Spinning Plates

When we see colleagues, perhaps via social media or from stories in the staff room, everything can seem to be great for them. They are uploading resources to TES, emailing people their newly written SoWs, offering to help moderate essays via email,... plus they have a few young kids, a partner, they still go on holiday, they knit, they volunteer at the weekend.  While you feel frazzled, unable to plan your next lesson or mark that set of Year 9 books.

Workload is the issue that won't go away, perhaps quite rightly so, it is not sorted.

As teachers, and leaders, we are plate spinners. However, we sometimes need to work out what plates we can afford to drop. This is perhaps the single most important question that all of us should be asking - if I don't do this, what will happen?

Some nuggets of information you don't forget, and David Cameron's quip at Northern Rocks 2015 has stayed with me - How do we sort our IKEA from our Wedgewood? Do you even have a clue which plates you can, and maybe even should, drop?

I began a new role in September 2016, as Assistant Headteacher / Director of RE - part of this was leading the RE department as subject leader. The first few weeks, as a new member of SLT, in a new school, and leading a big department (9 of us taught RE last year), was chaos. There was so many plates I was trying to spin. I was also looking around at some of the plates I was dropping from day one... 

One of the key jobs of leaders in schools is to be 'sh*t umbrella'. SLT need to umbrella, rather than funnel, things from external sources - DfE, Ofsted etc. Middle Leaders need to umbrella things from SLT. As a TLR holder you are expected to deal with certain things, working out what to ask you team to do, and what to shoulder yourself. Any leadership role in school requires expert plate spinning skills.

The DfE and Ofsted are always giving more and more plates to spin - as are the media (apparently they have cited 90+ new things that schools 'should be teaching' so far in 2017). Schools are often already working at capacity - so what gives? If SLT keep giving more plates to spin to their Middle Leaders and other staff, something will give at some point. 

So how do we preempt this? We need to ask honest, sometimes difficult, questions of ourselves, our polices and our expectations.

• If you just stopped doing it:
• Who would notice first? Students, colleagues, SLT, parents?  
• Would they be concerned? For what reasons?
• What would the consequences be? Primarily, for learning.
• How do you know? Can you measure time/impact?
• Could you rationally justify your actions?

This is obviously not a suggestion to just go breaking school policy! These may be small things, historical department policy etc. They may be initiatives (fads?) started years ago, that have just outlived their natural lifespan. 

A few suggestions I got from colleagues via Twitter that may be worth asking:

• Is our marking cycle making best use of time?
• 2 week marking cycle - each set of books marked approx 15 times per year - if you teach 200 pupils like many RE teachers... 3000 books marked per academic year - if you spend 3 mins on each book that's 150 hours a year - 5 hours per week minimum
• 3 week - 10 times per year, 200 pupils, 3 mins - 100 hours - 3.5 hours per week minimum
• 4 week - 7 times per year, 200 pupils, 3 mins - 70 hours - 2.5 hours per week minimum
• If you had an extra 2.5 hours a week to plan - would this be more or less beneficial to learning in your classroom? [Worth reading Tom Bennett's stats on marking <here>]
• How many formal observations per year?
• Preparation, planning, stress...
• What is the consistency? How many people get 2 similar and 1 vastly different? Or do most people get 3 within a similar threshold (grading or otherwise)? If so, why 3? 
• What is the best way to deliver CPD?
• Does anyone know if there has actually been any improvement after attending a session?
• Is it used to genuinely improve, or to 'get my hours up'? If it is the latter, are we simply wasting everyone's time?
• Does it look good on paper, or in reality?
• Do we need that meeting?
• Are meetings the best spent time in schools? 
• However, are typing up long documents of information effective?
• Key question is about effective communication - are we using our time wisely? 
• Is that paperwork really necessary?
• Who is it for? Will anyone every read it? What will come from it? How will it improve the learning of the students in my class?

Asking ourselves about best use of time is hard, and sometimes awkward. Teachers can be a strange breed. They can have strong beliefs on things, and can be quite immovable. Can we have an honest conversation about our time, our plates?

What is most effective use of my time?

What is not an effective use of my time? 

• What can I stop doing?
• What is using a disproportionate amount of my time?
• What could I be doing instead?

Some plates will get dropped by colleagues this year, you will drop a plate or too! Which ones will they be? Ones that you picked to drop? Or ones that you had no control over dropping? If you don't spend time identifying what is IKEA and what is Wedgwood, things may end up out of control.

It is hard when we see a colleague burn out or break down - when all their plates drop. Start thinking about it in September before it's too late.

In the meantime, watch Colin. He will teach you how to spin a plate FOR REAL:

Image courtesy of Movie Muse

Teaching: A Vocation?

In many a staff room, blog or conversation with friends or family, a teacher has claimed, "but it's not just a job, it's a vocation". Recently while out with a friend, and fellow teacher, we discussed the fact that this claim may used as an excuse for poor working conditions (including workload) and expecting people to do things without getting paid for them - or even paying out of their own pocket for resources and CPD.

I like my job. This is much more than many people who simply tolerate their job, or indeed hate their job  There are some aspects that I love, and some moments of absolute joy. However, often I do finish the day frustrated, annoyed or feeling inadequate. Too often I don't feel I can get the job done within the constraints placed upon me.

Some of the key reasons for me going into teaching:

• The skills I perceived that I had matched the demands of the job
• The pay would give me reasonable standard of living - certainly better than many others in the UK
• The holidays were a real bonus - especially with a family
• My mum was happy as a teacher and many of my own teachers seemed happy and content with their jobs

However is this claim that my job is a vocation why I am sat at the table marking in an evening rather than playing with my son or watching TV with my wife? Does it legitimise the extra hours I put in before school and late at night? Is it why I give up my Saturdays and evenings for CPD and attending conferences without recompense? Do I buy things out my own pocket for school, and for my students, due to this? Am I reluctant to take a day off, even when ill, as a result?

There has been a sentimental rhetoric peddled by the government and their agencies; "no one forgets a good teacher" (Thanks TTA), and more recent TV adverts filled with smiling, energetic teachers and smiling, enthused students (Thanks DfE). Yet, my main memories from school are of the teachers where we messed around. I do also remember some things about the good teachers, but this is not reason alone to go into the job. Is it real romanticism to say teaching is 'a calling', in the way few other jobs are?

Of course, I do try my best to teach my students things (and help them remember this information), while being some kind of marker and guide through their turbulent years. Of course I will be there in their moment of need, pick them up, smile, help them out. However, I think teachers should also realise their limits, their remit, their actual job description. If you are trying to do everything you maybe could, for every student, or for every colleague, quite simply you won't last long. You will burn out. Your vocation could be short lived.

This is not to devalue our jobs; they are important to individuals, and to society. Collectively, we do change lives, we give our students qualifications enabling them to go on and achieve great things, earn a good income and have their own families. Maybe they will even remember our name somewhere down the line. 

Fundamentally I enjoy my job, far more than I think I'd enjoy many other jobs. The children I teach often make me laugh. I love sharing my subject specialism. I thrive from the energy in schools. It feels like a privilege to do this. I'm certainly not on the 'ready to quit' list. Yet I am not naive to say I never would be. In fact, I think the optimum would be 3 days teaching, 1 day doing something education related, but not teaching, and an extra day with my family - I think this would make me a really happy, productive and effective teacher. This would also force me to ditch any TLRs which are often disproportionately low payments for the extra workload.

We must continue to ask "why do people teach?" Don't kid yourself, for many it is a pragmatic and convenient choice. People get made redundant and want a career change, or they have had kids of their own and want something that means they can have holidays with their offspring.

For some it may be a true vocation, they may feel a true calling, but this is not the case for everyone. We certainly can't tell people it is a vocation to make them feel like they should, or could, be doing more. Teaching has been called the 'martyr profession', but just because some teachers like to lay bare their stigmata, it doesn't mean everyone should feel that they should, and it's okay to feel like you have no stigmata at all! 

If we stop labeling teaching as a vocation, could we improve the job in hand? People should be paid for what they put in, rewarded for going above and beyond, and have reduced workload demands so that they are not simply working out of the goodness of their heart (or fear of repercussions).

I'm just not entirely convinced teaching is a vocation in a true sense, and maybe, by doing so, we are contributing to the morale and recruitment crisis. Teaching is not simply being John Keating (Dead Poets Society) or Erin Gruwell (Freedom Writers) every day, and if we sell that as the dream it can only lead to disappointment. Maybe teaching is a vocation, yet because of this, teachers are not getting treated the way they should. If it simply means we get exploited as a result, I'd rather just have a job!



WARNING - this last bit is God related! I am an RE teacher in a Catholic school and vocation always features in discussion about why we teach, and why we work in faith schools. There is potentially a whole other blog to be written here...

How about teaching in a Catholic school, especially RE, surely that is a vocation?

Many do claim that there is a real vocation to working in faith schools. Perhaps staff make sacrifices, such slower promotion due to less opportunities if they want to stay in faith school system? However the dangers still remain, and potentially they are greater. I was once told of a church school where staff were reminded of the evangelical counsels (sometimes known as the counsels of perfection): chastity, poverty and obedience. This is a horrendous message to give to staff.

I do feel a vocation, to be a Christian. My job is a part of that, in as much as all things I do in life are. I try to evangelise through my word and deed, not just in the classroom, but always. I do not proselytise; I do not preach.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

Dying for Half Term?

First I was dying to finish high school and start college.

And then I was dying to finish college and start working.

And then I was dying to marry and have children.

And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough

 for school so I could return to work.

And then I was dying to retire.

And now, I am dying... and suddenly I realise I forgot to live.

Anon

This powerful reflection reminds me of the John Lennon quote, "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.". I am one of countless teachers desperate for that bell to go at 3.30pm today. We're low on energy, patience and enthusiasm.

I love my job, I really do and I can't imagine doing any thing else. The young people I work with are incredible, wonderful and amazing. However, like many other teachers, I find myself wishing away the term; when's the next holiday?

The last ten years of teaching have gone past very quickly. I remember graduating in 2005 and starting my great teaching adventure with a PGCE and my first job in July 2006. I remember exactly how badly I did some things, and the horrific mistakes I made with classes I taught and colleagues I worked with. If I am honest, I still do some things badly now, and I still make plenty of mistakes... I just can't hide behind my NQT folder!

However, is it really possible to live for the moment in schools? I'm pretty sure we do at times. Sometimes I stand back in my classroom and remind myself how lucky I am and what a great job it is. I even allow a smug smile and an imaginary self pat on the back.

Yet too often we don't. We are rushing, missing deadlines, wishing we had more time, thinking 'if only?'. Then all of a sudden the next half term holiday comes, the summer arrives and it's another year of teaching chalked up. I used to keep all my old planners and diaries as a stark reminder of how many years had passed. Then I got my pension slip and saw SIXTY SEVEN; that'd be 45 planners. I'm sure those years will still go surprisingly quickly.

Finding time to live as a teacher is hard. However the classroom does still makes me feel alive (apart from maybe p6 on a Friday) in a  way that I struggle to see how an office would; I know I would find it hard to give up.


It seems workload is going to be the new teacher vote winner (the irony of spending time filling in more paperwork to air your views on this does not escape me) as Morgan, Hunt and Clegg announce they will reduce it if elected.




Some stuff we do is crap, but a lot of the extra stuff we do does make us better teachers. Maybe I'm lucky in my school and its not as bad as in others? I'm pretty sure some of my teachers at school didn't have clue what grades I was supposed to get, and it didn't make a blind bit of difference what my final results were. They cared, but did they get the best out of everyone? Do we get the best out of more students now? I really hope so, or it really is in vain.




So how to live and not spend our lives counting down to the next holidays? I'm not sure. I'm just glad that there always is another holiday as that means in the not too distant future there will be another new term and we can start afresh again with renewed energy, enthusiasm and patience for the weeks ahead.