teaching Scout

How many times have you heard ‘Aye, they did that 20 years ago, and then changed it and now they’re changing it back again”. Or “Yeh, it’s the next flavour of the month”.  I’ve only been a teacher for 10 weeks or so and I’ve heard it plenty. From a lot of different people. Different backgrounds. Different schools.

At our council CPD meetings the most people address us (the NQT’s) with the words “You are the future of teaching. You are young. You can make change happen”.

Change. It’s a big theme, and it’s not like it is new or is the flavour of the month. It is something that no-one can escape from. People 400 years ago were thinking pretty similar things to what you are thinking just now. Maybe in a different context, but essentially the same stuff. But turning to the voices of those cynics - why do it? “If its not broke, don’t fix it” Is education a series of cliches? Sometimes from my young eyes I feel that it could easily be if we let it. “Do you want a learning intention with that?” I heard that one in the staffroom. But I’m supposed to be part of something, the new blood, the teacher of the future. But how do I battle against the cynics? Why should it be a battle? Why do things seem to change so much? And why should they?

Even in this web2.0 arena which provides us with ‘tools’ that are coming out our ears, we seem to go through fads. I honestly hardly blog about all these technologies because I feel that by the time I blog it, it will be out of date and the next thing will have come along. In the same way (I am told) Education goes through fads. Does it? I seem to have started my career at the start of a God almighty changing point. AcFE, AifL, Sustainability, Citizenship, Health Promoting Schools, Enterprise. 

Could we all just not agree on something and stick to it? It would satisfy the cynics of change. But I know that this couldn’t be the case as education really is an evolutionary process. It needs to be diverse and different and suit the learner and teacher. So why, when I go to CPD, am I constantly told to incorporate a million different techniques and values into my lessons. I feel I should make up a checklist for myself: Enterprise, yes? Citizenship, yes? Use of technology, yes?

 I feel if you want us to be the ‘teachers of the future’ advise yes, but don’t suffocate.

“Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities. From a child’s verbal description of a snowflake, to the detailed scientific analysis of the properties of magnetic fields, the concept of structure is an essential foundation of nearly every mode of inquiry and discovery in science, philosophy, and art.”

I wonder what my S1’s will make of this?

Funny how education really is one of the most normal things in the world. Sometimes when you speak to teachers you get the impression that we should all be due some sort of royalty at the end of it. Over the past few weeks the normality of my job really has hit me. I’m not here to waltz into a classroom, produce some kind of fantastic all singing all dancing lesson that makes use of every technology under the sun and to be then congratulated by myself or others for my splendid efforts. Nope. I’ve realised that educating kids should be a largely normal process. I think the more that culture changes over the coming decades, where educators become used to the notion of simply trying new things and that change is just a natural process and shouldn’t be resisted, that there will be less people from the “I cannae dae that” camp. In the same respect, there will then be less kids from the “I cannae dae that” camp.

What I’ve learnt over the past couple of weeks is the truely humbling nature of my job. I’ve learnt that I thouroughly enjoy it! Often I am frustrated and really wish that I could manage that class better. Often, I find myself repeating discipline procedures and wondering if my actions are making a blind bit of difference to the kid who refuses to look at me when I’m talking to them A good few times I’ve thought despairingly “Oh God: This is it. Can I really do this for the rest of my life?”

But that is the point. It’s normal. And it is a reflection on the fact that education is as ordinary and essential as breathing. When I think of it this way, I feel grateful to be in a country where we have such an opportunity to make innovation  commonplace.

I hope that I can play my part!

 take a moment to reflect