Joh Blogs

My new found teacher, blogger, buddy Frogdancer wrote a post tonight that I plugged right into.  Her post ‘Frogdancer gets soapboxy’ had the effect of getting me up on mine. My teaching rounds were a nightmare. It all came flooding back to me when I read it. I didn’t go down the usual school to uni to school path that many teachers travel. I did my teaching rounds at 35 years old. I was a financially struggling, single mother of two children and it was a nightmare personally and organisationally as well as the experience in the classroom. I hadn’t been in a classroom for 17 years and things had changed.

I had been a youth worker and had good rapport with young people.  I was passionate about English and Media Studies. My supervising teacher was older and more experienced. I stupidly thought teaching rounds would be a learning experience. I assumed the teacher would show me ways to teach, help me. My course certainly hadn’t done any of that. I studied Distance Ed and had enjoyed the reading and theory making, but it had absolutely no relevance when put before a room of students. They were all so critical, supervising teacher included. One student actually commented on the fact that I didn’t shave my legs. I was pretty horrified to be honest. It felt like I was spending five weeks, with no money, rushing madly to organise my kids around my new routine, all to be judged and found wanting. I am not sure why I finished them to be honest.

I think we can do better to train teachers. We need to focus more on relationship building, communication skills, personal growth and leadership. We can’t assume that people have those skills and without them, it’s not going to work in the classroom. The curriculum is constantly changing so I think it is a waste of time to teach that at Uni to prepare teachers. They need to learn how to learn (like everyone else in this fast changing world). I think the skills I was taught in sales team training for a previous job, were more relevant to me as a teacher than all my study at Uni. A wise principal said to me once, when I first started, “The kids don’t remember what you taught them, but they remember how you made them feel about themselves.” I have found that to be true in both positive and negative examples.  I certainly remember how that supervising teacher made me feel about myself.

I had a conversation at work today, naturally about the impending strike and the quality of teachers. We all know that teachers salaries in themselves don’t attract the best and brightest. At least we could teach and support those who do want to do the challenging job, to have the relevant qualities and skills so they can do it well. Even the PD offered to teachers doesn’t often address these fundamental qualities for good teachers. What do you think?

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