Well, this time next week I will be sitting here at my computer with a hangover and out of work for the first time since I did all my world travelling. It's possible that I may have some future work in my calendar but equally possible that I won't. Strange times.
I want to reflect for a while on how I got here and where I'm going but first, for those who came in late, let me say where "here" is. I started enquiries about voluntary redundancy about a month ago, signed on the dotted line a couple of days ago and finish at the college on Friday. The hangover? That will be down to the leaving do I'm having after work on Friday evening. And that's where I am now.
But how did I get here?
Briefly, I had over twenty years in IT, quit that to go travelling, came back, had six months in temporary jobs, quit that to go travelling again, retrained as a teacher and have taught at South Birmingham College ever since (with a summer teaching job at BABSSCo in Harrow.)
My time at SBC has mostly been a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure that I've developed from a brand-new and nervously inexperienced teacher to someone who is actually pretty good at his job. Time after time, my classroom observations have commented on my commitment to the class and my rapport with the students. And, truthfully, my students all seem upset to be changing their teacher, though I'm sure they will be happy enough once they get settled down with someone new. While I've been here I've taught every level from Pre-Entry (complete beginners) to IELTS (University entry preparation). Given a completely free choice I prefer the middle levels because they are advanced enough to have a conversation but far enough from fluent for their progress to be both visible and rewarding. All the levels have their merits though. The very low levels tend to progress quickly and I love seeing someone happy and proud that they have managed to go shopping, visit the doctor or talk to their English neighbour for the first time. The highest levels are rewarding when the students sit their IELTS, gain the requisite score and can suddenly apply for the University courses that are going to change their lives.
I love teaching and I love finding and preparing materials for the lessons. Of course there are things I don't love. Over my ten years at SBC every year the admin burden on teachers seems to have increased and the jumping through management hoops has become so pronounced that it could almost be an Olympic Sport. I think we would field a pretty good team, too. This isn't really a problem of the college, it's a problem with FE in general.
To give just one example.
Back when I started we completed our registers, popped them into a pigeon hole in a room at the end of the corridor and left them to be dealt with by the one person who had responsibility for them. And a very good job she made of it too. I don't recall there ever being any problems with the system. Nowadays much more information has to be gathered, stored and analysed. The registers are collected and entered by a department. We get whole suites of computerised reports on attendance for classes and individuals. We spend endless hours checking them, making sure the computer record matches the reality, trying to work out if there are patterns to absences, trying to explain why each student has been present or absent on every occasion. I was doing it all again only yesterday.
Part of the problem is that neither the college nor the Government accept the obvious truth that our adult students cannot possibly meet the same attendance targets that teenage students meet. There are all sorts of legitimate reasons that adult students don't attend but it all boils down to the fact that adults have adult responsibilities that take precedence over their education. They have children who may be ill or off school. In our classes they have Home Office appointments, solicitors appointments, job centre appointments and job interviews. They have domestic emergencies that must be dealt with.
The one that has always got to me most is that, from the funding point of view, a student who leaves a course because he has found a job isn't a success he's a failure. He didn't finish the course or pass any exams so he's a failure.
The biggest problem is that while the paperwork increases, the time to do it never does and the only thing that can give way is lesson planning. This year I haven't felt that my work has been up to the standards that I'd like. My lesson plans haven't been as detailed as I want them to be. My resources haven't been as thoroughly researched or designed. I don't feel happy that I've done my best work. I simply haven't had the time. It's been taken up with admin tasks. Even our training days have mostly been hijacked to do more admin rather than any actual training.
I certainly won't miss that aspect of my job - though I daresay that, if my overseas plans come off, I shall find that bureaucracy and pointless paperwork are a problem the world over.
The bottom line is that leaving IT and going into teaching was certainly the best decision I ever made and that in my time at SBC I have seen hundreds of students progress through the levels. It still gives me a sense of pride in a job well done when a student who is now in a vocational or academic program comes up and says, "hi".
So what does the future hold? Initially I want to spend some time doing up and selling my house. I want to do my regular summer job at BABSSCo - which I shall write about later - and then I want to leave the country and work in EFL overseas for at least five years. I have already applied for one job and will be applying for others soon. This isn't just a response to all that increased non-teaching work at the college, it's a combination of all sorts of things - the change in my personal circumstances since my father died, the changes in Government policy that will mean a reduction in adult provision that may be as high as 80%, the availability of a redundancy package, the possibility of being "redeployed" into other areas of teaching when the provision reduces. (I have no objection to doing a different job, I just want what that job is to be under my control not imposed on me by someone else.)
A lot of things have come together that make this the ideal time for another of my great career leaps. It isn't the first time but, given my age now, it may well be the last. If I stick at the next phase of my career for as long as I've stuck at this one then I'll be getting close to retirement by the time I'm finished.
Strange and exciting times, indeed.
I want to reflect for a while on how I got here and where I'm going but first, for those who came in late, let me say where "here" is. I started enquiries about voluntary redundancy about a month ago, signed on the dotted line a couple of days ago and finish at the college on Friday. The hangover? That will be down to the leaving do I'm having after work on Friday evening. And that's where I am now.
But how did I get here?
Briefly, I had over twenty years in IT, quit that to go travelling, came back, had six months in temporary jobs, quit that to go travelling again, retrained as a teacher and have taught at South Birmingham College ever since (with a summer teaching job at BABSSCo in Harrow.)
My time at SBC has mostly been a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure that I've developed from a brand-new and nervously inexperienced teacher to someone who is actually pretty good at his job. Time after time, my classroom observations have commented on my commitment to the class and my rapport with the students. And, truthfully, my students all seem upset to be changing their teacher, though I'm sure they will be happy enough once they get settled down with someone new. While I've been here I've taught every level from Pre-Entry (complete beginners) to IELTS (University entry preparation). Given a completely free choice I prefer the middle levels because they are advanced enough to have a conversation but far enough from fluent for their progress to be both visible and rewarding. All the levels have their merits though. The very low levels tend to progress quickly and I love seeing someone happy and proud that they have managed to go shopping, visit the doctor or talk to their English neighbour for the first time. The highest levels are rewarding when the students sit their IELTS, gain the requisite score and can suddenly apply for the University courses that are going to change their lives.
I love teaching and I love finding and preparing materials for the lessons. Of course there are things I don't love. Over my ten years at SBC every year the admin burden on teachers seems to have increased and the jumping through management hoops has become so pronounced that it could almost be an Olympic Sport. I think we would field a pretty good team, too. This isn't really a problem of the college, it's a problem with FE in general.
To give just one example.
Back when I started we completed our registers, popped them into a pigeon hole in a room at the end of the corridor and left them to be dealt with by the one person who had responsibility for them. And a very good job she made of it too. I don't recall there ever being any problems with the system. Nowadays much more information has to be gathered, stored and analysed. The registers are collected and entered by a department. We get whole suites of computerised reports on attendance for classes and individuals. We spend endless hours checking them, making sure the computer record matches the reality, trying to work out if there are patterns to absences, trying to explain why each student has been present or absent on every occasion. I was doing it all again only yesterday.
Part of the problem is that neither the college nor the Government accept the obvious truth that our adult students cannot possibly meet the same attendance targets that teenage students meet. There are all sorts of legitimate reasons that adult students don't attend but it all boils down to the fact that adults have adult responsibilities that take precedence over their education. They have children who may be ill or off school. In our classes they have Home Office appointments, solicitors appointments, job centre appointments and job interviews. They have domestic emergencies that must be dealt with.
The one that has always got to me most is that, from the funding point of view, a student who leaves a course because he has found a job isn't a success he's a failure. He didn't finish the course or pass any exams so he's a failure.
The biggest problem is that while the paperwork increases, the time to do it never does and the only thing that can give way is lesson planning. This year I haven't felt that my work has been up to the standards that I'd like. My lesson plans haven't been as detailed as I want them to be. My resources haven't been as thoroughly researched or designed. I don't feel happy that I've done my best work. I simply haven't had the time. It's been taken up with admin tasks. Even our training days have mostly been hijacked to do more admin rather than any actual training.
I certainly won't miss that aspect of my job - though I daresay that, if my overseas plans come off, I shall find that bureaucracy and pointless paperwork are a problem the world over.
The bottom line is that leaving IT and going into teaching was certainly the best decision I ever made and that in my time at SBC I have seen hundreds of students progress through the levels. It still gives me a sense of pride in a job well done when a student who is now in a vocational or academic program comes up and says, "hi".
So what does the future hold? Initially I want to spend some time doing up and selling my house. I want to do my regular summer job at BABSSCo - which I shall write about later - and then I want to leave the country and work in EFL overseas for at least five years. I have already applied for one job and will be applying for others soon. This isn't just a response to all that increased non-teaching work at the college, it's a combination of all sorts of things - the change in my personal circumstances since my father died, the changes in Government policy that will mean a reduction in adult provision that may be as high as 80%, the availability of a redundancy package, the possibility of being "redeployed" into other areas of teaching when the provision reduces. (I have no objection to doing a different job, I just want what that job is to be under my control not imposed on me by someone else.)
A lot of things have come together that make this the ideal time for another of my great career leaps. It isn't the first time but, given my age now, it may well be the last. If I stick at the next phase of my career for as long as I've stuck at this one then I'll be getting close to retirement by the time I'm finished.
Strange and exciting times, indeed.
4 comments:
I've just dropped by from aros. and was struck by the similar frustrations you're having (past tense now I guess - hope the party was great!) in your education sector as we are in Australia. I keep wondering why they take good systems and jiggle them around till they become totally diluted and inefficient. It's so frustrating.
Loved the previous post with the sneeze.
Not quite past tense yet. The party is NEXT Friday. Our education sector, especially adult education, is being systematically destroyed by our Government. A more cynical person might think they want an uneducated and compliant workforce.
Thanks for stopping by. aros is great, isn't it?
Hang it all, I'm going to reply. AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. I think you could be right, they're in cahoots.
Looking forward to your small stone after the party;)
I like your writing.
I don't know about Australia but here is also something that seems a bit racist about Government Policy here. My area, ESOL/EFL has a student body mainly drawn from asylum seeker and refugee communities and the policies hit them very disproportionately making it very difficult for people to learn the language and integrate. Sorry for preaching but this is one of my personal soap box issues.
I'll get down from the soap box now.
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