Inter.Connect.Ed
reflections on teaching and learning through technology
If you dare…
Weathering the storm of education
“Teaching is Traumatic” a hat tip to Summer Howarth and Steve Collis for the critical thought leadership in this area. As an educational leader I want to surround myself with professionals who have what Summer described as a “physiological reaction” to some of our more challenging issues, without it they are just robots. I read blog posts like this: “Today I Sucked” with hope for the future of education. I get to listen every day to the passion of educators around me at school talking about their trauma. Those that think educational leadership is a hashtag on twitter marginalise the realities of education like King Henry “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more” using his troop’s corpses to fill the breach of Harfleur. The real educational leadership challenge is how do we support our teams and colleagues through these moments to improve outcomes for all students and build their capacity as educational professionals? Most importantly how do we do this within the realities of our context? We can click ‘dislike’ all we want, but we operate in a world of testing, reporting and accountability.
Sorry I wish I had a list of cool dot points to start you thinking, but sometimes I too, am lost…
4 Responses to “Weathering the storm of education”
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December 3rd, 2012 at 3:29 am
Hi,
My name is Carmen I’m a student at the University of South Alabama. Teaching can be difficult, you can give out,but never give up. Children are our future and if the teacher doesn’t believe in the students then who do the students have to look to as educators?
January 27th, 2013 at 7:14 am
After reading “Weathering the Storm of Education,” I, too, can remeber sitting in the classroom with a peer group or team and working on an assignment. I recall that many times how assignments were unclear or unxplained, not giving the expected outcomes. Many times teachers need to “re-invent the wheel” so that students can become more engaged in the task. However, the teachers discussed in your blog post must be the seemingly minority of teachers who truly care about what is accomplished within the classroom. Thank God there are still teachers (and thank God I had a few of this sort) who care what they have accomplished at the end of the day! Also, with the mention of testing and accountability–the driving force of the teacher, unfortunately–, are teachers not too limited in turning students into the best they can be? Are teachers not like robots themselves and training student robots? Teach the test, accountability, end-of-course tests!!!! We teachers-in-training, as well as current teachers of today, had better be teaming up with one another and developing innovative ways to teach the standards required while making the learning exciting and game-like….much like wii, xbox, texting,tweeting, sexting, etc., etc., etc. Yes, it is very hard to know how to be an effective teacher EVERY DAY!
January 27th, 2013 at 7:21 am
Sorry, I left out that my name is Ciara Deese. I currently attend the University of South Alabama, and I am in John Strange’s EDM310 class. My class blog is EDM310 Class Blog, and my blog is called Ciara Deese’s EDM310 Class Blog. I will be summarizing my visits to your blog with a post to my blog on February 10th.
February 12th, 2013 at 8:24 am
Ben,
I am a student at the University of South Alabama, located in Mobile, Alabama. I am currently enrolled in EDM310. EDM 310 is a micro-computing class that helps students with their computer technological abilities and also encourages students to take chances and learn on their own. I enjoyed your article on, “Weathering the storm of education.” In any setting in life I want to surround myself with professionals so that I too may become a professional at what I do. From an educational standpoint, I think that it is imperative that all educators take this approach in the class room setting. I can see how teaching may be difficult at times. Some students do not come to school to learn. They come simply because they have to. It is our job as educators to provide the best means of education to all students. If a person work with a professional on a daily basis, he or she is more likely to have professional tendencies. Do you agree? Keep up the good work.
John Carpenter