"Any other business?" As fully grown adults are packing their pencil cases and shuffling in their seats I know there will be no other business. Eight heads shake quickly from left to right and back again before eyes are fixed firmly on watches. These same eyes that had mentally written a third of their shopping lists by the time we got to item two.
AOB; annoyed, obliging, bored. Annoyed that in addition to Parents' Evening, extra-curricular activities and KS4 and 5 revision sessions, this meeting means another day of taking marking home after a full day of teaching. Obliged to agree to further after school support and attending the third teaching and learning briefing about a revolutionary pen colour that no one has ever thought of marking with. But more over, bored. Bored that every meeting is the same and that boxes need to be ticked and that the same biscuits are brought out every week.
But is it just my colleagues?
I too am annoyed. Annoyed that an increased amount of 'department time' has resulted in an increased number of emails demanding items to be added to our agenda. The same emails demanding feedback on these items that have very little impact on progress in maths. Annoyed that meetings have been cast into a negative bubble due to their high frequency and low impact during which we very rarely focus on students, or progress, or, come to think of it, teaching.
Obligation is a funny thing. Maybe it is because we are teachers and our obedient nature prevails but despite my annoyance at the pointless items I am made to put on my agenda, I do it. Even if I know in my heart of hearts that non-KS5 teachers will get very little out of the meeting I still insist they are there. I know that plagiarism is very rarely a problem in maths, nor does it really matter which day we collect in homework, but still we will discuss at great lengths without reaching a conclusion and without any feedback we do pass on (noticeably) used.
And then it's the boredom. The going-through-the-notions head nodding as another policy or Parents' Evening map is shared around the table. And when the heads aren't nodding purely to get to item 15 on the agenda, they are nodding to catch some winks in a room that is so dark to allow the seventh draft of the homework policy to be read from the flickering projector.
So what do we do? How do we change annoyed, obliging and bored to active, objective and brilliant? Is admin-itis common in your department and what do you do to tackle it? AOB?
AOB; annoyed, obliging, bored. Annoyed that in addition to Parents' Evening, extra-curricular activities and KS4 and 5 revision sessions, this meeting means another day of taking marking home after a full day of teaching. Obliged to agree to further after school support and attending the third teaching and learning briefing about a revolutionary pen colour that no one has ever thought of marking with. But more over, bored. Bored that every meeting is the same and that boxes need to be ticked and that the same biscuits are brought out every week.
But is it just my colleagues?
I too am annoyed. Annoyed that an increased amount of 'department time' has resulted in an increased number of emails demanding items to be added to our agenda. The same emails demanding feedback on these items that have very little impact on progress in maths. Annoyed that meetings have been cast into a negative bubble due to their high frequency and low impact during which we very rarely focus on students, or progress, or, come to think of it, teaching.
Obligation is a funny thing. Maybe it is because we are teachers and our obedient nature prevails but despite my annoyance at the pointless items I am made to put on my agenda, I do it. Even if I know in my heart of hearts that non-KS5 teachers will get very little out of the meeting I still insist they are there. I know that plagiarism is very rarely a problem in maths, nor does it really matter which day we collect in homework, but still we will discuss at great lengths without reaching a conclusion and without any feedback we do pass on (noticeably) used.
And then it's the boredom. The going-through-the-notions head nodding as another policy or Parents' Evening map is shared around the table. And when the heads aren't nodding purely to get to item 15 on the agenda, they are nodding to catch some winks in a room that is so dark to allow the seventh draft of the homework policy to be read from the flickering projector.
So what do we do? How do we change annoyed, obliging and bored to active, objective and brilliant? Is admin-itis common in your department and what do you do to tackle it? AOB?