Retired teacher speaks out.
After four years of study and armed with degrees the equivalent of every other profession, teachers get stuck in classrooms without heating or air-conditioning and jammed into cramped working spaces.
No wonder there is such a huge burnout rate from the profession.
Retired teacher who has also worked at all levels of industry / commerce, Reader's Comment 12 of 19, Union says prepare for private school teachers strike, Tanya Chilcott, The Courier-Mail, 24 May 2010.
When doing my first "pracs" at primary schools this year I was shocked at the conditions teachers work under and with the behaviour that they put up with.
Both schools I worked in had dusty, vermin infested classrooms, broken furniture and broken computers.
Student Teacher, Readers' Comments 215 of 258, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 Billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail : 7 November, 2009.
My daily routine - by a Queensland classroom teacher.
On my way to school every day I buy bread - out of my own wages - and I make sandwiches.
This is because half of the students in my class are not fed breakfast at home.
Then I get my teaching resources ready for the day.
I rarely get much of a lunch break because this is the time when we do some individual testing, or follow up with the principal about behaviour problems, or make sure children finish the work they avoided during class time.
After school I go home and do my planning and marking.
I email my students' parents regarding concerns when I am at home.
At the moment it is reporting time and I haven't had a night off in weeks, nor a weekend.
I have a hecs debt.
But I often have to spend $50 a week on resources for my classroom and my students, because the government doesn't provide stationary for us, or resources.
For example, I have to buy soap for my students because it is not provided, even with the swine flu concerns.
We were given one bottle of soap (which lasted two days) and no more.
And at my school many of the parents can't afford to buy books for their children, so I have to buy them out of my own wages, along with pencils, glue, scissors, tissues, printing paper and other resources.
Lazy Teacher, Readers' Comments 235 of 258, Premier Anna Bligh finds $1 Billion for Queensland teachers, Darrell Giles, The Sunday Mail, 7 November, 2009.
Education Queensland can take your wages in order to prepare for legal action.
Education Queensland has recently decided to stop handling all workplace health and safety issues that arise and refer them on to a special department that has been set up to investigate and penalise (financially) teachers who may be present when an accident occurs on a school site.
The impact on things like school sport, playground duty, musicals, rock eisteddfods, and any activity that involves a free radical component, is HUGE.
The day has finally arrived when the paranoid, fear mongering bureaucrat has taken over.
To teach in today's classroom not only dealing with a rising level of apathy from parents and the general community (not to mention those who just want to hide their head in the sand) - but you now need to deal with the fact that the organisation you work for can garnish your wages after a minor incident under the premise that it is preparing for potential legal costs (that may or may not eventuate).
If this legislation is allowed to stay in place, no one will stay in teaching.
Mitch of Brisbane, Reader's Comment 47 of 128, Queensland headed for dumb, immoral future, warns teacher, James O'Loan, The Courier-Mail : 7 November, 2009
This seems pretty amazing. Is it correct? Would anybody like to comment? robina@theteachersareblowingtheirwhistles
