I recently discussed a recurring issue following this question from an employer:
My teachers do an excellent job in the classroom and feedback from students is positive. But when it comes to administrative duties, I find they are lax. Registers are sometimes forgotten, lesson records are sketchy, and reports on students are late and not very full. How can I make teachers understand that these duties are as much a part of their job as teaching?
Oh dear, I’ve heard this so often and I can understand why teachers prefer to concentrate on the business of teaching rather than fill in forms! Anyway, the advice I came up with was this:
You have taken the first step by acknowledging the problem! It’s a fact of life that teachers usually hate admin. But you could ease the situation by building admin time into the timetable. The reluctance often stems from teachers being obliged to complete admin tasks in their own time. Since classroom pressures are usually stronger, they not surprisingly prefer to spend additional time planning lessons and organizing materials. If you build in fifteen minutes a day, or twice a week, when teachers meet in a designated...