Balls! Another insane day...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I've been a teacher for 12 years now, but I still happen to be overwhelmed with bullshit now and then...
It's staff meeting time by now. As I needed more marks for some of my classes, I gave them a last test, which means more grading (from 00 to 20/20) in time before the cut (for entering your marks on the server). Yesterday I worked in the morning as usual but, though Wednesdays are traditionally off, I had to set to more work. I spent 5 hours on 32 essays (about the songs "Breathe" and "Time", by Pink Floyd). Four, five, six pages... I nearly cancelled my participation in my band's rehearsal because of that shit. But I decided to go, because we welcomed a new member (a sax player), and I knew it would be my only moment of leisure in 3 days.
I had to go back home just after the rehearsal, for I had to fix a couple of courses for today, which I couldn't do in the afternoon because of those extra papers... I could only go to bed at 1:00 am, had to get up at 6. But my work was done...
Today there was a national strike, including education. Some of my colleagues chose not to work, so that my pupils had a few spare hours, which means they were not ideally concentrated. The 5th graders, that is. Upper graders were cool as usual. Add the first snow in the season that will stay, and you get excited little doggies... Rrrrrrrhhhhaaaaaaaaawww! Anyway.
I also had my fucking 5 hours in a row (8 am - 1 pm) followed with a last one from 2 pm to 3 pm. Then it was a 30-mile drive to a school where I make an extra hour. Then... back to the lycee at 5 pm (another 30-mile drive) to take part in a staff meeting: about a 35- student class.
This time I decided not to even open my briefcase!

I like this job that I've been doing for a rather long time, but there is a major drawback to it: it's never over when you're back home. Never. Sometimes I dream of a normal one, that is when I quit in the end of the day I could say "Basta!" until the morning after...
I don't know of any other job that can piss you off that much at times, really. Sure we have about a 4 month-holiday (adding every period), but in between weeks and months off your mind is busy with it all the time about what's next and all and, though you officially work 15 to 18 hours a week (27 for schoolmasters), the time any other worker has for him/herself is taken up.
Most of the time, it's all right, but weeks like that are a real drag. Sometimes I wouldn't need to be asked twice to leave the bloody kids alone!

[m_dixon1984]

Sounds rough. Smoke a joint, have a good stiff drink (make it a triple), get laid.

My horror from working in a manufacturing plant 10 years ago. The first month I worked in this hell building computers (Digital PC manufacturing) I was installing motherboards. That's all. Every fucking day 70-300 motherboards depending on the machine specifications. I would go home at night, smoke a joint and have that stiff drink and occasionally get laid. Didn't matter. For weeks I would wake up repeatedly through the night drenched in sweat. My nightmare: putting screws in motherboards. Endlessly putting these little fucking screws on the end of the screwdriver and driving them into the motherboard, over and over again, machine after machine. ZZZZip, ZZZZip, ZZZZip, ZZZZip...AAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

It was horrible. The nightmare continued with less frequency for YEARS. I'm down to about once a year now but it still comes back. I hate that job. It ruined sleep for me but gave me a whole new respect for people that do these jobs with repetitive tasks.

I can't imagine how much worse it could have been
without those three things.

M

[m_dixon1984]

BTW, Jerome, I have tons of respect for what you do. Non-teachers often end up calling you whiners because of all the vacation time you get. I'm sure you've heard it before. It's bullshit. You've earned it. I don't have kids of my own but do have lots of experience trying to deal with other people's kids. 5th graders, 9 and 10 year olds, not yours...that would be truly horrific for me. Keep up the good work. People like you are truly invaluable.
M

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I sympathize... Those screws that chased you even in your sleep... :eek:

I only worked for 6 weeks in a factory, 16 years ago, to pay part of my studies. But I remember that once I had got used to the gestures, my thoughts could roam...
That's another drawback of teaching: once your pupils are there, you can't think of anything but your course and the way to make it work - and the continuity of the students' work.
And while you prepare your courses or grade papers, your mind is set on it, you can't help it. And these activities take you a really long time, if you want to do your job well enough.
Now I'm going to hit the sack; I won't dream of my classroom, though: it never happens.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by m_dixon1984
BTW, Jerome, I have tons of respect for what you do. Non-teachers often end up calling you whiners because of all the vacation time you get. I'm sure you've heard it before. It's bullshit. You've earned it. I don't have kids of my own but do have lots of experience trying to deal with other people's kids. 5th graders, 9 and 10 year olds, not yours...that would be truly horrific for me. Keep up the good work. People like you are truly invaluable.
M

Well, thanks a lot! You sound like a wise man, really. Thumbs up!

[Millermoos]

Are you happy in your job Jerome? Because it sounds like stress is taking over....Is this, what you always wanted to do in life? Think carefully cos life is very short.....Are you really useful to the students? Or would you be more of help to human kind and yourself if you did another job?
Millermoos

[franksters]

Jérôme,

Your career is under estimated to begin with, I mean teachers should be elevated because in the end it,s almost sacred, without them what would the world become.

Be Proud of what you're doing and keep it up, don't forget every job or career as it's down side, but for yours at least you're getting good vacations and you are not dealing with the ''adult'' world...

keep it up man, enjoy the ride! even if it's bumpy...

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by Millermoos
Are you happy in your job Jerome? Because it sounds like stress is taking over....Is this, what you always wanted to do in life? Think carefully cos life is very short.....Are you really useful to the students? Or would you be more of help to human kind and yourself if you did another job?
Millermoos

Well, cheers, Millermoos. Most of the time I'm happy with my job. But there are times when there is too much to do in too little time, really, so that stress, as you underlined it, takes over... But I'm all right the rest of the time.
There are other jobs I could have done, like translator as I passed a master's degree for that, but didn't spend the extra year. Sometimes I really wonder (when I'm overworked) whether I should carry on or not. I know that nearly all teachers are interchangeable. No teacher is really indispensable...
Teaching brought me the faculty to deal with an audience when I was in my early twenties, but it doesn't really bring me anything particular anymore. When we look at ageing teachers, my more or less young colleagues and I, we do not feel like continuing the same job until we retire... No, we don't.
A few of my friends being UNO employees, I plan to take a few exams to try and enter that administration. In doing so, you are supposed to be ready to move abroad in case of success. I would be. But I'm not sure at all to want to quit teaching.
Last weekend we had a party with several of my pals, including one who teaches Economics. He told me that on the same Thursday, that is the day before, he was overfed up with pupils. He just "couldn't see them painted", as we say in French. Their mobile phones, their language codes, their clothes, etc. :eek: He's exactly my age. I let him finish what he had to say and I said that I had felt just the same on the very same day.
Yet, on the following Friday, I went back to the lycee with my mind set back to normal, and the day's work was just fine. Like magic.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by franksters
Jérôme,

Your career is under estimated to begin with, I mean teachers should be elevated because in the end it,s almost sacred, without them what would the world become.

Be Proud of what you're doing and keep it up, don't forget every job or career as it's down side, but for yours at least you're getting good vacations and you are not dealing with the ''adult'' world...

keep it up man, enjoy the ride! even if it's bumpy...

Cheers, Franksters!
It's just a little storm as there are a few in every schoolyear.
I am not proud of being a teacher, though. Sometimes I'm very proud of how I do my job, but that's all. I know what I'm responsible for when my students enter my class: their parents entrust me with their enlightenment, and I always do my best, always try to transmit them as much as I know.
It's a nice job, but it's not nicer than being a baker or a farmer. I often envy their work, as all a teacher does is nothing materially verifiable.

[Millermoos]

Yes, Jerome. Storms come and go.
As all a teacher does is nothing materially verifiable.
Loads of jobs are not materially verifiable.
Teaching you can still teach but maybe you could teach in a less stressful environment than a Lycee but if you are happy stay where you are.I have a friend that travels around and teaches English to adults abroad and another friend who is a yoga teacher.
Working in a lycee it's tuff they have high standards and a lot of home work, you have my respect.
Do you have evening classes over there for adults? Where you can learn something else, find another passion, hobby if you have the time?
Millermoos

[PHOENIX]

Pojo is a teacher too.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by Millermoos

Do you have evening classes over there for adults? Where you can learn something else, find another passion, hobby if you have the time?
Millermoos

Cheers, Millermoos.

During my first year in the Alps a few years ago (I'm from the North, you know, Lille), I did evening classes for adults. It was very cool, though I had already had my work's day before... But they (even the 24 year-olds) would not really remember much stuff from week to week. I never did that again, though I'm still in touch with some of my former students. In the evening, I like to be home (or at the pub, a concert...) and set to something else if I can.
Oh, sorry. You meant classes I would attend... I would never attend courses myself again. I'm always open to learning new stuff, but not that way. Never again.
As a hobby, I sing and play the harmonica in a band I founded with a pal of mine. It does me good. But I've been doing that for years now - I think it's my 7th band. Yet, I used to have my tennis competitions (I've played regional team championships and individual tournaments for 20 years, before stopping 4 years ago) that were a real passion, just as singing is, but well, it's not really playing, I mean music is no game... I hear mockery ("hey, you miss playing with balls"...).
I like to write stuff too, songs or prose.

A majority of teachers are grey persons, and students soon get bored with them. When you come up and offer them a colorful speech with a human content, they'll grab all of it like starving people. That's what I try to do. Shining, but not just for the sake of it, but living it. It's a very demanding job, nervously speaking, and as you cannot be on top every single day of the year, it's not always easy to do things that way.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by PHOENIX
Pojo is a teacher too.

Lemme guess... P.E.!

[Millermoos]

You are form Lille Jerome!! Lille is very nice. I have been there a while back. I like the South of France a lot I have friends over there so I go and see them in the summer some times. I go to Paris often as well it's really easy from London, now. It's full of Frenchies over here as well.
Millermoos

[Ned Flanders]

Rod and Todd go to school with God!