Stress levels and constant changes in teaching; we put up with it because of the children, but is there a limit?

Earlier this week I read a TES news article about the stress levels of the teaching profession. 

It stated that teaching is in the top three most stressful jobs (alongside health care and the uniformed forces such as firefighters and police) and is one of the most likely to cause psychological illness out of more than 80 professions studied by a highly respected source. 

I mentioned this on my Facebook page and a friend and fellow teacher (but with more experience than myself) added to it by saying something I completely agree with. It is not TEACHING that is stressful. It's the frustration of doing things for the sake of it and all the other things that are not actually teaching that lead to stress. Also that the assessments and progress expected don't take even the smallest account that there is an actual child sat there with many issues, skills and talents in a wide range of fields. The law of averages says that not everyone is good at Maths AND English, yet they are expected to be and to progress at the same rate!?

Teachers teach because they love to teach children. But, frustratingly, this is becoming a smaller and smaller part of the job role. It almost makes me laugh that it is still called 'teaching'! When teaching posts are advertised they should be labelled as "data producer wanted, with ability to do the impossible for the benefit of everyone except the children you are working with. *note that SOME teaching may be required".

It also commented how teaching as a profession suffers more changes for 'changes-sake' than almost any other job. I can certainly believe that! This is - in my opinion - the main thing causing all of the stress and psychological unrest. People who are not teachers often do not fully understand the extent of these issues. They think back to 'how school was back when they were there'. But as the start of this paragraph implies... School and teaching have changed A LOT since then. I believe the current statistic stands at one in five teachers leaving the profession each year for reasons other than reaching retirement age. And this isn't just newly qualified teachers, we are losing devoted, talented, experienced teachers more now than ever before, at a time when we need them the most. Not anyone can teach. A newsreader on BBC news last week was talking to a teacher (initially about "gay teachers") and said something along the lines of "but should the children need their teacher to be humanised? Don't you just teach them that you are the teacher and they just listen to what you say and do as you tell them because you're the teacher?" I was sat watching it with steam coming out of my ears! This is another example of the fact that a lot of educated people have no idea what is actually happening in education, especially within the classrooms. The profession has changed, the pupils have changed, the expectations have changed. Fine. We are committed to our vocation and we will persevere. What needs to stop co start bombardment of extra, unachievable, unnecessary changes bestowed from in high that far from improving the nation's education system, are simply stopping us being able to actually do our job; teach!

In spite of all these 'issues' and 'challenges' we face as teachers we really do love our job and care about the children we work with. I know that I do at least. I am passionate about my job, and so are the teachers I work with and have worked with in the past. We tolerate the constant changes and unrealistic data management pressures for the sake of the children. All the good will teachers have that makes us go the extra mile, all the extra hours we work often to the detriment of our own families and social lives, all the money we spend from our own pockets (another issue entirely!) to make the children's classrooms a joyful place to learn... we do this because we care about the children. But there is only so much you can throw at people before they snap! This is why teachers are leaving; not because they "can't hack it" or because they "aren't up to scratch as teachers", but because it's all just too much and everyone has a limit. If the changes were to genuinely improve children's education, then I would be fully on board. The problem is that this unfortunately is usually not the case.

A big well done to every teacher out there. You are doing a great job! We may be superheroes but everyone needs a break, so make sure you take time for yourself and your family. Plus, there's just three weeks until the summer holidays, so even if you do not have time to stop and think right now, you will have soon! Please try and stay positive and keep teaching those children. My current mantra... it's not the kids' fault the education system is a mess!

Keep calm and carry on teaching, from Miss M xxx

Original article from TES that prompted this blog.
Teaching is among the 'top three most stressed occupations'

Kaye Wiggins  25th June 2015https://www.tes.co.uk/news/school-news/breaking-news/teaching-among-top-three-most-stressed-occupations

Image staken from www.amazon.co.uk & superheroes.education

 

The story behind 'What Would Miss Honey Do?'

Hi, I'm Miss M. I am a Primary School Teacher living and teaching in Lancashire.

I have been meaning to set up a blog for a while... so here it is!

The contents of this blog will vary from post to post. I will be writing about things such as...
- my personal experiences in teaching
- my views on educational issues / news / topics
- teaching ideas, lessons and resources that I have seen / used / found particularly fun or useful
- sometimes there will just be personal stuff that I want to talk about (just because I can, because it's my blog, so there). Like any travels or interesting happenings in the world of Miss M.

To start, a little more information about me - the teacher, the person, the blogger.
I have never written a blog before (which some of you may say is obvious) but am looking forward to putting some of my thoughts and ideas out there and I hope that they entertain, help or inspire a couple of people along the way.

The name of the blog - What would Miss Honey do? - is not based on my name. That's where the Miss M bit comes from. No, as some of you may have guessed it actually comes from the character of Miss Honey in Roald Dahl's children's book Matilda. She is a character that I aspired to be like as a youngster as I sat playing Schools with my eager little line of teddy bear students and a small chalkboard. She was so loved by her pupils and even her name just sounds lovely. (I am a little obsessed with bees too, which will no doubt become evident as I continue to post.) In my young, impressionable eyes Miss Honey was what a teacher should be. Miss Honey was what I wanted to be.

As I have got older and volunteered, trained, qualified and worked as a teacher, there are many people/teachers who have inspired me and my teaching style. The aspiration to be Miss Honey was something I forgot about as I focussed more on assimilating features from some of the outstanding teachers I have had the pleasure and honour to either be taught by or work with such as the immortal Mrs Lemon; a true teaching superstar.

However, Miss Honey recently came up whilst teaching my current Y2 class. Let me set the scene...
It is World Book Day. In the abstract world that is a Primary School this means that all of the staff an children come in dressed up as a book character of their choice. All of the KS1 teaching staff coordinated and dressed up as a menagerie of Mr Men and Little Miss characters (I was Little Miss Christmas; Christmas being another obsessions that is likely to appear as my posts continue). As far as the children's costumes were concerned, naturally there were many Spidermen, Batmen and whole host of Elsas from Disney's frozen, the concept of book character a little lost on a few of the children. One little girl in my class, however, came dressed as the original child bookworm herself; Matilda from Roald Dahl's Matilda. She was wearing a blue dress, little lace-up pumps and the classic red ribbon in her hair. She carried with her a little parcel of books tied with string. She looked great. Such a simple costume but perfectly executed. You could tell instantly who she was.

As the day went on the children and I asked each other about our costume choices. When our very own Matilda-for-a-day explained why she had dressed as such my heart just soared.
"I came as Matilda because I think Miss M is just like Miss Honey from Matilda. So I wanted to be Matilda and Miss M is like Miss Honey." This was emphasised when speaking with her mother later on, who was sick of hearing about me at home and how 'just perfect' I was.

Well that was it. Goal as a teacher achieved. I may have only been teaching for a year or so at this point but I may as well have retired then and there. There was no doubt that I wasn't in the right profession or that I wasn't doing a good job. My pupil thought I was like Miss Honey; that beats an OFSTED rating any day!

So that is the story behind the blog title, and I hope it gives you a little bit of an incite into who I am as a teacher. It's a busy, pressured, stressful profession, there is no doubt. But it is one of the most rewarding things that you can do, and I love (almost) every second of it.

Well, that is this post completed I feel. I hope it will be the first of many.
If you enjoy my blog/posts then please share it around and come back to read my future posts!
Thanks for reading; Miss M xxx

Images taken from...
www.aseanjournal.com  &  boldlygo.co