Lessons from an Okay Teacher

  AI has been in the news a lot recently.   And as I sit here looking at some IGCSE coursework that has obviously been done by chatgpt, I find myself pondering just how much education will be affected by what seems to be an unstoppable tide of new technological advances. I think the truth is that we just don’t know.   I did a postgraduate course in Learning Technologies only three and a half years ago and the things we looked at on the course are already out of date because of just how quickly AI has invaded the technological sphere. And in this regard I’m extremely wary of self-appointed Educational Experts in AI given that in order to be an expert in anything surely you have to have studied it for many years, no?   And how long, really, has it been used fully by the teaching profession anyway?   Of course there will be People Who Guess The Future of AI but the technology is so new that there hasn’t been enough time to become expert in it, isn’t that self...

  I’ve worked in both primary and secondary sections of schools, coached in both and tutored both age groups.  I don’t see any problem with working in either but I do know that some of my ex-colleagues have issues with ‘those other lot’ who work within a different age group to them.  Let me share some of the comments that I have heard or been directed at me over the years. The most common one aimed at me as a primary school teacher is “All you lot do is play.”   When I first met my wife it was something that she joked about as it is a common refrain amongst most secondary school teachers who are, let’s face it, rather ignorant of what happens in the primary sector.   I have double checked, triple checked and quadruple checked over the years, and she was joking. She was definitely joking.   She has assured me of this.   Definitely. No doubt at all. Absolutely no doubt.   Unfortunately quite a number of senior school associates have sp...

  The staffroom occupies a special place within any school building, or at least it should do. It should, at its very least be a place of refuge away from the classroom and one of refreshment.   It should contain a fridge, a toaster,   a sink, a decent kettle or water heater, cutlery, a tea towel that no one knows where it came from, some crappy lounge chairs and/or sofas, some plastic chairs, a microwave and a pin board for notices from whichever teaching union are active inside the school. If any school does not have the latter then leave as soon as you can.   It just isn’t a good place to work in. The other objects can be purchased or borrowed or stolen from other locations but the union board is something that just cannot be exchanged for money or favours.   It is a fundamental part of the health of the school because the staffroom is for the staff and not an extension of management meeting areas. And it should be for all of the staff, not just the...

Bosses are an inevitable part of life as a teacher and we must all learn how to deal with them equitably if we are to succeed in our ambitions to be happy at our place of work.  They are, like all creatures, varied and different.  All of them are human. Probably. Just kidding. We all want different   things from our bosses.   Some want a person who is just going to leave them alone to get on with their job.   Some want someone to talk to regularly to ensure that what they are doing is what is expected of them and is the right thing to do.   Others want a boss who will ‘gee them up’ with lots of positivity whilst some teachers just want someone to deal with some of the shittier aspects of school life like discipline issues and parents who are over-demanding. What all of us want is a boss who will not make us feel bad, make us feel angry, make us feel depressed or make us want to quit teaching as a profession.   And what we certainly don’t want i...

  An expert is conceptualised as someone with knowledge accrued in an accredited fashion, who then operates with a high degree of independence as a result of that knowledge and skill.  There are many people who are experts in the realm of Education, as I re-discovered when I returned to university a couple of years ago – lifelong learning and all that.   In fact the amount of experts that I was able to learn from in this modern world of connected libraries was a bit overwhelming. Because the sheer volume of experts in Education was so vast, it required the guidance of my tutor to steer me towards the ‘right’ ones for my research purposes.   The plethora of studies from all over the world, peer reviewed and articulate was incredible and a little bit daunting for this old man.   My tutor did it well.   And here is where we enter a deeply problematic, well, problem for those of us who work in education.   Who are the ‘right’ experts to help us in ou...

  Join a union.   If you can, of course.   Some teachers and headteachers will be working in a country where it is just not possible.    If you’re in a place that has a strong teaching union or even a non-specialist union, join it.   It doesn’t matter if you are put off by their politics because you don’t have to get involved in that, just join it anyway.   The fees are not extortionate, far from it, and for that you get the protection of people who have the sole aim of looking after you should the worst happen at school. You don’t even need to join a teacher-specific union, any general one will do. But why? Bad things do happen at school.   The advertising of teacher positions tends not to focus on the emotional, financial, social issues that you, as a teacher, will be dealing with on a daily basis.   You know all those images of smiling students and smiling teachers with bright shiny teeth in impeccably tidy classrooms?   Tha...