Scribbler's Den

Looking for reasons to love teaching? SYWTT has a list of .. well tons.  I pilfered a few that suited me and my experiences.  The full list can be found via the link below.

1. Sharing my experiences
2. Helping inexperienced teachers solve problems
3. The ability to help children achieve their best
4. I love the instant feedback I get from my students about my own teaching performance, even when they don’t realize they’re doing it
5. Being able to interact with kids who are mostly good and do try to do what’s expected of them
6. Sharing my enthusiasm for my subject matter
7. My coworkers are great
8. I enjoy all of the funny stories that my job provides, my job is never ever boring
9. When I am finally able to actually teach, I feel very rewarded when that little light bulb goes off
10. I have control over my job — I decide what and when I teach, I decide if I am going to stay late, I can take my work home if needed (Though I don’t do that as often as I used to)
11. I get to work with books, which I love
12. I seem to be good at it
13. I love the push to keep learning, to keep discovering new questions and to help students discover their own questions
14. I enjoy sharing my love of learning and my passion for certain topics
15. I love sharing the excitement of a good book — when I introduce it and start talking about it with excitement, the students can’t wait for me to start reading; when it’s time to stop reading and begin our next lesson, they beg me to read “just a little more”.

I was sent this email a few weeks ago.  yesterday a friend of mine forwarded it to me.  There was a different school mentioned in both emails so this is definately a hoax.  Note the 'redneck' nature of the last line.  If only state schools could do this sort of thing :)

This is the message that the 'Insert Random Queensland High School' staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine . This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes.
 
The outgoing message:

Teachers are great collectors.  We constantly scavenge teaching resources for our units and build up a cache we can dip into when teaching. The chink in my armour appears when I think I have enough because I then stop looking for resources.

Never stop looking for resources!

A far greater problem with my approach is that I can kid myself into believing my bank of resources is suitable for any class.  I build a range of activities, handouts and so on based on a variety of content, learning styles and ICT use and then I rest on my laurels.

The problem is that no class is the same.

Case in Point.  I have two Multimedia classes.  The units I teach them have been the same for the last two years.  So, I have built up a selection of teaching tools 'perfect' for the unit.  And these tools have worked perfectly for the last few semesters.

Not this year.

This year I have two multimedia classes and they couldn't be more different.  One has progressed through the unit just as the other classes in the past have.   The second ... Well they are a little different.  They are more ... sociable.  That is putting it nicely.  None of my resources/activities etc have worked well with this class.  The entire term has been a struggle and their progress has been slooooow.

I am partly to blame.  I was stubborn.  I thought I had all the resources I needed and all the resources the students needed.  It seems I was wrong.  Some classes need a completely different approach and I need to learn to adapt.