Back To School

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Summer holidays are over and it’s school time again!

Many years have gone by since the first time I walked into a classroom. No doubt I have walked a long way, but still have a long way to go – in teaching as much as and in learning.

Despite all adversities including budgetary shortfalls, economic crisis, bureaucratic issues,… there we are, year after year, ready to teach more, larger and different classes and focus on student learning.  It’s not the students’ fault that so much is wrong in our schools, is it? Our job is to teach what is relevant (by giving students choices, connecting to their own life experiences, involving authentic materials and audiences) and with rigor, addressing all our students’ needs by allowing them to go beyond and start thinking critically. Building strong relationships is of utmost importance and students need to understand we do care about them and about their learning progress.

By now you are thinking – easy talk… yep, ideally, yes, but as the old saying goes “No one rises to low expectations”. Clear goals have to be established for ourselves and for our students to promote as ambitious as effective teaching / learning.

teachinginthecouv.blogspot.com

School is more and more often associated with testing and grading; students are just test-takers as teachers are forced to sprint to cover the curriculum, forced to adopt a shallow approach which, in the long run, sacrifices real learning. We are asked to cover X units and the issue here is: am I supposed to teach the book or the students??? I’ve always chosen to teach my students; I can cover all units without going through all course book pages… I choose one exercise here, another one there and always introduce something of my own that I believe is more appropriate for a particular group – more challenging, more updated, more achievable. This brings me to two professional dilemmas:  1. I admit that, though time consuming, I enjoy researching multiple sources and don't like to work with the same course book day after day – I have nothing against them, I do use them and parents wouldn’t be pleased if they bought a book that wasn’t used, especially now… I still plan my classes the way I learned in my first year as a student teacher but keep readjusting my practice, strategies, lesson plans and my materials to cater to students’ needs;  2. I have often worked with colleagues at school and online, and do find such experiences enriching. I have absolutely no problem in sharing my materials and my views, and the proof is this blog and all that I’ve already posted here.  However, as I keep changing stuff, I feel I have some problems as a teacher… is it wrong not to follow every line of our plan? Is it wrong to change stuff before and often even during classes? Am I the only one facing these dilemmas with course book usage (more lack of it) and colleagues?  In what concerns extra activities, I’ve always advocated learning opportunities outside of school… is it pretentious? Is it too much?  It does involve loads of (extra) work … in the beginning of another difficult school year, maybe it’s time to start prioritizing differently and just follow general guidelines... I don't know... Right now only Marva Collins' saying comes to my mind: "You can pay people to teach, but you can't pay them to care."

Anyway, hope you do have a position and are ready to start - at least I belong to this group.
A great school year!