It's Your Time You're Wasting - Frank Chalk

This is a true account of life as one of the most despised of professions - that of a supply teacher. Writing under the pseudonym of Frank Chalk, the author depicts his efforts to teach, or rather baby-sit, classes in a typical comprehensive. His term is "state-sponsored crowd control", which sums the whole thing up pretty accurately. Frank says that supply teachers are those who are too lazy or inept to manage proper teaching and classifies himself ...
...pupils as an excuse to muck about for 50 minutes instead of getting on with any actual work. I should know myself, as I used to be one. He goes on to describe his school as "fairly average for an inner city comprehensive", saying that "if you think that it is bad, then go to New College, Leicester". (I've taught [for two weeks as a supply teacher there and yes, it is even worse than his experiences!) New College is a shockingly catastrophic example ...

drewish 30.01.2007 · Read full review
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Review of It's Your Time You're Wasting - Frank Chalk

...laying out in this book. It's terrifying! As a regular supply teacher to a rough, inner-city school, Frank Chalk seems uniquely qualified to comment on the day to day life of teaching pupils who seem to lack even the most basic grasp of the simplest concepts, and have no desire to learn anything more. As a non-permanent member of staff he is able to stay aloof from the internal politics of the school and bring a unique perspective to the issues that ...
...be spiralling into chaos. Highly cynical and obviously frustrated, there is nevertheless a ring of truth to his stories and the picture he paints is not a pretty one. From abusive parents to uncaring and uncared for students, his anecdotes cover the whole colourful spectrum of a classroom career. His view that the current education system is letting down our children in a huge way - the lack of discipline is schools due partly to the fact that many ...

trix1212 26.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of It's Your Time You're Wasting - Frank Chalk

Angela Mason, the supply teacher who filmed Channel 5’s documentary ‘Classroom Chaos’ was banned from teaching a year for her pains. Frank Chalk — it’s a pseudonym — will escape punishment for this more humorous and more detailed whistle-blow. First I should say that I’m a teacher — not a supply teacher but I’ve often covered lessons for absent colleagues (and some teachers are absent a LOT). A good lesson requires that you know the pupils, are ...
...plan. A supply teacher is lucky if even one of these factors is present. I dread cover lessons. I guess the main reason that I thoroughly enjoyed Frank Chalk’s book is that I empathised with him. Taken together his anecdotes convey the powerlessness and frustration of the supply teacher. Chalk sounds like a reasonable, level-headed kind of person and he does point out some of the benefits of teaching, but overall his view of the education system ...

MarkFromMullion 15.07.2007 · Read full review
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Review of It's Your Time You're Wasting - Frank Chalk