What happens next
depends on you, the teacher - not "people in powerful positions".
You can change the way you teach and learn tomorrow; you can open up
possibilities that have never existed before for your students or you
can choose to do nothing.
What you do next
does matter and you can make a difference. Having a sense of purpose
in life is critical; it gives our lives meaning and makes the best possible
use of gifts, talents and the passion we have been given. Fulfilling
our purpose is a wonderful experience and the vocation of teaching is
the most admirable of all as it allows the full expression of our talents
and gifts and invests them in lives that will hopefully go on and make
further differences that improve the lives of others we will never meet.
As teachers, we
plant seeds and often we never get to see what blossoms but we, as teachers,
remember our teachers and for good reason; they changed our lives and
you will do likewise for those in your care; just how much difference
you make depends on how you see their futures. Yes teaching is a challenging
vocation and profession, that is why our best and brightest; our most
passionate, should teach.
So what is the difference
between effective teachers and schools and those teachers and schools
which are not effective?
- Well, it is not
how wealthy the parents are as there are too many excellent teachers
and successful schools in very poor areas.
- It is not how
many computers are in the school as schools with almost no technology
have delivered exceptional teaching and learning environments for
centuries.
- It can't be the
constraining curriculum, as brilliant minds have emerged from the
darkest of corridors where curriculums dictated the most linear of
teaching strategies.
- If effective
assessment schemes were the solution how did our brightest and most
clever ever produce such gifted art, music, philosophical, mathematical,
and scientific works, so many centuries ago?
Successful teaching
and learning is really a simple formula that is assisted by the developments
and ideas contained in this paper but none of these on their own, or
all together, will create effective teaching and learning experiences
for students. Quite simply, good teaching and learning environments
are inspired by intensely passionate and articulate teachers who are
consumed by the vocation of teaching. The technologies and ideas espoused
in this paper will make these teachers even more efficient and empower
them to reach more students more effectively but they cannot and will
not make an uninspiring teacher into a brilliant or even a good teacher.
There are numerous
movies about teachers who made a significant impact on the lives of
their students and they mirror the real life teachers in real classrooms,
every day and these teachers all share common elements; they are passionate
and they are excited, they are honest but have an intensely optimistic
outlook on life, they present a vision of what is possible; they can
sometimes be a bit unusual and they expose and confront their students
to the realities of life through highly contextual learning experiences.
And what motivates
people to be so passionate about teaching? Usually it is the teachers
that taught them! Encourage your best and most passionate students to
be teachers; yes it is a challenging vocation but there is nothing on
this planet more rewarding than seeing a student take up the mantle
of teaching in order to make a difference in the lives of their students
as yours did for you, and as you did for them.
