Typical day/year? Typical teacher responsibilities?
|
|
Hi guys,
I'm really trying to come to grips with how the schools over there work:
1)THE TYPICAL SCHOOL YEAR: I was reading up on the British education system somewhere on-line when I found that kids are required to start their education at one of 3 dates soon after their 5th birthday. From this it seems as though the school runs all year long, and yet on one of the other threads here I read that the school year consists of 198 in-class days. Could someone give me an idea of what the typical school year is like for a secondary teacher? Do the kids go to school for 3 semesters/year? How about the teachers? When generally are there breaks and how long are they?
2)THE TYPICAL SCHOOL DAY; At what time does the typical school day start for students and teachers at the secondary level? I know that when I was an exchange student in Ecuador, the students would leave school grounds for a lunch breach around 11am and then return around 1:30 or 2 to continue classes until about 4:30 or 5. Any breaks in the school day there? How long are class periods generally? Do all classes meet every day or do they rotate on a block type schedule? I guess what I'm looking for is a discription of what a typical school day is like there.
3)TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIES: In my current position I am required to monitor hallways and restrooms between classes and supervise the student lunch room during one of the lunch rotations. I also have an on-line grade reporting site which I am required to update for parents and students weekly. What kinds of things are teachers generally held responsible for over there? Do teachers get lesson prepping time during the school day?
I know I asking a lot here...sorry...but any help getting a bead on things would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Meli |
|
Ok, I'm going to answer my own questions from a year ago JUST in case some else out there needs the answer.
TYPICAL YEAR: Starts in September and runs through July. There are half term and end of term breaks evenly spread throughout the year conveniently placed to encompass Christmas and Easter. These breaks occur about once every 5 weeks with half terms being a week long and end of terms being two weeks long. Most schools also allow for a few days of person time off for observance of religious holidays if you are not of a Christian background.
TYPICAL DAY: Starts about 8:15am with a daily staff meeting for teachers. Students then are expected to arrive by 8:30 for daily registration (kind of like homeroom...sort of). Registration (attendance) lasts for about 20 minutes and then it is into a sequence of hour-long class with ONE BELL seperating one from another (no passing time...). You have 1st and 2nd periods then a 15 minute break for all then 3rd and 4th period followed by a 50 minute lunch for all. Then there is 5th period followed by dismissal for most teacher and students at 3pm. For some, and I am now included, there is what they call period 6 which runs until 4pm.
TYPICAL TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIES: Every teacher has an assigned duty. Mine is to monitor a certain hallway during break on Tues and Thurs. Other teachers have monitoring the cantine (lunchroom) one day a week, or patroling the surrounding community during break or lunch (cause the kids can go anywhere and do anything during these times), or monitor the outside of the building before and after school to make sure fights don't break out...etc.
Also, there is no daily planning time. When I started I had 2 hours of protected planning allotment (PPA)per fortnight. They've recently discovered that I was being shorted and have increased it to 4 hours per fortnight (you're suppose to have 10% of the contact time as planning time). These occur during open periods in your schedule called non-contact periods. There are other non-contact periods that are not marked PPA which you MAY get to use for marking...etc but don't count on it as most times you get called to cover for another teacher who is out during that period. This is because the schools can't afford to pay for enough Supply teachers which are provided by agencies here.
You don't see all of your classes everyday or even at the same time every other day. You get an A week and B week rotata with class meeting times plotted where they fit. Many classes are SHARED between different teachers. Each teacher is then assigned a different part of the curriculum to teach so you don't have to continually get together to figure out how far the other person got.
I had 13 different preps when I started out. That's 13 different groups of students who came to my class at different points on my two week rota. All of these groups were studying different topics at different paces. Some came 3 days a week (different periods) and some came 1 day per fortnight and some 2 times "A week" and 1 "B week" ..etc. I'm now down to 2 preps (lost two and gained 1).
This brings me to the last bit which is the school can change your teaching rota AT ANY TIME to meet a need such as another teacher out on extended sick leave or a teacher quitting. If they feel there's a group of students being impacted that are more in need of your talents you may loose/gain whole or part of classes inorder to meet the needs present.
Ok...I hope that is helpful to someone out there.
CHEERS! |
|
I meant to say "I'm now down to 12 preps.."
By the way, I only am required to teach a period 6 class on Mondays and it is made up of year 11 students from my two different year 11 classes...
|
|
ALso, in some schools, you can take an extra duty for pay.
For example, at my school, some teachers are full-time canteen monitors (they work there every day at lunch), for an extra 1,000 a year. (It would take a LOT of money for me to give up my lunch hour every single day of the year -- more than that, I'm afraid!)
|
|
| Are you teaching in the UK now then? where were you prior? |
|
|
|
Report This Page as Inappropriate
