Lessons from Losing Oneself

When my student teacher went to her second placement school, she was enthusiastic. Early in her teaching block I observed a creative math lesson with manipulatives and interactive technology. Over  the course of subsequent weeks she shared with me that her associate teacher taught by giving out handouts and requiring the students to do seat work without much of any formal, let alone engaging, lesson times.  I encouraged my student teacher to negotiate with her AT so that she could keep introducing new teaching strategies and trying new things with the students for the purpose of engagement. However, by the third visit I observed a lackluster, fairly disorganized lesson. Then, two weeks later during my fourth visit, the student teacher led the students in an educational game she had personally designed. There was laughter and full engagement from the students. I debriefed with her afterwards. What could account for this recovery from the third visit? She explained that she had complied for a while with the AT's style and expectations of herself and her students. She had begun to yell at the students ( like the AT), give minimal direction to them, keep them in their seats, and not smile. On one occasion a student jokingly held on to the sheet she was collecting, thus provoking a minor tug of war for the paper. This upset her to the point of tears. She felt she had no respect from the students. By conforming to her AT's style and manner she had lost herself. She came to that realization, decided to pull herself back together, and began to prepare and execute lessons she knew she could be proud of. I commended her for her insight and personal recovery. Sadly, many teachers let their ideals and personal best slide over time due to the pressures of the job. In the end, my student teacher demonstrated that giving our personal best in teaching is a choice and that often it flies in the face of the ambient culture. Let's make the decision to persist in giving our best! 

Uglifying Aspects of Collective Agreements

School atmospheres get ugly when

1. the us-them mentality becomes more pronounced. Teachers suspect administrations and boards of "taking away" from their contractual rights and freedoms. This can give rise to bean counting menial things like minutes per week of supervision duties.

2. no matter which government is in power, the money is no longer available to increase pay and bank sick days or maintain small class sizes. Suddenly the government teachers may have voted for is the enemy and strike action becomes the go to strategy to provoke a return to bettering working conditions. Teacher unions make the case that if concessions are made to the government, no matter how small, the "claw backs" will be unending after that. 

3. teachers don't want to go on strike, but typically vote overwhelmingly in support of strike action in order to apply pressure on the  board / government and thus, according to union strategy, avoid a strike! When the strike is eventually launched, teachers feel compromised and feel confused about who to blame: the board / government or the union? 

4. the public, especially the private sector, has no patience for the claims teachers are making. This creates in teachers a defensive attitude, and a need to huddle, to resort to group think, and think less for themselves. 

5. although ethically, teachers who disagree with the union have a choice to stand against the majority vote, politically, are afraid to stand alone and speak out on behalf of the needs of the students. 

6. teachers work to rule or because they are demoralized, do the minimum legally required, complain about any requests for additional duties. The school as a work place becomes an "in and out" place, where teachers arrive at the last minute and leave as soon as their teaching day is done. 

7. students are not served. They are tolerated, taught formally, but no extra efforts are made to help them grow beyond the basic expectations of the curriculum.

Teacher in Training Trauma

Lydia was enjoying her practice teaching weeks until her associate teacher was absent due to illness. Her first supply teacher "cancelled" some lessons due to what she deemed to be unacceptable noise levels in the classroom. Lydia was shocked, as the noise level in her opinion was no louder than when the associate teacher was present. She deferred to the supply and asked her what they should do if the lesson was to be cancelled. The supply said she didn't know and eventually let Lydia teach the lesson anyway. 

Then a friend and colleague of the associates began dropping in to check in on things. She began to comment that the lesson Lydia was teaching was not what she should be doing, although Lydia had already received the approval of the associate by email for the lesson in question. 

When the associate returned after a number of days off sick, she filled out Lydia's evaluation report with a number of low performance levels, stating she had a lot to do to improve. Lydia was crushed. What are her options?