Nice people thread 2 - now even nicer

carolt

Davesnave wrote: »

The worst thing about teaching is the marking.

I used to write occasional ridiculous comments in pupils' books, just to see if they read anything I wrote there. I suppose it made them look, and it livened up the Parents' Evenings as well.

One would hear occasional cackles of mirth as the next pair read through the books while they waited outside the door. :rotfl:

Of course, sometimes it could go the other way.

Education = serious business.

Can't win 'em all.

What a wonderful idea!

Disagree that education is a serious business, though. Not in my classes... I like it precisely because I can be very silly indeed.

PasturesNew

If you're thinking of a teaching career, then you really need to identify a subject that doesn't change much, ever, that has no homework ... and no out of school activities.

I used to teach typing, that fits into that category. It never changed. Couldn't give homework as they didn't have typewriters at home. Nobody goes to an after school typing club and there are no county typing championships.

Twas great/easy.

PasturesNew

carolt wrote: »

What a wonderful idea!

Disagree that education is a serious business, though. Not in my classes... I like it precisely because I can be very silly indeed.

You teach at clown school?
Wow

Davesnave

PasturesNew wrote: »

You teach at clown school?
Wow

I think what carol means is that she can 'be herself' in the classroom, without embarrassment.

Some teachers (most teachers?) find this hard to do and hide behind a 'teacher' persona they create for the job. This accords with pupil expectations, and makes for easy transitions, but personally, I would have found that very wearing.

The kids took about two weeks or so to adapt to me being me. Once they got it that my fairly informal style didn't equate with sloppy standards, it was fine. Boundaries still needed defining, of course.

Kids are lovely, most of the time, but 'Lord of the Flies' isn't a million miles from the truth!

carolt

PasturesNew wrote: »

You teach at clown school?
Wow

Sadly, no, but not far off.

As Dave says, you can be yourself. And have fun - and your students can have fun too.

When I was doing my teacher training, the single most useful and profound thing I learnt was when my head of course, in a half-way through the course chat, told me that I had to teach as 'me', not as some 'ideal' teacher I had in my head. I suppose there may be people who teach like that, but it would be very hard work to keep up, and ultimately you'd do it worse. You have to teach in your own unique way, and what students get is a genuine person, sharing a genuine enthusiasm, which is 100 X more powerful than someone 'acting' a teacher.

In my classes, there's lots of joking around - from me as much as them. Learning should be fun - if even I'm bored, how can I expect them to stay awake? We play lots of games, there's a light-hearted atmosphere. I expect respect - to me, to the other students and especially to themselves ie enough self-respect to do their best and achieve what they're capable of - but it doesn't mean it has to be miserable.

silvercar

Sadly, no, but not far off.

Drama ????

Davesnave

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you're thinking of a teaching career, then you really need to identify a subject that doesn't change much, ever, that has no homework ... and no out of school activities.

I used to teach typing, that fits into that category.

Twas great/easy.

Not these days. You'd need to attend courses on Health and Safety implications of sharing keyboards, RSI and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Audio Typing for the Hard of Hearing, Dyslexia and the Inadequacies of Spellchockers, Lumbar Support Issues in the Workplace etc etc.

tomterm8

Davesnave wrote: »

Not these days.

I've always thought religious education would be a great thing to teach. In the absence of the second coming of our lord, nothing changes as far as the subject is concerned, and since it's all nonesence anyway if you get it wrong it doesn't matter.

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

I've always thought religious education would be a great thing to teach. In the absence of the second coming of our lord, nothing changes as far as the subject is concerned, and since it's all nonesence anyway if you get it wrong it doesn't matter.

And, you probably don't even have to believe it all anyway ... as that would be discriminatory.

PasturesNew

What I did was:
- made of list of every syllabus point
- divided them across the teaching days
- got out the books I had available and noted the page numbers for each point

So, that was 2 hours and that was all the lesson planning needed for the year.

As each kid came into a class, I'd have a grid of items covered and their names, and put a tick in the book... if a kid walked into class and I could see they'd missed the last 1-2-3 lessons, then I'd instantly know and be able to either get them to catch up (fast track through the missing bits so they'd caught up by the end of the lesson), or decide that they didn't need to know that bit necessarily and just spend time talking them through what they missed so they knew, it all depends on the item/the person.

That covered me for four different class groups and two different sets of evening classes I also taught.

Lessons were easy. Stand up, explain the stuff/get feedback and questions. Then tell them to turn to book X, page Y and do Exercise Z and they'd bring them up for immediate marking once done. I then knew instantly which next exercise they had to do.

Job done.

Got a letter of commendation from the head teacher as exam pass rates improved beyond anything seen before... and the kids loved my "no nonsense" approach (even the big loud mouthed slapper was on my side and behaved for my lessons).

Go in. Teach. Get out.