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‘School wellbeing is not compulsory yoga’: fed up teachers air grievances

School wellbeing is not:
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School wellbeing is not:
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A major contributor to secondary teacher workload in Australia is the number of levels a teacher has to prepare. The norm for a full-time teacher would be to have 5-6 different levels of a subject or subjects to teach. This spreads teachers too thin, grinding them into the ground, and they are just trying to survive instead of thrive. A reasonable expectation would be for teachers to double up on levels, with no more than three different levels to prepare.
Another enormous contributor to lack of teacher wellbeing is the constant scurrying from room to room each lesson. Full-time teachers should have their own classroom, even in secondary school. This improves rapport with students and wellbeing for the kids as well. The teacher can set up his/her room for the day with all of the necessary materials in working order. The desks are set up in a way that suits that teacher’s lesson and teaching. Student work can be displayed for that class. The teacher can create a warm and welcoming environment for students with different types of lighting, furniture, etc…He/She is calm and can greet students at the door as they arrive. The teacher can stay after and talk to students when necessary, instead of rushing to pack up her supplies and run to the next class to unpack and set up again and again and again. There is “ownership” of the room and it is kept clean. As it is now, teachers, more often than not, arrive to find the room a mess from the previous classes in the day. The boards are often not erased and the tech equipment isn’t always in working order. Teachers’ materials are not safe if left in the rooms and can be damaged or disappear. It is an incredible waste of professional time and energy.