Meetings

Teaching requires taking a lot of work home, especially marking and planning. There is no time to do while in school. School consists of lessons and meetings. Lots of meetings.

Under the work-life balance agreements with the unions, we are supposed to have no more than one after-school meeting per week. This week I've had two. This doesn't include supervising detentions. So I have officially stayed after school three out of four days this week. Because there was a mix up about which day a particular meeting was being held, I made plans to stay late, so I used that time to clean up my desk and do a little preparation.

Those are just the meetings that happen after school. Other meetings expose the myth that is the "free" period. Theoretically, I get an average of one free period each day. This is only because as an NQT, I am entitled to 10% more frees than other teachers. This is theoretically because I need more time to plan and prepare lessons - which I do. Nonetheless, I have never had a chance to plan a lesson during one of these free periods.

I've only had to cover a lesson once. Considering NQTs are supposed to the last resort when covering, I suppose that's not too bad. One of my frees each week is taken up with a mentor meeting. I am suppose to spend other frees observing experienced teachers. I often meet with the head of one of the departments in which I teach, if they also have a free that period. Sometimes I am racing around to get all the resources ready for a lesson. It is never truly free, in the sense of having a chance to catch one's breath.