Teacher. With a capital T.

Back to this video again;

 

I'd like to highlight the section starting at 3 minutes and going through to about 5 minutes again.  There's 3 very important points in there.

• Having great teachers is key to student outcomes.
• The transfer of knowledge from great teachers is key to making more great teachers.
• You are who you are going to be as a teacher after 3 years.

1) Having great teachers is key to student outcomes.

We are not just some cog in the wheel of some massive machine designed to turn out functional adults capable of reading, writing and basic maths.  We are the most important part of that machine and we create rocket scientists, politicians, humanitarians and business giants too.  No mater how marvelous a construction or feat of planning, design and engineering the machine is?  It will fail without us.  Miserably.

Many people don't know this but in many Asian countries Teachers, even in the equivalent of Primary education, hold a position of respect in the community right up there with Doctors.  While I don't see this being achieved in Australian communities any time soon I marvel at the Teachers who buy into that community view that we are often "just teachers".

We are some of the most important people in the lives of millions of Australians, both children and adults.  Teachers as a whole are some of the most important people in the lives of billions world wide.  We aren't "just teachers", we are Teachers.  With a capital T.

2) The transfer of knowledge from great teachers is key to making more great teachers.

I covered this one in a previous post so I won't go into great depth.  If you missed it, please feel free to scroll down the page!

The transfer of inspiration is also key.  Everyone gets jaded about their job sometimes and it's a lot easier to do better, and have fun, if we are happy and excited walking in the gate.

3) You are who you are going to be as a teacher after 3 years.

My first reaction was to get a little worked up over this.  Until I actually stopped and looked back on my 8 years as a CRT and all of the experiences that came along with that.

I believe this is true.  Being a CRT I am perhaps in one of the best positions to see this in action.  I move through schools and see many different teachers in action.  We replace other teachers and get to observe the similarities in their classes year after year.

I have now taught along side some of my old teachers and on behalf of some of them too.  Watching them in action, and observing their class, it is easy to draw parallels to my experience with the same teacher 10-20 years ago.  I have observed a large number of beginning and returning teachers, seeing their skills evolve at a massive rate for the first few years and then plateau after about the third year.

And it's not just others, I recognised this in myself too.  There was a period there where I "knew I was good enough".  It wasn't until outside forces started in on me, namely becoming a CRT Network Coordinator, that I thought I needed to change the way I did anything.

My observations mirror what Bill Gates is saying the study showed.

There are a couple though.  The exceptions that prove the rule.  What makes them exceptions?

In a clinical sense, we need to look at VIT and what it does for a moment.  It maintains our registrations partially on the basis of ongoing learning.  The learning requirement is the same for everyone, 20 hours a year (or 100 hours in 5 years which amounts to the same).If continued learning part of maintaining your registration, meaning we all do it, there shouldn't be a 3 year plateau.  Our continued improvement is reliant on more than just continued gaining of knowledge.

They want us to submit 20 hours of PD a year and what should we think about that? Everyone receives ongoing training but some teachers are "better" than others.

Which begs the question "is the key to continued growth as a teacher getting well-rounded doses of knowledge and inspiration"? Of course I'm on post number two backing that statement so I guess it's easy to see which side of the fence I sit on.

The question I'd like Teachers asking themselves though, is this;

Is it the teaching strategies and methods you employ that define who you are as a teacher or is it something else?

Continuing education certainly helps you keep abreast of the latest teaching theories and strategies but if a Master's Degree is showing so little improvement in the end quality of teaching being delivered?  Extra training, even some of the highest level training available, can't be the complete answer.

So should we really be defining ourselves by how many degrees we have or how many diplomas hang on our wall?  Or should we, perhaps, be digging deeper to find that aspect that defines us as a teacher and using it just as much as any training we receive?

That something that made us decide to be Teachers in the first place.  I firmly believe "that something" is just as important today as it was back then.  Find it every time you want to think that you are "just a teacher".  You aren't "just a teacher".  You are a Teacher.  With a capital "T".

Regards,

Mel.