«Teachers are always off!»
Teachers have a lot of free time and holidays every two months. Many people still subscribe to this cliché. As a teacher, you regularly hear from non-teachers: «Oh, you with your 13 weeks' holiday!» What they mean is: You simply have far too many holidays!
Teachers often feel personally attacked and counter with arguments such as «fifty-hour week», «correction work with night shifts», «parent-teacher meetings and preparations at the weekend». And of course that's true! We teachers really do have a lot to prepare, provide, correct, discuss and so on.
Unfortunately, these explanations are often interpreted by others as an attempt to justify themselves. It seems as if we are embarrassed by the holidays. Yet they are so important: on the one hand, to work less during the school holidays than during the busy ones; on the other hand, to really get away from school and recharge our batteries. Instead of justifying ourselves, we should report on the advantages of our profession and the motivation with which we will start the school day after the holidays.
In the team room, colleagues told me how they spent their summer holidays. Here are three examples.
A lot of planning has to be done
One teacher, who started with new first-graders in August 2016, said that she only wanted to and was only able to go on holiday when her classroom was ready for the new children. It took her a whole week to clear away the materials from the previous class, prepare the niches in the classroom for the future first-graders and get all the materials ready.
In the second week of the holidays, she met with her team-teaching colleague to plan the specific content of the first weeks of school and put together the materials for the lessons. The two teachers are working together for the first time, which required a few more agreements.
After two weeks with friends in a house by the sea, the last week of the holidays was again planned on a daily basis: internal team days in which the projects of the first weeks of school were prepared and the shared rooms such as the materials room, cellar and attic were cleared.
Gain some distance first
Another colleague from the kindergarten reported that she went on a hiking holiday straight after school. She doesn't always do this, but this year she particularly appreciated the opportunity to get away from kindergarten work. She found some of the difficult transition discussions, which dragged on into the last quarter, particularly stressful. There were weeks in which she slept very badly and the stressful situations kept coming back to her mind.
After the active holidays, the negative memories receded into the background, so that she was able to prepare the freshly cleaned kindergarten for the new class with a lot of joy and energy.
She also said that she was looking forward to the start with the new class. She said that she always enjoys choosing a new topic with a leading figure to guide her through the year. She believes that it is particularly important to start the school year well rested, as the first few weeks of kindergarten are particularly emotionally and physically demanding. Fortunately, the local school management is generous, so that the team-teaching lessons can be increased in the first quarter by having two teachers present for lessons with all the children.
Youth work during the holidays
A senior school colleague said that he has been helping out at a two-week camp during the summer holidays for years, where children from disadvantaged backgrounds can go on holiday. His wife and children now also come along to help out. The whole family looks forward to these exciting weeks every time. His own children benefit enormously in emotional and social terms and make friends that sometimes last beyond the holidays.
«Balancing work and leisure - the big challenge for teachers.»
Ruth Fritsch is a member of the Executive Board of the Swiss Federation of Teachers (LCH).
In the remaining weeks, he enjoyed the freedom of being able to determine his own working hours and, depending on the weather, worked at school or did something with his family. He appreciates the advantage of being able to organise his working days according to his own needs and still get important work done.
Work and leisure - not clearly separated
The three reports show that there are different types of work in the teaching profession, just as there are in other professions. Compared to other professions, we teachers have more time slots that we can organise and shape ourselves, but this advantage harbours the danger that work and free time are not clearly separated.
My experience shows that many teachers find it difficult to switch off and really separate work and free time. It is part of their daily routine to follow up on the events of the previous day in order to respond the next day with suitable teaching methods and content. Many of us take these thoughts home with us because we get emotionally involved.
This and other stress factors mean that many teachers reduce their workload despite holidays and weeks without lessons. I hear from many teachers that they need more time to find a balance. In most cases, this is possible if you work an 80 or 90 per cent workload. That's why the umbrella organisation for teachers has been calling for a lower compulsory workload for some time.
Although it is generally recognised that the teacher is one of the most important factors for successful learning, the demands for smaller classes and a lower compulsory workload are not being met. Due to a shortage of funds, the trend in the cantons is going in exactly the opposite direction.
In the current «Health» project of the umbrella organisation Swiss Teachers' Association, «hard» facts on the actual occupational stress are to be collected by means of studies at various levels.
In broad political and social circles, the teaching profession still seems to be seen as a profession with a lot of free time. The public debate about actual working hours and occupational stress must be driven forward.
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