Teacher Annoyance Survey: One Question | Mr. Teachbad

Teacher Annoyance Survey: One Question | Mr. Teachbad:

Teacher Annoyance Survey: One Question

by teachbad

There are two dis­tinct cat­e­gories of adverse job con­di­tions in teach­ing or any other pro­fes­sion. The first is nec­es­sary or unavoid­able things. You can’t get away from them. The sec­ond is more vari­able and depen­dent on where you are teach­ing, not just that you are teach­ing. These are unnec­es­sary evils that will vary in inten­sity from place to place.

For now, I want to ask you about the first cat­e­gory. These are job con­di­tions of teach­ing that I con­sider to be net neg­a­tives and that every teacher every­where has to deal with in one way or another. They are nec­es­sary and/or unavoid­able. They are like the smell of paint in a paint fac­tory. How much do these impact your over­all sat­is­fac­tion as a teacher?

Here they are and how I am roughly defin­ing them.

Tedium and Pre­dictabil­ity: The minu­tia and repet­i­tive­ness of daily activ­i­ties; grad­ing, tak­ing atten­dance, con­stantly record­ing small bits of infor­ma­tion; micro-micro man­ag­ing your­self; know­ing exactly where you’re going to be and what you’ll be doing minute by minute for months into the future. When there’s a sur­prise in school, it’s usu­ally