UK teachers blogging the gritty truth of school life
“I’m not sure the general public realises what goes on. There is no discipline system. It just wore me down,” confesses Frank Chalk, a burnt-out teacher who uses his blog to rant at the system, the Government, children and their parents.
One of his “St Thickchild’s” posts begins “Dear parent/guardian/window-licking inbred”
Just another example of a profession – and a tough one at that – telling the naked truth, away from the glossy prospectuses and PR spin.
One teacher, who confesses that, “many of the kids are so horrendous I’m doing my best to avoid posting rant after rant,” has had over 16,000 visitors to his site in the two-and-a-half years he’s been blogging.
Of course it’s not all bad: “Boy! Do you feel grubby after you’ve handled a classful of books. But I like getting up in the morning and doing this job!” another writes.
Most of the teachers blogging prefer to remain anonymous – the situations are recognisable enough to anyone who’s been involved in education and the risk of being discovered, even though there’s no official code of conduct regarding blogging yet, is minimised.
“Five years from now, all schools will have a blogging policy,” says Pepperpot, blogger at “It’s Your Time You’re Wasting, Not Mine“.
Some blogs are also being used to aid education. In a situation where, “One of the things you can do to get your head kicked in is put up your hand and ask a question,” says physics and maths teacher Nick Hood, “I thought there must be a way to allow kids to access me as a teacher.” His blog is Mr Hood’s World Wide Whatsit.
Mainly, though, they seem to be an outlet for teachers to let off steam after a long day.
Other teacher blogs include:
(Via Education Guardian)
I’m not a teacher but I once took over my Supervisor’s class because she was attending a conference. Those kids (they’re university students!) not only didn’t pay attention in class, they treated me like “just another substitute lecturer who had no choice but to take over the class”. They didn’t show me some respect (well, some of them did). And at the end of the class, all they did was to come over to my computer, hand me a thumbdrive and request to copy the whole PowerPoint lecture!!
Boy, was I furious! And I “kinda” swore off lecturing after that day! :)