Saturday 31 October 2015

Great Expectations

I alluded in my last blog post to a previous version of said post which included a surfing metaphor. Prompted by this TES article by Professor Colin Richardson I thought I'd post it as he and I had some similar thoughts. 

My prediction is that the Prof's article will not go down well. The main argument will be along the lines of "But we have no control over the pressures put on us by the government, SLT, governors and Ofsted inspectors!"

And it's true, we don't on the whole. But we can control our approach to the workload we are lumped with, and in a controversial move Professor Richardson actually makes some good points.

But first, here was what I began with:

You're lying on your board, eyes cast over your shoulder scanning the waters for the next wave. It appears and you squint, gauging its size as it rolls closer, gathering momentum. It's a big one. Mentally, you fear both riding it and being overcome by it, but those are the options. Better to try and chance success than to be pummelled. A keen surfer at this point is almost unaware of the choice - there is no option for them but to catch the wave and go for it. A stressful situation no doubt, if one lets it become so. But are surfers typically tightly-wound balls of stress? No! We consider them to be the most chilled out, relaxed people around.

I wonder if the knowledge (no doubt compounded by social media's endless brainwashing) that teaching is indeed a demanding and busy profession leaves many-a-teacher quaking in their boots as they anticipate the deluge. When the workload gets heavy they're already resigned to the fact that they won't be able to deal with it all. I wonder if many of us never get on top and ride the wave because we think the wave is just too big to be conquered.

Even a confident surfer knows that any wave might just conquer them, and that an attempt may leave them gasping for air, fighting the undertow. But they also know that they can get back out there and wait for the next swell. They're relaxed about their chances, knowing that perfection is not always guaranteed. 

A lot of teachers are perfectionists - this is not a bad thing, it means they care and want to do a good job. It also means they will inevitably think that their job is never done. And it isn't. There will always be something more to do, something that could be done better. Subconsciously many teachers attempt perfection even when they know it is unachievable. We must begin to realise that we will have a bad observation, we will get the wrong end of the stick with the marking policy and we will struggle to assess without levels for a while. But we also must realise that none of those difficulties spell the end of our career. We must see them simply as opportunities to learn. We must be willing to swim back out to sea, ready and willing to get back up on the board and try again.

And I couldn't have summarised better than Professor Richardson:

"The vast majority of teachers expect too much of themselves. They aspire to unrealistic goals. They always fall short – and deep down they realise that they do. They know there is always more they can do for their pupils. They know that what they and their schools provide can never be good enough for the young people in their care. They acknowledge that their schools can never be perfect. Inevitably, they feel guilty about their shortcomings when they fail to meet unrealistic aspirations.

Consciously or unconsciously, they try to assuage their guilt through hard work and long hours. And they succeed, at least to a limited extent, but at a vast cost to themselves."

I urge you, stressed and overworked teacher, to at least give this article some credence. Could it be that you could make some changes in your self-expectations? Might it be a good idea to put a time limit on your work next week, finishing at a given time rather that 'when the work is done'? They might be piling it on, but fight back by admitting that a teacher's work will never truly be done.

Further reading: Addressing The Balance - 5 tips for sorting out your work/life balance

Thursday 29 October 2015

Crowd Sourced: Advice on Coping with the Workload

On Facebook I recently asked my teacher friends this question:

What are your strategies for coping with the workload?

I particularly asked for teachers who enjoy teaching how they dealt with the expectations put on them. Here are a few choice answers:

"Making sure I stop when I've had enough and give myself time to eat with colleagues or have a chat with someone. If I'm at home working I do the same, I'm far less productive when I'm fed up with it than when I still feel positive. I don't work weekends at all unless absolutely necessary and then it's Sunday evening. I think part of tackling it is realising that it'll never all be done and if you feel like it is, the goalposts will move again tomorrow."

"I never get everything done! I set out my limit I will work each week - two evenings and Sunday afternoon and in school 8-5 then I think to myself 'if it's not done it's not done - don't worry, you've done enough work! In desperate times I have also paid siblings to mark tests which are a case of just ticking and I can then just analyse the data."

"I refuse to do things I don't deem necessary, regardless of what the head might think!"

"I had certain days and times that I had for working; I always stayed very late on a Friday because (weirdly) it suited me! I generally had one day each weekend that was work free. I was honest and asked for help - like after I went back from maternity leave I asked someone to share in running choir because realistically I couldn't do that hour every week if I was going to keep up. Also delegating a bit. The thing I think that helps most is keeping in mind that there's always more to do (so you will always have a long to do list) but having these as 'must do soon' and 'to do...' (I got better at this with experience).

"Don't take work home."

"I have one night a week when I catch up on school work at home and I now stay late on Friday to get everything sorted for the following week then I try not to work at the weekend if at all possible. I've started working through lunch too. I think planning your week so you don't have a load of marking from the same day helps. Also just give in to the fact that you'll never get to the end of the 'to do' list!

"I do as much as I can at work. I arrive as early as I can and stay late. I'm much more focused when I'm at school. Make good use of playtime/assembly/lunchtimes. Obviously I do work at home but only what I can't get done in school."

"I work until a set time each evening (it's not very late!) and I don't work weekends. Managing your time well is paramount I think. I work in a small school and wear lots of different hats, so have to prioritise time and tasks. It is possible. Also, prayer and don't compare yourself to others. We're all different and work in different ways.

"Just 'chill out'! My job is not the most important thing. Especially not more important than faith, health and sanity!"


To qualify, most of these answers came from teachers who have been in the profession for ten years or fewer and they have varying family commitments. The overall message I think is this: find what suits you and what fits in with the life side of the work/life balance. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to managing your time but in these snippets of advice it seems clear that teachers who enjoy their job also recognise that there is a never-ending pile of work to be done and that you just can't spend all of your time doing it.

Photo Credit: jobporter via Compfight cc

Tuesday 27 October 2015

Dear SLT (on workload)

This is the third time I've started this post totally afresh. As I've written each one, my thoughts have changed so that the audience and purpose of the piece have also had to change. In previous posts I have covered my thoughts on how a positive attitude coupled with a few strategies can help with the en vogue issue of workload and I stand by what I wrote then, but there are further issues to be addressed.

I was well on my way to finishing a piece (complete with surfing analogy) about how essentially teachers just need to chill out a bit more and stop worrying so much about getting everything done. But as I've thought about, and talked to, teachers I know who are in situations where trying to take such trite advice just would not help, I've realised the focus had to change.

I feel very privileged to be a fully-functioning teacher who is also a member of the senior leadership team. I am timetabled to teach 60% of the school day, focusing on maths and English; our main areas for school improvement. As well as having the opportunity to teach the children, the privilege is in the form of the respect I get as someone who fights on the frontline at the same time as making orders from HQ. It also gives me the responsibility to speak to the rest of SLT on behalf of the teaching staff. It means I really have to practise what I preach. As a result, our SLT is in touch with how our decisions work out in practise, meaning we can adjust accordingly.

So my advice today is for SLTs. It seems silly having to say these things but, from what I can gather, many SLTs are getting it wrong.

Invest
Your members of staff are your most expensive and most valuable asset. You need to look after them. The success of your school depends on their health. Think PSHCE, but for the teachers. One of your primary aims is to reduce stress - if you don't, you won't have an effective team. In order to do this every new initiative needs to be fed through the 'reduce workload' filter. The old initiatives will need to go through it too. It is possible for all the latest demands to be met in a way that doesn't leave teachers pulling their hair out - I've seen it done. But there is no hard and fast rule for how to do this - you must evaluate everything in the context of your school and ask the question: 'How can we make this easier for our teachers?' Not easy, mind you, but easier. Teaching is not easy. Where a teacher needs to improve, you need to give them bespoke provision (intervention - like we'd want them to do for the kids!) - this is the investment they deserve and it will profit you in the long run.

Interact
You need some sort of 'open door policy'. The SLT needs to be approachable. Teachers need to feel that you have their best interests at heart and that you care for them. I'm not advocating touchy-feely leadership but an environment where views are spoken open and honestly, in both directions, but with some tact. You want your frontline soldiers to be able to report back - this way you will hear the positives along with the criticism and suggestions for change. They are the ones who know what it's like to work every day trying to carry out everything you're expecting them to do - if they feel they can bring their concerns about work/life balance to you then you are better placed to address those issues. You need to know how they are feeling and how things are really going when they're not being observed (the 'open door policy' can work two ways; I'd advocate drop-ins and not organised observations). The people I know who struggle with workload work in schools where the SLT are virtually absent.

Involve
Following on from the previous two points it is so useful to have an SLT who are all engaged in the action. Sitting high in ivory towers does not give an impression of leadership, rather of tyranny; dictatorship at best. SLT members need to roll their sleeves up, take up their weapons and lead by example. Julius Caesar saw this as such a necessity that he would fight in the ranks - many other great military leaders are said to have done the same. No doubt troop morale was high in these cases. This strategy will probably open more doors than an 'open door policy' would, making relationships far more natural and parallel. I always used to wonder if my swimming coach could swim as he never got in the pool (we found out he could, even fully clothed, when I pushed him in). Put your money where your mouth is and dive on in, the water's pretty hot right now and you need to feel it for yourself. If you experience a week in the life of a classroom teacher in the current climate then you'll be better informed when it comes to planning to make teachers' workload lighter.

A quick glance at the 2015 Ofsted guidance for effective leadership and management shows that the three approaches outlined above, done right and consistently, can be the basis for covering most of their descriptors for 'Outstanding'.

Why aren't all SLTs doing these things already? There are probably a cocktail of reasons but one major culprit at the moment seems to be panic. Leaders are overwhelmed by the pressure on them and are passing on their stress rather than doing the strategic thinking that they are in the job to do. As leaders it is our role to stem the tide of anxiety (we're paid more because it's a more difficult and stressful role) by implementing time-saving strategies. This is our duty. 

Expecting teachers to do their job properly without your investment, interaction and involvement will hinder their output with disastrous outcomes for the school you're trying to lead and manage.

Friday 12 June 2015

Addressing The Balance

addressing the balance teacher workload wellbeing work life thatboycanteach
I was marking books during my lunch break when a colleague approached me asking for advice on work/life balance. She'd been sent to me by a fellow member of the SLT because apparently I'm the expert. My qualifications? Managing to teach a year 6 class, lead UKS2 and maths school-wide, attend to other SLT-type duties and still get home in time most nights to bath and put to bed three under-fives. (I suspect it's also been noticed that I rarely answer emails at the weekend.)

So, what did I say to my colleague?

Prioritise - what really needs doing and what can wait? This weapon has been longest in my arsenal. Maybe it did stem from a fairly lackadaisical attitude but it is now fully grown as an effective tool (can I get away with such mixed metaphors?). The simple idea is that on any given day there are some things that you just can't give two figs about. Those things will have to wait. Concentrate on doing one or two things well that day - the ones that obviously need doing soonest. You can't do everything all at once. I often find that as a result of prioritising, the odd thing drops out of the in-tray and straight into the bin - it would have been wasted time and effort doing that particular job anyway. Admittedly this way of existing runs the risk of becoming last minute.com but there's something else to combat that...

Organise - make time by planning ahead. Although it may not feel like it, you are the master of your own teaching destiny. if you know the week will be heavy on one particular job, ensure that you aren't piling more on yourself. Don't plan 5 days' worth of independent writing which you'll have to mark and level to the nth degree on the same week you know you've got a trip, parents' evening and your mum's birthday meal. Be wise. Similar to 'organise' is...

Maximise - make the most of the time you've got. It's a hateful saying but there's an element of truth to the maxim "Don't work harder; work smarter." Where was I when my colleague found me? Eating sandwiches with one hand and brandishing my green biro with the other. Using those little bits of time in a school day, even just to make one of your five phone calls, is worth doing. Sitting straight down at your desk once the kids have walked out the door without giving lethargy the chance to kick in will reduce the number of maths books you take home. Even better, and super-effective, is making time to sit down with individual children to mark their work with them.

Collaborate - nurture a good working relationship with other teachers. Those of you blessed with a year group partner (or two) are sitting on a gold mine of opportunities. Even if you aren't, there will be other members of staff for you to tap in to. Mention what you're doing, maybe they'll have a resource ready prepared for that. Ask for help if you don't understand something - better to admit a weakness and be enlightened quickly than to remain resolute and struggle through, thus wasting time. Don't underestimate the time-saving effects of this one.

Rest - productivity relies on rest. I could scour the internet for scientific evidence for this but we all know it from experience, don't we? Teaching has a rhythm - some weeks are less busy than others. At the same time as planning ahead and using the time you have, you should also think about using the natural breaks - and make the most of them. Different people find rest in different things. Ensure there is something else (on the life side of the balance) that takes up some of your time - something that isn't easy to get out of. Make a commitment to an extra-curricular activity and get some 'you time' (I would suggest that even family commitments fall in to this category, I didn't say 'alone time'!).

Finally, it's worth pointing out that with a job like teaching there are, as mentioned already, particular points in the year when the workload gets heavy. At these times taking the above advice will help to alleviate but not eradicate. For example, this half term (summer 2), when everyone else thinks we're winding down for the summer holidays, the cumulative effect of that final push for the highest possible levels (or whatever your school has decided to call them now), assessment and report writing, impact reports (if you have an area of responsibility), end of year productions and all those last minute trips actually can take their toll. When that's the case it's worth reassuring yourself that you'll have five or six weeks of mostly-life and, that for the time being, work might just have to tip the balance.

Sunday 17 May 2015

How I've Stayed In Teaching

What if the key to job satisfaction was not in a change of external expectation but in an altering of internal attitude? Could it be that it's not them who need to change things, but you? At the risk of sounding like an X-factor contestant's deluded parent, I suggest that employment enjoyment (catchy, huh?) is down to a positive mindset. And, yes, teachers - I'm talking to you.

Education - the way we think about it, the way we do it - has changed. What started off in the UK as a sort of people-factory to supply the British Empire with able workers is now something very different, and rightly so. As governments come and go, national pedagogy changes, some Education Secretaries don't really seem to be up to the job, politicians throw the baby out with the bath water (remember Labour's new National Curriculum 5 years ago?) and teachers try to keep up with the developments.

These developments may not always seem like advances but it is up to us to push forward regardless. We must make the best of a set of guidelines we might disagree or struggle with - for the kids' sake as well as our own. Yes, we will have to work hard - but what did you expect?

With an optimistic outlook one can search for solutions to the problems we face. The workload may seem heavy - how can you efficiently lighten the burden? The curriculum content list may seem a drag - how can you uplift it? The hours may seem long - how can you shorten them? Asking this kind of question is the start of your journey to loving your vocation. And just to be clear: I'm talking about making changes in the way you do things as a result of changing how you think about things.

I'm not claiming to have all the answers to those questions however, upon reflection, I can truly say that asking them has been fundamental to my happiness and success. I've not always been successful, I've found many things difficult (like lifting my lessons from 'satisfactory' to 'good' and beyond) and I have learned to be happy. Along the way I've gleaned invaluable bits of advice from colleagues and bolted them together into some sort of Scrapheap-Challenge-pedagogy that really works.

Find the teachers in your school who genuinely seem to enjoy what they do. Adhere to them. Avoid the mood-hoovers and the drains and find the radiators. Learn from them. Find out how they answered those questions - believe me, they will have asked them and found some answers already. For some teachers the answer may be moving to a different school.

Very well, Ofsted inspectors, senior leaders, local authority bigwigs, media men and the rest do affect the possibility of being so positive. As do the kids. There are factors which make it very difficult for us to do our job but there really is only one choice: adapt or die. That sounds harsh but it's true: roll with the punches (sorry, I don't mean to sound like an Apprentice candidate) or leave the profession. And for most of us the second one is not an option - we've invested so much time in our career and we remember a time when we loved it; when we really think about it we still care passionately about the education of children. And let's be honest: our livelihood, and that of our family, relies on us remaining in teaching. We can't leave. So we have to change.

I've often thought of teaching as having an acting job - our roles can be so varied. But let's not get ourselves typecast - let's be adaptable. Jack Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!", Robert DeNiro's " You talking to me?", Roy Scheider's "You're gonna need a bigger boat." - all improvised, all oft-quoted, all examples of how the screenwriters were shown how the script should really go by the ones having to actually deliver it. Pick up the script and improvise - make it your own. Show the director how the part should be played - that's how you will make difference, that's how your voice will be heard. That's what will make education great. It'll also make your job more enjoyable.

In Education today, adaptation of self is essential and it is only made possible by having an up-beat perspective. We can't sit around waiting for the perfect alignment of politicians and policies to begin to enjoy our work. Problems are only problems until they're solved - don't allow them to remain as problems. Ask those questions. Find those colleagues. Make some changes. And above all think positively.

There are many issues mentioned only in passing here that I intend to write on in the near future. The short shrift I've given to particular things is not because I haven't thought about it enough!