Ian

I must speak up for those teachers' that arrive and leave on the bell, because I'm one of them.

The reason I do this is to minimise child care fees. I'm just not paid enough to pay my mortgage, food, fuel, school fees, and child care. Literally very little is left over after meeting the basic needs of a family.

But I spend ALL day Sunday, 10 until 10 at night (sometimes midnight), preparing for the week ahead so I can dash off early. Holidays are spent preparing for the term as well. This is when I write my exams, and I usually spend the time at a university campus library doing this so I can access their resources.

My children are collected by their father one day a week, and I use that day to stay back late and work until the cleaners kick me out.

I am always sourcing for resources throughout the week/end, and find the Sydney Morning Herald a brilliant source of resources for the classroom, particularly their weekend magazine. I hand out articles to all staff members.

I eat on the run at school, rarely sitting down or taking a lunch break.

That's what I see of other teachers as well. They're always rushing carrying large bundles of precariously balanced objects.

Of all the teachers' in my staffroom, I think there's only one that probably is a bit too relaxed about his preparation. He has a wife who is a teacher, and I think she does a lot for him as far as classroom preparation goes.

Liz: I don't wamt to divert discussion into the male/female issue again - but the people I was thinking about who dashed off were usually men, and many of those probably had valid reasons as well. Many of my staff were women in situations like your own, and I know how they used time late at night for preparation - one could see it in the quality of their lessons - and was happy to accommodate their needs to deal with sick children etc because of the overall benefits they provided to the school. One of the great rewards of teaching,apart from knowing that you are actually contributing something real to society, is the flexibiity it gives and your comments support my general thesis that the most valid indicator of "performance" is what actually happens in the classroom - which of course needs sophisticated tools to measure.

Ian

With regards to the selection criteria for teachers to attend these summer schools, why 'leading teachers'? If only leading teachers are to be sent to these programs, what happens to those teachers who are not quite up to scratch or worse, unmotivated and disinterested. Offering these teachers the opportunity to revisit some of the things that attracted them to teaching in the first place might actually reinvigorate their practice.

I'm about to finish my degree at a regional university. While I'm not entirely happy with the quality of preparation I have received, I've also gone out of my way to engage with models of professional development such as attending teaching and discipline specific conferences, have joined two professional organisations and worked as a research assistant during my degree. All this on my own time and using my own money (except the research assistant work where I've been paid to undertake it - but that's because the academics have seen that I am committed to my own professional and academic acheivement and are thus willing to assist me). I've had no holidays during my degree - all those long breaks have been spent working and studying. I intend to continue doing this after I join the teaching profession but I don't think that that should automatically qualify me for a summer school. Far better that the money is spent on professional development at the coalface for all teachers. Only then will the improvements in teacher motivation and student acheivement begin.

Oh dear - now it is party political to point out that my less than satisfactory teacher training was done under an ALP led regime. And even more party political to criticise the AEU no doubt. The ALP and the AEU have been responsible for the shift to the left in education. They dismantled technical schools and special schools - cheaper to have "one size fits all" dressed up as "politically correct". Same groups insisted on "social studies" and teaching a politically correct view of history, of teaching a narrow Australian focus, of filling the children's bookshelves full of either didactic literature about drugs, divorce, rape, sexual equality, AIDS and death or the equivalent of Mills and Boon for children. Give them a wee dose of an Asian language to round it out and they are "educated" but sans the basic skills.
Any wonder the students are bored and resentful?

HRS,

I would often leave school on meeting-free nights before 4.00pm, but equally often I had work to do at home at night, on the weekends and during the holidays. Surveys show that the average working week for a teacher has grown over the years to more than 50 hours.

At my last school, Hampton Park Secondary College, I was the daily organiser. This meant I had to start work at 7.30am in order to re-organise classes for absent teachers. This would usually take about an hour each morning. I averaged 8 hours 52 minutes a week over the year 2000. In some weeks, such as during exams and work experience, I would spend more than twice that time.

I was also the school timetabler. I averaged 15 hours 14 minutes for this job. In total, my leadership responsibilities took me 24 hours 6 minutes per week. For this, I received a time allowance (deduction from a normal teaching load) of 7 periods, or 5 hours and 36 minutes. I call that exploitation.

A 50-hour week is not unusual in teaching. I can point to 60-plus hour weeks in my own time as a teacher. Here are some examples of the time commitment required: Monday 24/1/2000, finished at 8.40pm; Tuesday 25/1, finished at 2.00am the next morning, Wednesday 26/1, started again at 3.50am and finished at 6.50pm; Thursday 27/1, finished at 10.50pm; Friday, 28/1, finished at 12 midnight; Saturday, 29/1, started at 1.05am and finished at 9.25 pm; Sunday 30/1, finished at 10.35 pm. (I do not have records for every day I ever taught. I kept them in this case because I wanted to know how long the timetabling job took.)

All those who go on about teachers’ easy life are profoundly ignorant of the truth. If we had occupational villification legislation, teachers would be the first victors in the thousands of cases that would follow. It intrigues me how so many are so ready to condemn an entire profession when they know so little about what its members do.

Chris C,
I've had a teacher tell me that they work 100 hrs a week, but I didn't believe them. Because working 100 hrs a week would involve working over 14 hrs a day, 7 days a week.

When teachers make claims of working 100 hrs a week, then I think members of the public can question what teachers are saying.