THE
DAY I BECAME THE LEADING TEACHER ARTICLES
I did not become a leading teacher, the
day I walked out of university. I was trained as a teacher but it took many
years for me to feel like a teacher. I’m still not sure I’m there
yet.
Often
transition takes years. There is a lot written about how to act in the first
year of a new education environment. There is a lot written about what we
should know and what we should do. There are myriad competing ideas about what
a good induction or orientation looks like. What drops through the gaps is
often the very challenging identity work that happens as you move from being a
university student to becoming a teacher.
I will use google class room. Because in that teachers can share their lessons, can have some fun education games. So that students will participate more. The more they participate the more they will understand.
Some benefits of this tool when used in the classroom:
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Easy Access to Materials.
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Differentiation.
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Less Paper.
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No Lost Work.
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A lot of the first year of teaching is learning what not to say and how not to act. Negotiating new personalities and politics within a school community can be difficult. Soon you begin to tell yourself that permanent work comes with a certain type of behavior or performance, and you begin to pick and choose what you talk about with colleagues and what you keep silent about.
Leading Teaching has a massive attrition rate. Being a teacher is not easy and it is not smooth sailing. It takes years of personal and professional struggle to decide on it as a vocation. I am not saying that early career teachers should break their silence. Breaking the silence demonstrates that we learn by jumping hurdles; not by pretending they don’t exist. In fact, the more hurdles we jump the better we get at it. We need a conversation that balances how difficult teaching is as a profession and why people stay in it. Honest conversations about why we come to this profession and what decisions we make that keep us there.
