Five Things Only the Best Teachers Know

- It’s not a 9 to 5

It’s not even a 7 to 3 – the bell may ring for the students, but it almost never rings for you. When you aren’t marking books, sorting out classes for the next week and printing off worksheets that would probably tower over you if they were stacked up, you’re scouring YouTube and Google well into the night for lesson-friendly content. Academia aside, the best teachers also know that what happens at school never stays at school: from worrying about students meeting targets to being the main port of call for any difficulties they may face, everything you’re approached for buzzes away in your head way after the final lesson of the day.

‘An entire SIX WEEKS off for the summer, not to mention a hoard of half term breaks?! You’re so lucky’ is every non-teacher’s mantra, but you know the truth – a holiday is ‘a holiday’ on paper, but anything but in reality. You’re either meticulously planning for the next term’s curriculum or thinking about meticulously planning for next term’s curriculum (our Teachers’ Toolkit will definitely make the process easier by the way, with its numerous tips and resources covering the A-Z of your job).

Time off. What’s that?

- You will never look at a Tesco/Asda/Sainsburys food shop the same after training

Your list starts with the standard ‘milk, bread, yoghurt,’ yet your trolley resembles an Art Attack explosion as you push your trolley to the car park – the aim was to replenish your fridge, but you couldn’t resist the thought of a full stationary cupboard or a successful Design Tech class. Pipe-cleaners, glitter, coloured paper and stickers are your aesthetic now, and breathing life into empty cartons and cardboard boxes has become the norm.

Whether it’s a mass shop of Christmas crackers or an army of protractors, you can’t resist investing in your students however you can, knowing the results will... CONTINUE READING