Relief teaching and the freedom to teach students instead of the curriculum.

I was recently sent an article on Relief Teaching that brings up a few topics really worth discussing. 

The article is on Education HQ and entitled "Relief Teaching:  Juggling expectations and uncertainty".  Articles like these are often "what's wrong with education" which I'm not keen on, I prefer to focus on solutions, but they are sometimes needed to promote general awareness but they can make great discussion drivers.

Today I'm going to discuss a comment made when I linked this article in a facebook group (in a quite long winded way but with purpose, bear with me):

"Bob makes a point at the end about not accepting poor lessons left by the classroom teacher - I am currently doing quite a bit of relief at a school where the teachers are expected to leave work, and it is often of poor quality, and (worse), not enough. However, when I've brought out stuff from my bag of tricks, the kids want to know why they have to do extra work from me when they've completed what they know their teacher left. It's really frustrating."
Name Withheld.

The part the quote above is referencing this comment by Bob Brandis:

"Have a bank of high quality lessons applicable to a range of year levels. Don’t accept poor lessons that may be left by the class teacher."

We need to understand how to balance the responsibilities of our role in education with being an effective educator rather than giving one or the other more importance.  In this light I think it's worth discussing "what a lesson plan actually is in the relief teacher context" beyond "what we are to teach the students" (with reference to the above comment above from that Facebook group of course).

As Relief Teachers, the lesson plan is a list of the classroom teachers expectations of what we will do in their class for the day.  This is both in regards to the curriculum knowledge we will transfer to the students and the activities they are to complete. 

So how do we use this knowledge to address the comment above?  The work "runs out" and students are complaining about more?

Provided the lesson plan has been delivered in an engaging way and the quality of work from students is good, we have fulfilled the professional expectations we have been given.  Technically speaking we have now fulfilled the majority of our professional responsibilities.  What's left is just to keep the students engaged and learning.  There are no tests to give, no curriculum to target, we find ourselves in a position of having the freedom to just teach.

When dealing with a new school or class this gives you time to bring out educational activities that focus on relationship building with these students, to engage them with you as a Teacher, each other as a class and their education as a whole.  While you won't be ticking the boxes of today, you've already done that part, you are now ticking extra boxes for tomorrow.  You are building the positive relationships with classes that allow you to be an effective educator.

Use the "sesame street" approach and focus on educational activities revolving around "fun" or "this is just plain interesting" that don't seem to revolve around "education" because they aren't subject area focused. Engage them with you as a "teacher educating them", not a "boss giving them work".

In primary this could be games or hands-on group activities that focus on cognitive development and/or fine motor skills. In secondary, something like the Worldometers can be a very engaging discussion starter.

http://sheppartoncrtsupportnetwork.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/worldometers-wonderful-fillerfast.html

"Running out of work from the lesson plan" isn't just down time you have to fill in, it's your time to shine as an educator. To do all that stuff we know needs doing in education but a crowded curriculum and government oversight stops classroom teachers from feeling like they have time to do.

Relief teachers often fear running out of work or walking into a classroom where there's no lesson plan.  They tend to focus on "overcoming this problem" rather than recognising the freedom it offers us that sometimes we are rarely afforded; the opportunity to run our lessons, our way outside of the political oversight and rigorous testing classroom teachers all complain about.

“Relief teaching could almost be seen as the purest form of teaching, where you have to front a class that you know nothing about and you somehow have to, by the end of the day, transmit information, and that’s tough,” he says.

Yes, relief teaching has it's down sides and it can be tough.  That doesn't mean that "the purest form of teaching" does not also have it's advantages.  Opportunities and freedoms it affords relief teachers that other teachers rarely get to experience.  When we find ourselves left up to our own devices, we are not expected to be constrained by the curriculum and long term planning goals in the same way as other teachers. 

We are only expected to deliver the curriculum knowledge left for us to deliver.  With that done we are only expected to fill the rest of the time in an engaging manner, the focus of the learning is now entirely up to us.  The opportunity to deliver a lesson or activity for no other reason than we think the students will engage with it and enjoy their education.

Looking back at the comment from Facebook,

"However, when I've brought out stuff from my bag of tricks, the kids want to know why they have to do extra work from me when they've completed what they know their teacher left. It's really frustrating."

Understanding the above means that we can now see that our "bag of tricks" can be full of a lot more than "work".  It can be full of all of those little bits and pieces designed only to engage and to build relationships.

A relief teacher's Bag of Tricks is not a "thing", it is a strategy to overcome any situation you face in your classroom and it's physical presence is no more than part of that strategy.  It should be full of the best things on offer that you truly believe in as a teacher because it's used to allow you to excel, not just to overcome obstcles.  To shine in classrooms as an educator in your own right rather than a replacement for another.

Oh, and your brain belongs in your bag of tricks too ;).

This post is long but I wanted to use it to say one more thing.

We are equal to other teachers, we are not "the same" as other teachers.  We have our own specific challenges and freedoms that we need to master in order to be excellent educators in our role in education.

We don't need to be just "great teachers", we need to be "great relief teachers". 

Regards,

Mel.