Hi Milo and all,
I beg to differ.
"Be prepared to be highly stressed and unappreciated."
I think this is subjective and also happens in other lines, not just teaching.
"Holidays are never free time for teachers. Lots of processes to comply to."
To this, I fully agree. Unlike other jobs where you can 'clear leave', what leave is there to clear for teachers?
"Drafting your lesson plans based on protocols that actually limits creativity required in a real life classroom."
Actually on the contrary, the 'protocols' ain't protocols but tools / guidelines to help one to think more creatively. Otherwise, you'll see all teachers doing just chalk and talk - okay, marker and talk these days...or worse, ppt slides and talk.
"And as new bird, you will be appointed to lead CCAs no one wants to take on. These CCAs normally have very low budget due to lack of performance, hence the sch will place it in lowest priority for the total budget."
Not true for all schools. Some schools cater to the preferences of the officers as far as possible. Then again, it also depends on the teacher who left the school. If the teacher who left happens to be teacher who is in charge of Bowling cca, then the next one that comes in may be asked to take over. It's based on the needs of the schools too, rather than dumping grounds. Anyway, the part about budget and performance is really pragmatic like all other companies. You'll tend to allocate most funds to the project that yields the best results, isn't it? So it's up to the teacher and students to make the best of what they have, prove it to the rest before they can ask for more budget. Otherwise, the teacher has to submit a convincing budget proposal that is promising of future results and performance.
"And hope for a good boss. Your career will depend on that."
I think in all lines, we all hope for a good boss.
"Everything from grading to request to transfer to another school is subjected to your principal's approval. IF you kenna marked, be prepared to be stuck there and get shit gradings. Its political because the grading has quotile and they need to find someone to give the poor grading."
The quota is both true and untrue. It may or may not happen depending on the Principal and Superiors above. In any organisation, you'll need to rank employees to determine the yearly bonus too, isn't it? This is to keep schools and companies more competitive. I certainly wouldn't like equality at my workplace would you? Will a company that rewards all employees be necessarily performing too? Don't we see slackers in all companies?
"You could be discriminated on anything depending on your boss. Even having to leave on the dot to pick up your children can become a reason to give you the bad grade. I'm not kidding, my sis was given a bad grade with this reason explaining that other single teachers are able to work longer hours. She was in a young group where only a few were married and only she had kids."
This is very much dependent on the type of boss you have. I know that most companies are even less compassionate towards women workers with family commitments. In the govt sector, I think it's already better. In any case, if I am single and have no kids and I have to cover my colleague who has to go home earlier to tend to her kids, shouldn't I get more bonus and recognition given that I've put in more effort and achieve more at work?
And by the way, Career, you should be prepared to perform other duties that are not 'considered' by most as part of teaching. All those planning and administrative duties that add to the teaching in classrooms are often seen not as teaching duties and thus many are grouchy over doing a lot of admin but not teaching. It's really subjective here. So just be prepared. It is not good enough that you enter teaching just because you love to teach kids. A school can be as corporate as any private companies still.
