What is your vision for education in 11 years time? What will be your part to play? Will you be a parent, an ex-pupil or student, a professional, a teacher? No matter what position you or I will be in (I have no idea what I’ll be doing) there are two constants: we will in some way be involved in education, either directly or indirectly.
So what’s the deal? The deal is (and this is the other constant): that everybody has the ability to make a change. One way or the other, it is the power of the masses that can drive forward a change for the better whether it be the little things that happen in the classroom or the big things such as nationwide approaches to assessment.
So, if you haven’t already thought about what you would like to see in the year 2020 when it comes to eduction, (it doesn’t need to be realistic sometimes the most imaginative ideas can be harnessed and pulled back to reality), go over to the education2020 wiki and contribute to one of the discussions there. A fantastic unconference is going to be happening in Islay on the 12th of June, trying to get to the heart of this matter – what is our vision for education2020? A whole host of inspirational educators and forward thinking folk are attending and hoping to have a good old discussion to inspire us forward. But the discussion has already started, head over to the wiki to contribute in any way, it would be great over the next few weeks to really get the conversations joined up.
It would be too easy to return to blogging with a huge rant about the ups and downs of being a probationer teacher.
Instead I’m going to break it down a little. Here are 3 of the most important things I learnt over my first year of teaching. I imagine most new teachers when asking for advice generally get the usual: you gotta enjoy teaching, make sure you plan, get involved in wider school life etc etc. Mine are (hopefully) a little different…
Best piece of advice I’ve been given: “You’ll learn to achieve a level of working (from the pupils) that you are happy with. It may be lower than you’re expectations but work with it”. This was said to me in reference to pupil behaviour and was completely true.
“The most important thing to help you be a successful teacher is to have other good teachers to surround you.” Without a doubt, being able to talk to others, work with others and have a laugh with others made my job a happy one even when the pupils were giving me a tough time. A department of teachers moving and working together and supporting each other is probably the number one thing that I will look for in the future.
In contrast to that, “Get things done yourself and others will follow”. Clearly barging in and getting on everyone’s nerves is not the way to do it. But equally clearly, to me, is that it is inevitable that there are teachers who are stuck in their own ways and change is something they find in their pockets rather than something related to their job. These people are everywhere (and rightfully so because without a mix of people life would be boring). Therefore, there is little point in complaining to each other all the time (something most teachers do well) and a lot of point in making change happen.
The hardest thing about blogging is getting back into it if you’ve been away for a while. So here is my attempt – but don’t get too excited, I’m not about to start making any great revelations.
Since I’ve been away I have completed my probationary year and am now a Registered Teacher. I think I’m officially called a teacher of Technological Education, but shorten that to Technical (woodwork/metalwork/ Graphic Communications/Product Design and Technology and some other stuff) and you’ve pretty much got it
Over the next while I hope to get back into blogging and share some ‘not so great’ revelations on my Probationary Year, ‘The Education System’ (lol), School Design and why Primary One worries me….
I just read Don Ledingham’s post about Unconditional Positive Regard – the way in which he treats every young person he comes in contact with. He explains :
…getting really angry and just wanting kids who misbehaved to be removed from my class. I can’t exactly remember when my attitude changed but I do know that when I shifted from a “conditional” approach to an “unconditional” approach that the response I got from children was incredibly different and the impact that I had a teacher was transformed.
On reading this I was struck. I am not ashamed to say that am a teacher with conditional positive regard. But only on the inside. You see, when with pupils I will always treat them with respect, I always listen, I always basically try my best so as to do the best for them. I know this without a doubt. But as Don says how a teacher he knew used to call a pupil a ‘moron’, well never would I say that to a pupils face but I know that I do have similar thoughts about certain pupils.
You see although my outer actions will always treat everyone with the same type of unconditional positive regard (I think this has something to do with how I was brought up), on the inside I often regard pupil’s as right “so and so’s” (as my Dad puts it).
And this is what I think Don is missing from his post because I believe it is only human to do so. For 3 short terms I have tried with a certain pupil (yes you have heard it all before) and although I have repeatedly been consistent, fair, followed discipline procedures that I have been instructed to, given the pupil individual support during class-time, avoided confrontation etc etc etc, he has been continually and very blatantly disrespectful to me. I don’t really like this boy, I think he is a rather nasty teenager and he does not seems to respond well to Unconditional Positive Regard. “Yeh, yeh Miss. Whatever…” I do honestly think, and this is very unfortunate, that for some pupils Don’s approach does not work. I think that if I was a stern looking middle age man with a bark in my voice this boy would behave differently. But maybe that is only experience.
So when Don says
“And what if people don’t treat kids with unconditional positive regard?” – Then they are in the wrong job!
I would put in an extra word: “try”. I totally don’t condone teachers that just blank kids, pick on them on just slag them off in the staffroom. That seriously bugs me as it is just uncalled for. But for a teacher to dispair and be pretty close to giving up but somehow to just keep going then I think that is essential.
Here is something that really sums up what I love about teaching. The man in the picture is a colleague of mine who has been teaching Technical for about 25 years. It is a fairly recent picture. When I first saw it I was struck by a few things.
The nature of teaching: collaboration is the key.
The fact that after 25 years teachers are still driven to help people learn.
The great practical and fun nature of my subject.
Thanks to Stuart and John who made me come up with this picture and I would ask David Cain , Nick Hood , Ant Jessop , Pat aka “loonyhiker” and of course Ian Stuart to come up with a picture that shows why you are passionate about what you do!
Honestly – would you on a day of your holiday – spend an evening packing your stuff, get up early the next day, get a ferry at 8o’clock in the morning drive for about 5 hours across Scotland just to do some CPD? Bearing in mind you’ve still got to get back home. Ian Stuart and Andy Wallis did. Are they insane? Nope – because there were teacher’s and educators from all over Scotland travelling for a few hours after a work to get to TeachMeetPerth. People joined the TeachMeet from even further afield through the Flashmeeting. Seriously I cannot recommend enough - if you do one piece of CPD in the coming year get yourself to a TeachMeet!
Why? It is full of enthusiatic, knowledgeable and practical teachers who share what works in the classroom. Based on experience, teachers have 7 minutes to share how they’ve been using Technology in the classroom. I have been priveledged to be at 2 TeachMeets and both times I have been bowled over at how I been made to feel part of a community of educators that love making things better for pupils. Getting involved in this has had a huge influence of how I have approached teaching. It not only provides me with a ton of ideas but allows me to reflect outwith my department.
So what did I learn. Firstly – I want to make it a long term target for myself to get 80-90% of pupil written work in a digital format. Why? Two reasons – from seeing Ian Stuart’s ease at which he organises, provides feedback and pupils collaborate on their handheld Q1’s – I want to do that. OneNote looks like a fantastic application – amazingly intuitive and easy to use. And also from Robert Jones’ recommendation: “where should we start the roll-out of 1-1?” and I want to be so ready that they couldn’t possibly choose anywhere else”. I don’t know how long it will take – but if I can and it’s practical I want to get rid of all unneccessary bits of paper both for me and the pupils.
The other person I thought was great was Nick Hood. He made a quick get-away afterwards and I really wish I had been able to speak to him. I admire the “no holds barred” way that he conducts himsself on the net – and I mean this in a positive way. He is refreshingly honest and humorous and his short presentation was cutting it all back to basics. You don’t need to go all high tech, just get a projector and a wireless mouse and there’s loads of potential. In his Authority everything is blocked and he gave a fantastic explanation of a teacher who refuses to give up and persists in finding effective ways of using the web2.0 tools that are out there.
Finally, a big heads up to Neil Winton, English teacher and blogger who organised the whole thing. His “7 tools in about 3 minutes” was a whirlwind tour of neat stuff that can be really useful in the classroom. In particular I loved Fleck, the website annotation tool. I can see loads of use for this in the design classroom. He also managed to book a pretty fantastic curry that allowed for some great chat.
So Islay Ian has a lot to live up to as he is proposing an Islay High School open day showcasing the unique things they are getting up to. In particular, I would love to see a school that has removed age and stage restrictions let alone a school with the lowest photocopying budget in the world* If you have one thing to do in June, get your ass self over to Islay High School, cos it looks like there might be another TeachMeet horizon!
*All I know is that the Design and Technology department managed to spend about £7 over the course of a year on photocopying. Eh, lets see someone beat that!
So it’s been a bit of a hiatus? Apart from being busy – what has kept me away from blogging is that there are so many damn bloggers out there with a million and one things to say that by the time I read a couple each night I don’t really have anything new to say.
Ha! Nothing new to say? Well I thought this ‘comeback’ post might interest you. Before you read any further think about what your first year of teaching like? What was the first few months like?
A walk in the park? Lol, this year has been bloody hard – and the trouble with explaining it on a blog is that I obviously can’t make anything too ‘personal’ and have to talk in generalities. But if you want to reminisce then carry on reading.
By far the hardest thing, without a shadow of a doubt is classroom management. I think my favourite line so far when ‘talking’ to a pupil is: “It is your choice” I love taking myself outside the equation and putting the decision as to what happens in their hands. But honestly, I don’t know how many times I have used this line and how often it works. Some kids just don’t get it. I also totally agree with the whole don’t crack a smile till Christmas – maybe a bit severe but it’s the right idea. If you give an inch they take a mile. Everytime. And I do seem to be constantly reining them in – making sure they know the boundaries. But hey – there’s always next year.
A positive though – never ever under estimate the value of your colleagues. If you are an experienced teacher no matter how you teach, us newbies always want to learn from you. If you have only been teaching a year more than me, I still want to learn from you and any little nugget of information or experience is like gold dust for people like me who are finding our way in teaching. When I have a crap class, the best thing about it is waving ‘bye’ to the kids and talking to other teachers.
I don’t mind admitting that I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster and I bet you were too during your first year (maybe you still are). One week I’m full of energy with great new ideas, lessons prepared to the max. Others I am shattered, wondering why the hell I attempt to teach certain pupils as it seems to have little effect. Most weeks I middle out – a sort of working normality with a couple of cool lessons, generally making progress. Sometimes I like to be experimental – other times I wish I had an overhead projector to copy from and textbook to work through.
I’m definitely finding out what type of teacher I am. I thought at the start of all this I would be going down a pastoral route and in many ways I am. I genuinely want to ‘look out’ for kids and make sure they are OK. But more than that – I enjoy it when things work. I enjoy the learning and teaching that goes on day in and day out, I like seeing ways I can make it better. And I particularly like it when the kids respect me cos they can’t get away with messing around. By no means am I any good at it – but I can see myself in a couple of years getting better at it and running a tightly managed classroom where real and worthwhile learning takes place.
But for my final question that has been perplexing me just now and believe me I am no cynic. I seriously doubt that for some kids I or any teacher do the blindest bit of good for. No matter how much we try, the resources and effort we put in place. Even if it is as good as anyone anywhere can get. Some kids will not want to learn, do not want to be taught and will either placate you and then continue to mess around aimlessly or deliberately go out their way to be disruptive. And it is these kids I loose the most sleep over (although tbh I’m too tired usually to actually loose sleep – it’s just a phrase). I will always try to teach these kids, constantly chipping away at the hard exteriors. I try to focus more on success in responsibility or citizenship or mamging to complete some work. But I really do wonder, when those type of kids walk out the school door does any of it make the blindest bit of difference?
I recently took the IQ test from facebook out of curiosity. I use facebook simply as a form of lighthearted banter with my brothers, unfortunately I was lower than both of them so no doubt I will be hearing about it for years to come! Whats interesting though was this:
”In their book, Know Your Child’s IQ, Glen Wilson and Diana Grylls outline occupations typical of various IQ levels:
140
Top Civil Servants; Professors and Research Scientists.
130
Physicians and Surgeons; Lawyers; Engineers (Civil and Mechanical)
120
School Teachers; Pharmacists; Accountants; Nurses; Stenographers; Managers.
I realised today that one of the real strengths of a teacher has to be that when you are feeling rubbish, run-down and just plain ragged – you really need to delve into some ‘magic hat’ of lesson resources and quite simply get on with the job. I can think of plenty of other jobs, where you have got other people relying on you where the show must go on. But how many is there when you are bunged up with the cold (as is half your class) and you have to keep everyone on track acting as a steward of ideal behaviour?
I now look in a new light at all the teachers who come rain or shine always turn up and get on with their job.
I was fascinated by the stark cultural differences of this assembly in Bangladesh and the type we have in Scotland. I was talking recently to a colleague who taught in India and the difference in ethos regarding education is amazing. Children stand when their teacher enters the room and sit back down when they are asked to. I don't feel that this approach could be replicated here, however surely there is something to learn from this?
