Educators' Lounge - Place to chit and chat

@BPDSurvivor

above message @tyme , @Former-Member , @RachSANECEO , @Zoe7 , @Snowie , @purplesneakers

Welcome all Educators and those involved in Education!

We look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to share:

1) Your work as an educator

2) Your biggest wins as an educator

3) The biggest pain points as an educator

4) How mental health affects your mental health

5) Anything else you want to share in relation to education

@Jacob7 @GADzooks @misty8 @Cat381 @OM108 @Appleblossom @KittyLove1984 @BPDSurvivor @Shaz51 @Snowie @Zoe7

Have work off tomorrow @tyme @Shaz51 @BPDSurvivor but hoping to be back Tuesday.

I think the kids here in Melb have only another 6 weeks to go and they are on holidays again @Zoe7

All the school holidays are scattered around Australia.

They are @tyme It is good for travel being different but we finish really close to Christmas so the end of year is hectic.

A great idea @tyme

1) Have been a teacher for over 20 years now, mainly in secondary schools. All public. Have taught PE, Health, Science and Maths. Did a lot of coordinating, especially in years 9 and 10. Meant a lot more administration, dealing with students behaviour and parents and support for other teachers.

2) My biggest wins are small things. When a student says "I wish I had you as a teacher", "I wish I could have you again". When I witness students succeeding, when I have an effect on their lives.

3) My biggest pain points are a few. Lack of parental support, dealing with racial issues between different cultures, having to justify every decision I make. I'm sure there are more.

4) I think it has effected my mental health a lot, as I am currently on work cover and not working. There were a number of incidents that led to this.

5) Working in a very low income, high racial tensions, high suspension rates area for about 5 years has led me to realise that a lot more help needs to be given to schools. And not just more teachers. A lot more support staff are needed. The number of students keep increasing with little support behind it.

Thanks for reading

Thank you for sharing @Snowie .

I think a lot of people can relate to what you are saying.

I only heard about how substitute teachers are getting abused by secondary students, and there's little they can do. It was on ABC news today.

No wonder there's not enough teachers....

Hello @tyme , 😎

@BPDSurvivor , @Snowie , @Zoe7

, @Jacob7 , @GADzooks , @misty8 , @Cat381 , @OM108 , @Appleblossom , @KittyLove1984

Welcome all Educators and those involved in Education!

We look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to share:

1) Your work as an educator

I was a pre school teachers aid

and a Private childcare provider for 30 years which included planning for children ranging in ages from 5 week old to 14 years old and having aa development folder for each child who came into my care

2) Your biggest wins as an educator

My biggest wins is having the children wanting to come and visit me as they got older in the school holidays and to see them growing into adulthood and having children of their own

3) The biggest pain points as an educator

My Biggest pain points was having to Join a childcare scheme because the government was getting rid of "backyard babysitting " as they called it

the saddest point was that I could not look after all the children who i was looking after befor joining and some families had to find somewhere else

4) How mental health affects your mental health

It affected by mental health in the paperwork that I had to fill out every week to show what i was doing and also having to travel to childcare providers meetings

and also having the "Bosses" turning up whenever they wanted too

5) Anything else you want to share in relation to education

Working in a very low income,

back there we needed more support as I also looking after children with handicap problems, blind, ADHD, ASD , Phyical problems and mental problems

Thank you for sharing @Shaz51 @Snowie @Zoe7 ,

For me:

1) Your work as an educator

I work with both primary and high school. I started as a kindergarten teacher, then moved into primary and now high school. Each age group has its pros and cons. I don't particularly love a certain age group, nor do I hate an age group. At the moment, I mainly work mentoring teachers to make reasonable adjustments in the classroom for students. I also mentor graduate teachers. Other than that, I teach 7-9 Maths and Science.

2) Your biggest wins as an educator

Every day is different. You want surprises? Then welcome to education. Seeing the impact I have on students is definitely a winner.

3) The biggest pain points as an educator

People. I recognise many teachers are stressed and so one of the greatest pain points are constant complainers. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't like it, move on.

Also, I wish graduates came into the industry better prepared. It's NOT all fun and games. You DON'T enter education and just 'teach'. The majority is supporting and managing behaviour.

4) How mental health affects your mental health

My place of work was not supportive to mental health. I was pretty much told not to talk about it. Since then, COVID hit, and we have a new principal. Wellbeing is a key focus now - phew!

Also, being a teacher meant you had to always appear okay even if things were not okay. The masking, putting on of the brave face, can be really taxing.

5) Anything else you want to share in relation to education

I still feel education is very much influenced by industrialisation. We are expected to turn the kids out to 'conform' to society. We need more schools that teach life skills. Schools that embrace neurodiversity. Schools that are inclusive of all.

I have to add, I feel education is one industry where teachers are expected to cop abuse. If it was any other industry, worksafe would be at the door. But because minors are the ones telling teachers to 'eff off' and 'shut up', then that's okay? No to mention the sexualised behaviour of students in many high schools.

I recently heard a student mouth off at an assistant principal. Yet there was little the prin could do...

Surely, we can further protect teachers? Where do we draw the line?

Please don't get me wrong, I love my job. But like anything, there's room for improvement.

Hi everyone,

If you were at school today, how was your school day? @tyme @Snowie @Zoe7 @GADzooks @mr-robot-75

I don't know what the size of your schools are, but mine is around the 2500 student mark. Organisation is crucial, and today our timetabling software conked it so everyone was a bit everywhere.

Whatever, it's the end of another day. Thinking about it, I have about 6 weeks left until school holidays. Do other teachers count down too?