Good Teachers - Primary School

Today I am going to share a tribute to the teachers I had in Primary School and share the impact they had on me as a learner and now as a teacher.

Kindergarten - Mrs Sykes
My kindergarten teacher introduced me to the world of school and offered me the opportunities I needed to grow. My mum had been teaching me to read at home, and Mrs Sykes let me read Dr Seuss books to the class. She also realised my potential with spelling and allowed me to go to Year 1 in the mornings so that I could do spelling lessons with them.
As a result, I try to give my students opportunities to show their extra learning to the class and provide opportunities for student extension.

Year 1 - Mrs Slater
I loved Mrs Slater. She could play the piano like no one else I knew, and I loved the way she played Gobbolino the Witches Cat. I remember the day Mrs Slater paired me up to work with a little girl with no hair who had leukemia. After that day, we became the best of friends. When Mrs Slater left the school to have her babies I was very disappointed to say the least!
I try to include music throughout the year as it is one way that we can bond as a class. I also mix my kids up often so that they have a chance to work with different class members.

Year 2 and Year 3- Miss Boyle
Miss Boyle had a great sense of humour. When she sneezed she made a huge production of it and the whole class would roll backwards to pretend she'd blown us away. On April Fools Day she came to school and pretended she had no voice! She read poetry and jokes to us every day. She introduced us to poems such as The Triantiwontigongolope and Extremely Naughty Children (which we performed for the school concert). She had a great system for teaching handwriting, where you went at your own pace, but couldn't move on until you got it right (I had trouble with writing fs!) She got us writing and publishing our own books with cardboard covers and all - I was so proud of my first book and wanted to become a writer! Miss Boyle also gave us opportunities to be creative, teach each other and explore our own interests. She gave us some Free Time Days which we had to plan in advance - we could even do cooking if we wanted to!
As a teacher, I try to give my students choices when it comes to special activities. I'm nowhere near as funny as Miss Boyle, but I do try to infuse poetry into the year in one way or another.

Year 4 - Mr Nethercott
I've mentioned Mr Nethercott before. He is the teacher who opened up the world of computers to me. He was on the cutting edge of technology and offered these opportunities to us as we learnt. That year we did research projects on dinosaurs and were able to use computer resources to help us find the information. It was a lot of fun. He also introduced me to the idea of class meetings, where students get to have their say and share their ideas.
I try to introduce my students to computers and provide opportunities for them to explore and become familiar with new technologies. I use class meetings or circle time to allow students to have a voice.

Year 5 - Mr Davies
Mr Davies liked to be called Sir Davies. I used to love his spelling lessons because he would give a whole story behind the words and explain the vocabulary. We learnt about words like phosphorescence and haemorrhage. (You don't know how proud I am that I spelt those right without spell check!) Each night we practiced spelling and times tables and had our parents sign off on them. I loved the challenge of learning these things off by heart. Sir Davies also gave us a lot of choice in the tasks we completed for our Sea and Space units of work.
I share relevant stories from my own experiences with my class. I try to extend kids' vocabulary and spelling according to their needs.

Year 6 - Mrs Burns
Mrs Burns liked to be thought of as the Dragon Lady. On the first day she yelled at me for bending down to pick up my pen lid! (I think it was that whole 'Don't smile before Easter' logic.) At the end of the year she wrote each of us a poem about ourselves. Mine has been locked into my brain ever since and I reflect on it from time to time when needing encouragement. Mrs Burns was big on poetry and presentation. I enjoyed this year as I tried to make my work look beautiful and had opportunities to have a go writing poems of my own. I particularly enjoyed our unit of work on convicts where we each chose a convict name and history and adopted that character. We kept a diary in character as we learnt about the experiences of the convicts as they travelled to Australia and started their lives in this new country.
I try to write encouraging notes to my students and give them a personalised Christmas card at the end of they year. I try to find ways to really engage students in the unit of work, like the imaginary journey we took for our unit 'Are We There Yet?'

As you can see, my teachers have had a huge impact on me both as learner and now as teacher. I was surprised by just how much they continue to influence me today. I also realised how important each teacher's unique style was - if I'd only had the one teacher all the way through, I wouldn't have benefited from the variety of talents and interests each one had to offer.

How about you?

• Who was a teacher that had a significant impact on you as a learner or teacher?
• What is something you do in your teaching that you were taught as a child?
• In your opinion, what makes a good teacher?

Enthusiastic Teachers

In the past week I have been chatting with other teachers in the staffroom. I’ve been encouraged by the enthusiasm of the newer teachers as they discuss their ideas for the future and speak with excitement about their professional learning and plans to implement Developmental Curriculum in the early childhood classrooms. On the flip-side, I’ve heard a couple of teachers saying that they are no longer interested in their professional development and are just happy to continue teaching using the methods they’ve learnt and come to depend upon.

With this disparity in the thinking of a group of teachers, it’s easy to see why the two will clash. One group desires to learn and change, while the other group feels there is no need. And it isn’t just an age thing either. There are many older, more experienced teachers who continue to look for ways to improve their teaching, and try to keep their methods relevant and interesting to the children coming into their classes.

I feel disheartened when I see teachers who are just hanging in there, waiting out the time until their retirement. I feel sorry for the children in their classes who are left with a dull, worn-out impression of learning. I worry that I too, will one day come to that stage in my teaching where I stop caring and run out of the energy to make learning fresh and interesting each day.

I came across this article about Teacher Enthusiasm Research that reviews the findings of a number of studies on the impact of a teacher’s enthusiasm on student learning. It argues that teacher enthusiasm makes a course more enjoyable, entertaining and memorable. The study goes on to look at levels of teacher enthusiasm as expressed through vocalization, eye contact, facial expression, movement and gesture. This study observes the occurence of these things in both a beginning teacher and a more experienced teacher. While I believe these physical aspects can be learned and developed, I feel that a portion of enthusiasm actually comes from within.
While these aspects definitely communicate a teacher’s enthusiasm about the topic, a lot of a teacher’s enthusiasm (particularly with young children) is also expressed before the lesson is presented – in the creation of lessons and the preparation of resources. Teachers who are lifelong learners themselves are going to motivate students to love learning more than teachers who have reached the point where they know it all - aren't they?

Is there a point in a teacher's career where he/she can honestly say that they have perfected the craft? Or is it out of laziness, boredom, or exhaustion that they give up trying?

Classroom Chats #1 Reflections of Beginning Teachers

Classroom Chats is a new feature of the Teaching Challenges Blog. Here teachers chat about the challenges they face in the classroom and the successes they experience. In this episode I chat with Bec and Kym, two beginning teachers, as they reflect on their teaching in the past year.

Bec has previous experience with relief teaching, teaching in a school library, and in 2007 shared a year 2 class with another teacher. This year she had her own class with all the related challenges.

Kym is Early Childhood trained and did her Internship at our school in 2007. In term one of this year she directed a pre-school room in a childcare setting. She joined Bec and I in Year 1 at the beginning of second term. She had the challenge of joining a school partway through the year and taking on a difficult class in her first year of teaching.

Thanks to Matt for the guitar intro to classroom chats. You're a legend Matt!

Click here to listen to our classroom chat.

If you are having trouble with the links, you can see the original to download the audio file.

The Blogger Behind this Blog #1

Today, while doing the dishes, I realised that I haven't really given you much of my background. I've been keeping myself somewhat distant from the content I post. I guess I wanted to see where this blog went, and wanted to provide 'professional' ideas for other teachers to use. But, surely I can do that, and still tell you a little more about the 'me' who sits and types all of these things on the computer!

And so, "The Blogger Behind this Blog" is born. (I can hear my students yelling at me: "That's alliteration!") If you like it let me know, otherwise, it may end just as quickly!

I grew up in this city (which I am trying not to disclose for extra security of my students) and went through the largest part of my schooling here. Early in my life I decided I wanted to be a teacher AND a mum AND a writer AND (in yrs 3-6) a model. I absolutely ADORED school. I loved all my teachers and to this day can still name them all. I was definitely a square and generally did well with my work. I was successful at school and always felt sorry for the kids who didn't 'get it' and were always in the teacher's bad books. I tried to help them to 'get it' and was often sat next to the 'bad boy' who for some crazy reason I was always in love with! (Isn't that always the way with we crazy females!) At some point, I decided that when I became a teacher, I wanted to help those kids that were ALWAYS in trouble with the teacher. Now that I'm there, I understand where my teachers were coming from - it's so hard to help those ones while also managing a classroom and teaching the content that needs to be covered! I do my best, and usually maintain a positive response, but sometimes I just get really frustrated!

Well, that's enough for the first one. Post me your questions for future BBBs in the comments box!