Diary of a Trainee Teacher

Due to the highly irritating nature of the hyperlinks and adverts that have suddenly appeared on my blog I’ve decided to move this blog to Wordpress. See you there!

As a trainee teacher I am pretty much constantly scrutinised. Most of the lessons I teach are observed, commented on and critiqued by the class teacher or my mentor (often the same person) and today I was observed by the ITE (trainee teachers) coordinator in my placement school. Tomorrow is the big one, a visit from a representative from the university to observe my teaching. No one has found these visits particularly onerous so far, but the pressure is still on and I’ll struggle to sleep tonight.

I just can’t wait until it’s over and I can relax.

There’s no doubt that languages are a less popular option for a lot of pupils, yet I still hate reading stories like this one, telling me that the state sector’s rejection of languages in a hunt for the magic A* – C grade average that keeps them high up in the league tables is actually disadvantaging our less well off children, giving provately educated kiddies yet another leg up the ladder.

But what’s the point of teaching these kids a language when they don’t even speak English well, and besides, doesn’t everyone speak English now anyway?

I hate that too! No, the whole world does not speak English. There are more native Chinese speakers in the world than English speakers, and with China’s growing economy it would be stupid to ignore the possibilities of doing business with them. Spanish is probably the most widely spoken european language thanks to South America, and German is a very important business language. Language speakers in general, and German speakers are highly employable – there are jobs out there and not enough candidates to fill them. But it’s not just direct experience. Learning French, German or Spanish teaches you how to learn a language, so if later in life you need to pick up Mandarin, Russian or Arabic you know what a verb is and what it means to conjugate one.

If I had a pound for everyone who tells me that they regret not paying more attention in French/German/Spanish at school then I’d be rich – doubly so if I also had one for everyone who tells me that they envy me for my ability to speak another language. They wish they could do it, but the truth is that everyone can, and they should. All we need to do is move away from the fear and self consciousness that prevents Britons from embracing a new language!

Early one morning a mother went in to wake up her son. “Wake up, son. It’s time to go to school!”
“But why, Mum? I don’t want to go.”
“Give me two reasons why you don’t want to go”
“Well, first the kids hate me, and second, the teachers hate me, too!”
“Oh, that’s no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready.”
“Give me two reasons why I should go to school”
“Well, for one, you’re 52 years old. And for another, you’re the headmaster!”

It’s an old joke, and a familiar one – but I’ve never really understood it until today. Today was the first day back, a training day (and what a waste of time that was), and it was such an upheaval dragging myself out of bed to go to school. It brought back unpleasant memories!

As you can probably tell from my distinct lack of posts, I’ve had a lovely and reasonably relaxing Christmas break, but I do feel that I’d benefit from a couple more days off. Christmas is such a hectic time of year, you spend so much time running around getting things organised that it’s hard to get enough time to relax.

Never mind – I’m sure I’ll get used to it with time.

I stumbled on this poem and loved it, I thought my readership here might feel the same. It sums up beautifully why teachers do what they do, and the attitudes of those who don’t understand.

What Teachers Make, or
Objection Overruled, or
If things don’t work out, you can always go to law school

By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

He says the problem with teachers is, “What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?”
He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s true what they say about
teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it’s also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite company.

“I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor,” he says.
“Be honest. What do you make?”

And I wish he hadn’t done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won’t I let you get a drink of water?
Because you’re not thirsty, you’re bored, that’s why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven’t called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, “Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don’t you?”
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?