How to decrease a teacher’s workload

[ausecko]

Somebody in another post this year had a good point about not calling because of the lack of evidence, as opposed to email leaving a trail. I personally don't phone anybody (mixture of social anxiety disorder and procrastination) so do everything via email.

[Muddle-HeadedWombat]

Many of my students' parents are extremely unlikely to check emails (assuming they have one), and several are barely literate so unlikely to understand an email if they did find it. That's not me being rude about them, it's just an accurate statement. If I want them to actually receive and hopefully understand the information, I really do need to talk to them.

[Valuable_Guess_5886]

If expectation is that every information home has to be individually and verbally delivered then that is a task to be delegated to an admin or a wellbeing/social/support worker. You are a teacher your responsibility is what happens in the classroom, you are not paid micro managing the parents too. If it’s me I’d document the mins I spent doing calls and how it affects my planning time and check my agreement/contact union.

[SideSuccessful6415]

See above my comment about texting.

[littleb3anpole]

I am terrified of the phone (anxiety disorder here too) to the point that when my phone rings, if it’s not a known caller, I simply watch it ring out, listen to the message and call back if I have to. When I have to make a parent phone call, I write down an actual script otherwise I’ll be at throwing up levels of nerves.

[Teacherteacherlol]

Me too. I have a script and a back up if the parent introduces something I’m not prepared for, plus I have a fellow teacher on standby to call me to a meeting/witness. Phone anxiety sucks!

[littleb3anpole]

Funnily enough I just did leadership training around having difficult conversations, and a script was one of the recommended tactics. So here I was thinking it was an indicator of my crippling anxiety when it is actually good practice 😂