Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Does PGDE bond signing require guarantors and how many guarantors ah? A bit paiseh to ask for help from my siblings. Not v close to them...

Two guarantors. One of which can be your immediate family member, the other one cannot. For example, if you ask your mother to be your guarantor already, the other one cannot be your father/ siblings. Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Umm NO!!!
MK teachers pay is SIGNIFICANTLY lower. separate scheme - EO scheme for eg is diff from MX scheme .. i once saw the details dunno where MK principle is like geo4/5 pay…

PCF is not under MOE

Any idea how much are MK teachers with a bachelors degree paid?

The subject Information Updating Exercise SIUE. What is it for? Any implications of what you key in?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The subject Information Updating Exercise SIUE. What is it for? Any implications of what you key in?

It is likely to be a data mining exercise.

There are always implications.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The subject Information Updating Exercise SIUE. What is it for? Any implications of what you key in?

If you report less hours than you actually work, it means the higherups will think that teachers are too free, workload is too light, and headcount is in excess.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Its really sad to see teachers mocking the idea of 'every school is a good school'. If you don't think that the kids you teach are worth teaching, then why are you in the profession? Yes, there are students with challenging backgrounds which influences their classroom behaviour, but really isn't our jobs about making a difference in their lives? What's the point of being a teacher if you just want to teach high performing students where you don't have to do much at all.

this is old news. where have been all this while? it was a valid concern on what that tagline actually means. even school leaders have expressed their disagreement. you’re a new citizen?

s://sg.news.yahoo.com/jurong-west-secondary-vice-principal-takes-issue-with-%E2%80%98every-school-is-a-good-school--ideal-103224519.html#:~:text=Yahoo%20Newsroom-,Jurong%20West%20Secondary%20vice%2Dprincipal%20ta kes%20issue%20with%20'every%20school,is%20a%20good %20school'%20ideal&text=%22How%20many%20of%20our%2 0leaders,to%20buy%20(it).%22

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you report less hours than you actually work, it means the higherups will think that teachers are too free, workload is too light, and headcount is in excess.

I don't think anyone would want to shoot themselves in the foot? Haha

But would it be okay to slightly overestimate the hours?

Hi been reading this forum with interest and curiosity.
Allow me to introduce myself. Teacher for the last 24 years. Did my tour as a classroom teacher and later on HOD. Currently am on medical leave due to illness and will return to service when I am well

I have been hearing some of the pain points of my fellow colleagues, here are some
- Grade promotions and annual increments. Why am I not promoted?
- HODs bore the brunt of teachers wrath when things go south.
- My HOD cannot teach. How can be HOD? Fit to lead me when I teach so much better!
- Toxic school culture
- Teacher burnt out

I do not have all the answers to these pain points because at some point, these feelings of yours is real and painful to you But what I can offer is to share with you my story and also hopefully helping you to realize everything happens in a multiverse way and our thoughts usually only surround our needs and there are many verses out there too.

Promotion, I too was young once and was fixated on this. Took it very hard when it didn’t come my way. I am a farmer too, btw. In my later years as I aged, I also realized I am no longer as swashbuckling like before, I don’t yearn for promotion anymore, I just want lesser load and even asked for demotion so I can do less for less pay. No such thing. You can only explore other schemes or decline your promotion when it is first offered. I am sure no one will decline a promotion. Promotion is a combination of many factors and essentially is also about your maturity as a teacher, educator and team player to your organization. Think less of yourself and more of others might improve the situation.

HODs are sai kang warriors of the school They have to lead and guide department to achieve curriculum shifts and the big ideas of education. It is a thankless job to be honest. Requires supervision, data and report writing to keep up to date with implementaion challenges. At the same time need to manage the morale of the department. Too dominating and you kill the spirit. Too docile and your charges will think they can do a better job than you. I always compare HOD to managing a football team. The star striker cannot expect the coach to score goals for the team like him, they are different roles and responsibilities.

Essentially, leadership is a thankless job When the teachers hit out, a mature HOD will also know the teacher is in pain and stress. Most important of a HOD is to maintain professionalism within the ranks and keep morale high by leading from example.
HODs cannot teach. I find this argument flawed. It takes year of practice to perfect our teaching craft and HODs are also not exempted from this. All EOs are in this for the long haul to be effective classroom teachers. Students are the best barometer so there will always be measurable outcomes if one wants to go all the way. HOD or not.

Toxic school culture is a curious thing to me. Of the schools that I have taught, I have not came across a toxic school where undermining others is the name of the game. If you find yourself in one, perhaps for your well being, consider open or closed posting. If it happens again, you might want to reflect is it because of your beliefs and personality?

Teacher burnout is real and exacerbated by COVID. I am also at my wits end to think of ways on how to lighten teaching load. Have tried to encourage colleagues to automate feedback for MCQs and worksheets but old habits are hard to change, some staffs choose the traditional way and I see them stressed out as they can’t keep up. The tech is there but they are not evolving. So I guess we wait till the camel break then guide again. Sometimes in leadership, you can only lead so much, the rest is up to the EOs. It takes guile and patience to lead experienced teachers.
Another thing I came across is learned helplessness. EOs falling into this state choosing to be happy in their predicament. These are people choices and you can’t do much till they want to do something for themselves. For such cases, the EPMS benchmark us to a standard of excellence and professionalism. We live by the sword & we die by the sword.

Finally I would like to say teaching like nurses is a thankless job. We do it because we like to be the engaging story teller that demonstrates craft and wizardry with our content to our students and be the best role model for them. If we have dark thoughts in us they will be manifested and we must be careful with ourselves as we are also the amplifiers of deed and speech to them. Blessings.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't think anyone would want to shoot themselves in the foot? Haha

But would it be okay to slightly overestimate the hours?

The problem is that the system does not allow you to report the real hours spent. There are caps on the total hours you can report.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Its really sad to see teachers mocking the idea of 'every school is a good school'. If you don't think that the kids you teach are worth teaching, then why are you in the profession? Yes, there are students with challenging backgrounds which influences their classroom behaviour, but really isn't our jobs about making a difference in their lives? What's the point of being a teacher if you just want to teach high performing students where you don't have to do much at all.

the issue with that 'motto' is that it's an unopen secret that access to resources are never equal. students in certain schools will enjoy far more opportunities than their counterparts in 'neighbourhood' schools. it was never about teachers mocking that rhetoric, but rather more about how distant the senior management was from the reality on the ground.

if you're an educator, it's disappointing if you choose to pretend that everything is rosy despite the shortcomings, out of convenience or for your own whatever self interest. yes, much more work needs to be done to address level the access to opportunities if we're critical of the tagline, but nobody said teaching gonna be easy.

'all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others'