Lessons from an Okay Teacher

  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...

  When you become a teacher you become immersed in the world of your students as well as their parents.   The former have been studied, pedagogy decided and you’ve been trained how to talk with them, how to keep them safe and healthy, how to educate them.   The latter.   Hmm.   Well, you’re pretty much learning about parents on the hoof, so to speak.   Your initial training will not have covered the multiple ways that they can affect the lives of their children or even the life of a school.   Unfortunately colleges and universities don’t wheel in parents to remonstrate with you, ignore you or even threaten you.   Nor do they rope in some parents to shower you with praise and presents and declare how their child loves you.   Should these teacher training places do that?   Maybe.   When you do your placements you get to meet parents for the first time but there is a sense that you are just training for the job and, in my exper...

  Okay, so this is a rather semantic-based blog with a focus on a pet hate that my wife and I have often discussed; being ‘passionate’ about an aspect of school and education when you are talking about yourself and your role, particularly in a job interview. I think it stems from the fact that the both of us are English teachers and can recognise when a word or phrase is being overused.   I remember, sometimes vaguely, the 1980s when ‘synergy’ was the buzzword to use in business and I do remember that, at the time, thinking it was just corporate twaddle. And so it is with the word ‘passionate’.   You see it in job adverts; “the ideal candidate should be passionate about inclusion” just to quote an example.   Passionate about inclusion?   Really?   Why? Passion is when you support your Football or Rugby or American Football or Cricket team and you get properly riled up when they play.   When they score or hit a four you go absolutely beserk an...