Secondary Thinking about becoming a teacher

[footy75]

This is also secondary teaching, is it not?

Nah not really. Talk to teachers that have moved up from primary to high school.

They will tell you way better and way less bullshit.

Well that's what I have been told from numerous teachers.

 

[wadistance]

Think it’s fairly person specific. I’ve gone secondary to primary and I can’t see myself ever changing back

Nah not really. Talk to teachers that have moved up from primary to high school.

They will tell you way better and way less bullshit.

Well that's what I have been told from numerous teachers.

 

[Forward Press]

Nah not really. Talk to teachers that have moved up from primary to high school.

They will tell you way better and way less bullshit.

Well that's what I have been told from numerous teachers.

I appreciate your perspective, I have never taught in primary school though. There is still endless bureaucracy in high school - after years of experience I'm better at managing and prioritising my time but at the start I definitely had more non-teaching time for various bullshit than actual teaching time.

Think it’s fairly person specific. I’ve gone secondary to primary and I can’t see myself ever changing back

Is that due to the workload, job satisfaction etc?

 

[wadistance]

I appreciate your perspective, I have never taught in primary school though. There is still endless bureaucracy in high school - after years of experience I'm better at managing and prioritising my time but at the start I definitely had more non-teaching time for various bullshit than actual teaching time.



Is that due to the workload, job satisfaction etc?

Few different things.

I do miss High School from time to time. I miss the connection you can have with the older kids. You can joke about day to day stuff, talk about the footy, have a kick with them at lunch times etc.

But the reality is, most of the HS kids don't really care about you, whereas for the primary school kids, for many of them, you are the centre of their world. They appreciate you - you're almost a third parent to many of them.

The marking I find is less intensive due to the level of work. The reporting is easier. The programming is much easier, as a lot of what you are doing is teaching basics, but in adaptable ways for younger minds to piece it together. Workload in that respect is then less, as the whole package I find less labor intensive.

The hardest part though is definitely how you always need to be 100 percent on. You have questions flying around at you from all directions, and you gotta be ready for them.

 

[raskolnikov]

I've taught both primary and secondary. There are aspects I llke about both and aspects I dislike about both. Primary tends to be longer hours but I enjoy having the same class all year.

I moved to a special school this year for something different and loving it. I'm teaching a grade 4/5 class with 7 kids. Most of them are around a prep level but have a couple of kids who are really good readers. Well their reading skills are good not so much their comprehension so working on that with them. The paperwork is quite manageable too. I'm arriving at 7:30 and leaving at 4 feeling like I'm on top of things whereas in mainstream I always felt snowed under.

Funny story. I have one kid who is a great kid but has a challenging home life. Last week I took a few of them to the town cross country. All the primary schools, state catholic and christian, in town meet together to do it. They had to run around a reserve a couple of times. This kid is struggling a bit. The crowd is cheering him on. He stops, turns to them gjves them the birdy with both hands and yells at them, "I hate running you campaigners". Couldn't stop laughing.

 

[gordo2016]

I've taught both primary and secondary. There are aspects I llke about both and aspects I dislike about both. Primary tends to be longer hours but I enjoy having the same class all year.

I moved to a special school this year for something different and loving it. I'm teaching a grade 4/5 class with 7 kids. Most of them are around a prep level but have a couple of kids who are really good readers. Well their reading skills are good not so much their comprehension so working on that with them. The paperwork is quite manageable too. I'm arriving at 7:30 and leaving at 4 feeling like I'm on top of things whereas in mainstream I always felt snowed under.

Funny story. I have one kid who is a great kid but has a challenging home life. Last week I took a few of them to the town cross country. All the primary schools, state catholic and christian, in town meet together to do it. They had to run around a reserve a couple of times. This kid is struggling a bit. The crowd is cheering him on. He stops, turns to them gjves them the birdy with both hands and yells at them, "I hate running you campaigners". Couldn't stop laughing.

That's gold, would have been hilarious. Did he finish the run?

 

[raskolnikov]

That's gold, would have been hilarious. Did he finish the run?

No. He only did one lap. One of the girls did one lap. Another girl who I thought would be the one to hate it did both laps.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

"I hate running you campaigners".

BigFooty wins again.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

My niece ran onto the track and piggybacked her son (7) during school sports day when it looked like he was going to stop and have a meltdown. Everyone clapped them over the line.