Brilliant said by Polly Dunning:
.. What teachers and schools really want for Christmas is some real recognition and support.
Teachers in Australia work some of the longest hours in the profession across the OECD. And they’re getting longer. And we spend far longer on “adminsitrivia” and non-teaching tasks than our colleagues in other countries, taking us out of the classrooms we love. We collect and collate endless data and samples to appease the rhetoric about “falling standards” that suggests our schools and our teachers are failing (we’re not, in fact, I see teachers and their students doing amazing things everywhere).
We work an average of about 45 hours per week, and it’s not uncommon for us to work more than 50, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics considers “very long hours”. Recent research also revealed that we experience both anxiety and depression at significantly higher rates than the general population. We work in poorly resourced schools and classrooms (which are also often boiling hot) and frequently use our own money to buy supplies for our classrooms and food for our students.
We love our job and we love our students. We love creating lessons and programs that get kids excited about learning, seeing the look on a child’s face when they finally “get it”, watching them grow into smart, funny, kind young people, sharing their joy and triumph, and picking them up when they stumble. It is our great privilege to be a part of your children’s lives. But we are exhausted, and the schools we work in are stretched thin.
So, this Christmas, if you want to do something great for your child’s school, why not contact the principal and ask them what they need? You could even get the whole class or year group of parents to go in on a gift. Could the school use some new sport equipment or some comfy bean bags for the library? Maybe a data projecto
Tags: Buying gift for teacher, Teacher, teacher christmas gift, teacher christmas present, Teaching
Topical Teaching 
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