Adapting as an educator
WHAT is teaching all about in 2019?
The answer is relationships and community and encouragement. I have spent 27 years in the classroom. The last seven years have been in a management role, and I really do believe that teaching boils down to being in a relationship.
Very little of it is about the syllabus, and if the classroom focus is on content, then we are missing something far more important. High-level teaching should aim to teach and recognise each individual within the class group as an individual.
A good school places a premium on staff setting a non-negotiable benchmark of tolerance, manners, a genuine interest and awareness of others and a sound engagement with the boys and girls who attend that school.
We need to dial-down assessment, significantly reduce or even scrap homework altogether, place a premium on boys and girls having quality-time with moms and dads after school and on the weekends, start our days later, take out teachers’ desks at the front of the classroom and rip up the antiquated classroom plan where students’ desks are all lined-up in neat rows.
We need to invite parents in to observe class time. We should have a day a week where our moms and dads can be part of the school day. We should conduct strength-finder assessments with our staff, engage in peer assessments that focus only on what is being done well and never on the things that aren’t. We need to have pupils teach back to the class, and we need to really engage with each other to rebuild for our future.
A good practical start would be to count the assessments currently in any school term, and cut half of them out. Immediately the weight will be lifted from both students and teachers, creating time. And with this time, teachers could actually engage with their pupils, creatively looking to shape and design learning that takes us forward in the ways we listen and encourage.
Teachers are learning-designers. A teacher’s role is to engage and encourage. Anything less is below par.
I am 52. I have thirteen years left in my teaching career. The clock is ticking and what keeps me up at night is worrying that I am not going to be able to make a difference, that I do not have enough time left.
The world is changing. The question is, how are we adapting as educators?