in a secondary school in Aberdeen - quite a tough school, behavior-wise. I have been teaching for 8 years and recently returned to work three days a week after having my son, Tristan. It is tiring but definately worthwhile for me although I really miss the wee man during the day - especially, like someone else mentioned,when you are faced with cheeky teenagers!

Good thread - nice to meet some fellow teachers on b&b!