Berwick Coates's Blog

The importance of confidence in teaching is paramount.  But why does building self-confidence come so high in the list of ‘things a new teacher needs to do’?  

Answer:  Starting to teach is, to put it mildly, a bit of a strain.  For a hundred reasons, most of which you already know about.  This means that, however well you have studied and prepared, things will not go according to plan.  Things never do, especially when you are starting.  In fact one could almost define a plan as ‘a bright idea which can confidently be relied upon not to work’.  Well, not properly.

This can make you worry that you’ve got it wrong.  If the situation gets worse, you might worry that you will go on getting it wrong.  Whatever confidence in teaching you started with is in danger of evaporating, maybe for ever.   In effect, the awful doubt begins . . . you haven’t got what it takes.

You probably are making mistakes.  Of course you are; you’re human.  But what makes the situation bad is not the mistakes; it’s the worry.  Worry is a killer. The good news is that you can do something about that.  You will never stop making mistakes.  You can reduce them with experience, but you will never cut them out altogether.  But you can do something about the worry too.  Again, you will never cut it out altogether, but you can cut it right back, and if you are worrying less, you will make fewer mistakes.  If you make fewer mistakes, you probably won’t worry so much.  It’s an un-vicious circle.

Luckily, ways to increase self-esteem are not difficult to follow. There are not complex new skills you have to learn. There is just a little set of things you already know; all you have to do is remember them. The importance of confidence for teachers is self-evident but the trick is to not to dwell on it – instead, focus on the positives.

1. Remember that things will indeed go wrong

Bound to, sooner or later.  It’s no big deal to get it right when things are going like clockwork.  What will make you a good teacher is putting things right when they have gone wrong.   Which they so often do.  And it never rains but it pours.  This is all normal.

But the obvious importance of confidence in teaching can trigger feelings of inadequacy. Don’t clutch your temples.  Don’t fret about it.   Just set about it.  You are not the first teacher faced with things like this.  Every single one of them before you has had to deal with them.  Well, if they could do it, so can you.

2. Remember, you are not perfect

Nobody is; everybody has weaknesses.  But everybody has strengths too.  Find yours; play to them.   However odd they may be, they are yours. You are picking out your best bits.  I repeat, you are not selling perfection; you are selling yourself.

You’re happier with your strong points..  Comfortable.  This way, you’re more likely to get something right.   More likely to chalk up a success.  And registering a success is a splendid way to increase self-esteem.  

3. Remember what they expect a teacher to do

What the name says – teach.  There may be plenty of pupils who get in the way of your teaching, who don’t like your teaching, who would rather be anywhere else than  listening to your teaching; but the most restless, naughty, awkward, bolshy pupil knows that teaching is what teachers do – or should do.  Curiously, they will often show a little back-handed respect if you try to do that.  Not preaching, bleating, moaning, nagging, bossing about, ‘imposing your will’, and all the rest.  Just getting on with it; doing what you are there for.  When medieval kings were deposed, it was usually not for ruling too much, but for not ruling enough. 

I’m sorry to labour this point – and such an obvious point – but it is the simple things that are so important.  Build the basics, and you will know that you are getting something right, and confidence in your teaching will grow.

4. Remember that education goes two ways

You are in it together.  You are stuck with each other – usually for a whole year.  You have to get on.  It is a sort of partnership, in which you are the senior partner.   That puts the greater burden on you.   You are the one who has to take the broad view.

If you do, that puts you in a position of advantage, and that will help you to build self-confidence.

Education, as the title of this section points out, is a mutual business.  Your teaching, you hope, will build their knowledge and their self-esteem, and as you work on ways to build their self-esteem, curiously, with every success you win, you will be building your own.

Incidentally, you are learning from them too.  They will often, albeit unconsciously, convey things about yourself that you were not fully aware of, or were not hitherto prepared to recognise.  You may be teaching them, but they are also teaching you.  They teach you hard, but they teach you good.

Self-knowledge is a splendid method for building self-confidence.  Just be open to it.

5. Remember you have power

From so many sources – your age, probably your size, your qualifications, your knowledge – you have the power to influence them.  It goes on:  from your manner, your character, your behaviour, your wits, (if you’re lucky, your sense of humour too), and no doubt many other things, you influence them.

All right, there are limitations on that power (fortunately) – again, your own faults and weaknesses, the size of the class, the timetable, a host of things.  But the creative teacher is the one who recognises these limitations and gets it across within those limitations.

He or she knows about this power, and is not afraid to exercise it.  But alongside this awareness of power, is a wariness of it.   The two words are so similar that they might be two sides of the same coin.

Power is the greatest intoxicant of all.  As a little intellectual exercise, try examining your motives for teaching. . .   Influencing people (especially young people) is devilish attractive.

6. Remember – you are not alone

You are not the only person on the premises who wants to get on with the business of teaching.  The whole place is dedicated to work, and it is on your side.  If difficult pupils make work impossible, there is a network of authority to back you up.  It is no weakness to use it.  Nobody expects a mere lieutenant to run the army.  If he could, there would be no need for generals.  Help is there, from people who have been where you are now, people who understand, people who want you to succeed.

They want to build your confidence in teaching as much as you do; the more teacher confidence there is around, the better the whole school will be, and the easier will be everyone else’s job too.

7. Remember – you are not helpless

You have experience, knowledge, education, built-in authority, and, presumably, a few brains and wits.  Well, use ’em.  Think of something.

Take a look at my short YouTube lectures on How to be a Better Teacher8. Remember, and watch out for, two enemies

You know them all too well.  One we have already mentioned – worry.

The other is fatigue.   Anyone who thinks that teaching is simply a matter of ‘get your books out and turn to page 54’ (oh – and the ‘lovely long holidays’) should try it.  Day in day out, week in week out, five, six, seven, eight periods a day, with lunch-time duty, a staff meeting, lesson preparation, seventy-five exercise books to mark, holiday courses and school trips thrown in. It can be unrelenting, with a merciless future and a gaggle of awkward pupils looming as well.

Fatigue – the one monster in your path that needs more watching than any other.

Alert all your resources to spot it, and evolve tactics, practices, tricks and techniques to deal with it. The more tired you are, the bigger your other troubles become.

There is no magic formula.  You have to produce a set of defences which suit you,  which are do-able, practical, and (from your own experience) effective.  There is no  ‘right way’; the range can  be wide:   a good night’s sleep, even two or three early nights in a row; a rule about not marking more than a dozen books at one sitting; not working after eight or nine o’clock at night; a favourite meal (and drink); watching a trash TV western; not taking marking home; having one day a week in which school does not exist; spotting your own symptoms – grumpiness, quick impatience; worry (again), self-doubt, having too much to do, and all the rest.  You don’t need a session on the psychologist’s couch to realise what they are.  Just watch for the early signs. 

Or again, to ease the pressure, can you make a few sacrifices of regular things you do in the day which it would be no loss if you didn’t do them?   Rubbish reading, quiz shows and soaps, the precious net, the beloved social media?  Give yourself a chance to come up for air, to do nothing, and to think of nothing.  Polish a few doorknobs.  Weeding.

There are plenty more ways.

9. One last thing to remember

Quite simply, what you’re doing – teaching.  Of course it’s worthwhile (nobody ever says it isn’t), and you wanted to do it so much that you were prepared to study, give up years of your life, and make sacrifices. The importance of confidence in teaching is not in dispute, but it’s not the end in itself. It’s the product of focussing on the job in hand. Do that, and the confidence will emerge naturally.

So the balance sheet is in your favour.  You’re all right.

Check out my other blogs with some advice for classroom teachers, both new and experiencedSome more good advice from the Teacher Toolkit – worth a look!

What is a professional teacher?  Because we all know what the separate words ‘teacher’ and ‘professional’ mean, the simple and obvious answer would be: ‘A teacher who is a professional’.  A person who earns a living in the classroom or the lecture hall or wherever.  But we all know too – or we should do – that there is more to it than that, in the same way that ‘a man who plays cricket’ and ‘a cricketer’ are two different creatures, or in the way that ‘a woman who plays the piano’ is not necessarily ‘a pianist’.

Imagine:  you have studied for the diploma in Education, read the books, taken notes in the lectures, survived the teaching practice, and passed the exams.  Is that it?  No.  Are you home and dry?  No, you’re not.  From now on, everything will be different, and you will have to get used to it.

You have a new status

The minute the Vice-Chancellor of the University puts a diploma in your hand, you cease to be a student; you become a member of a profession.  Of your own free will, you have bought into an organisation which has its own rules and its own standards, to which you now owe duties and loyalties.  You are not a free agent any more.

You now have a new self

That diploma in teaching – or diploma in ‘Education’, if you think it sounds more dignified – is going to change everything.  Your voice, your dress, your language, your manner – they will all have to become different.   A lesson is not a chat, even if it looks like a chat; it is a performance.   Ideally, this should not show.  You don’t see good actors acting; you should not see good teachers teaching.

You now have colleagues

What is a professional teacher?  He is somebody with different people around him.  Not friends, family, neighbours, team mates – they’re somewhere else.  He now works with colleagues.  These people are worthy of his respect, worthy of formal  manners.  And these must be clearly visible to your pupils.  You are on show.

You now have new obligations

Teaching is no longer something you do well when you happen to be in the mood.  What makes a good teacher is teaching well all the time.  You must now deliver a level of achievement which does not fall short of a consistent standard,  regardless of how you feel at that time.  They have to sit there and do the work; well, you have to stand there and do the same.  Every day, like the sun coming up. 

You now have a new dignity  

That diploma in teaching – or diploma in Education if you insist – places you in a position of power, privilege, and trust.  All the time.  You have to live up to it.  Don’t blab; don’t gossip; don’t judge; don’t sneer; don’t mock – things like that.  It may sound artificially virtuous, but you are not in a normal position; you are in a what-is-a-professional-teacher position.

So – in summary – what is a professional teacher?

Someone who behaves like a professional teacher every minute he is on view to his pupils.  

It’s like ‘What makes a good teacher?’  Same answer: someone who behaves like one (he knows perfectly well how to do it.)  He is not there to chat to them or preside over a cosy club.  He is there to do what that diploma in teaching has empowered him to do – teach.  He must remember that he is in a rare position of authority, privilege, and trust.  He must not abuse it.

Moreover, he must do nothing which might reflect discredit on himself, his colleagues, his work, or his profession.

Take a look at my other blogs, sharing thoughts and advice for teachers both new and experiencedGreat website here for anyone thinking of becoming a teacher

What brought you here?   I’m guessing you are interested in wanting to learn how to teach.

Well, you’re in luck; the internet is awash with advice on innumerable topics related to ‘learn how to teach’, like ‘what makes a good teacher’, ‘successful teacher’, the bare ‘a good teacher’, and many others.  So. . . 

Your problem is not shortage of advice; it will be the excess of it.  How to deal with it?

Even before you resort to the net, you will have come across the veteran or the expert who will reduce it all to a simple sentence.  Along the lines of:  ‘How to be a good batsman?  You just put the bat to the ball.’ Or ‘How to be a good actor?  Learn the lines and don’t bump into the furniture.’  ‘A good writer?  Just tell the tale.’

What use are these cliches?

Well, to their credit, they are probably direct, honest, possibly heartfelt too, and based on deep experience.  They are also smart, slick, often entertaining, and quotable, and because of that they are suspect.   No worthwhile activity is so simple that it can be summed up in a single phrase or sentence.

Teaching tips have their share of wisecracks too.  By all means listen to them; laugh at them if you like.  Chew them over.  But don’t swallow them whole.

They may suggest that the business is simple, but even if they are right, something that is simple is not necessarily easy.  And you can’t build a career on them.  There’s more to it than that.   Such as. . . 

Your own judgment

This has to be the most important element in the mix, not the advice.  However impressive are the credentials of the expert who is going to show you how to be a successful teacher, his advice has to make sense to you. If you aim to be a good teacher you must trust your own judgment.  You are the one out front putting it over.  You are the one who gets the cheers or the jeers.  As I have said elsewhere, if you don’t buy it, you won’t be able to sell it.

You are on your own

Never forget – it is just you and them.  Of course there is team teaching, but I have done little of it, and I don’t feel qualified to pontificate on it.  What concerns me in these remarks is what happens between a teacher, on his own, in a room, and group of young people, day in day out, helping them to learn.  That is where the hard graft is, where the grief is; that is where the satisfaction is.  If you want to learn how to teach, the top and bottom of it is learning how to handle a class. 

Reflections on 40 years of classroom teachingThey need to feel satisfied too

Satisfied.   Not living on cloud nine all the time.  Don’t feel that to be a successful teacher you must move and inspire them with every single lesson.  What makes a successful teacher is being able to keep their interest, not just catch it; anybody can do that.  Keep them going, keep them happy, accepting habit, routine, humdrummery (that is what a lot of life is about).  Just bowl along in a friendly, purposeful, well-occupied sort of way. 

The wisecrackers have a point:  tell the tale; learn the lines, don’t bump into the furniture.  It’s the same for you:  get the work done; cover the ground.  Achieve something.  If they feel they have got somewhere, then so have you.  Then you can call yourself a successful teacher.

You are a valuable minority

What makes a good teacher – among other things – is an awareness of your own worth.  Don’t berate yourself because you have times when you feel tired, impatient, lazy, depressed, diffident, and a host of other things.   So does everybody, in every other job.  We’re all human.  Just try not to let it show.  What will make you a good teacher is to be aware of it, and to know that you have the character, skill, and experience to get through these bad times. 

Nine out of ten of us would not go near teaching.  The world needs you.  The very, very greatest people in human history were teachers.

So – this is not advice; it is about advice, and how to handle it, and how to use it.  It is also about trusting yourself; it is about being alone; it is about trusting them too.  And it is about remembering that you are just a little bit special.  Not a lot; but a bit.

Expect the best from yourself, yes, but not perfection.

Take a look a this short video on the importance of good manners in teaching

1. How vital is leadership in teaching?

Very, as you would expect.  But keep a sense of balance about it.  Other things are important too – scholarship, discipline, character, punctuality, courtesy. . . You know them all.

The trouble is that so much is talked about ’leadership skills’ and ‘teacher leadership’ by so-called ‘experts’ that you can be made to feel that there is a mighty mystique masking it.  Much is written about it too, so much that once again you are pushed into believing that it is all one vast, deep secret that can be penetrated only by the gifted few.

Not so.  There is no mystique; there is no secret.

2. So don’t by overawed; don’t tremble before it

All the talk about ‘how to be a leader’ may make you wonder whether you are up to it.  Don’t worry.  Rest assured, you are.  Anyone who wants to spend their future working days standing in front of a group of young people, trying to help them enjoy a more abundant life, is a potential leader already.

You are going to teach people how to learn, so we presume that you yourself know a bit about learning too.   Well, you can learn how to lead, just as a new mother and a new father can learn how to be a parent.

3. A willing teacher shows teacher leadership all the time

The famous ‘leadership skills’ are not a set of gadgets you carry around in a toolbox and flourish now and again when you want to make an impression.  There is no little secret crib notebook called ‘How to be a leader’ which you fish out of your back pocket whenever you meet a snag and want to be told how to get out of trouble.

Leadership in teaching comes from something much simpler than that.  Not a toolbox; not a crib notebook.  All you have to do is observe.  Not just look – observe.  Notice.  Spot something.  Something which, if you went and did it, would make matters better.

If you suggest a smarter way of presenting a project; if you start a new course of lessons; if you coach a team; if you stop to help a boy who is struggling; if you enthuse about something a girl has just done; if you give a pat on the back; even if you give a timely kick in the pants – you are leading.  These things are not in the toolboxor the crib notebook.  They are there because you thought of them.  And you can all think.

Take a look at my memoir sharing stories and lessons from over 40 years of classroom teaching4. These actions will show

If you do any of the things I mentioned above (and any of lots more), you are setting an  example. You are going out in front. (I venture to suggest that most of the leadership skills lists will mention the word ‘example’, so you are following the experts too.) Pupils like examples.  Everyone does. They find them comforting.  Something to follow.  They feel they are on the right track.   You can do it in a dozen ways – not just with work.  You can do it by means of your relations with colleagues, your attentiveness, your discretion, your dress, manners, bearing – anything.  They notice.  They will feel it’s possible.  Worth doing.  They’ll follow.  Presto – you are a leader. 

5. Leadership, in a way, is obvious

To repeat, working out how to be a leader – at any rate leadership in teaching  – is not a great secret or a great mystery.  So much of it springs from good sense, common decency, human kindness, sharp eyes, and native wit.  It may not always be easy to do, but it is usually easy to see when it needs to be done.

 So – in summary – how vital is leadership? 

It’s vital all right. But don’t be daunted, and don’t agonise about it; don’t consciously ‘perform’ it.  Just put a good idea into action.  Anyone can do it.  Set examples; anyone can do that too.  It can be hard, but it is do-able.  Go on; do it.  You’ll know when.

‘Teacher leadership’ is a somewhat preciously self-conscious phrase. If you stop to think, it’s pretty obvious what is involved, and it really doesn’t need a high-flown name.  It can be both simple and hard; but it can also be rewarding.

For more about good teaching, read about what not to do

If you want to become a good teacher,  there are obviously a lot of things you should be doing.  At the same time, there are some things that you should not be doing.  The don’ts need as much attention as the do’s. If you want to become a good teacher, here are 5 ‘don’ts’.

By way of example, here are five – five mistakes, pitfalls, traps, snags, five perfectly human errors.  Ironically, they can come about for the best of reasons:  you want to show that you are a good teacher.  They happen often because you are trying hard.  Perhaps too hard.

1. Don’t show off  

You often can’t see your own classroom teaching in the way that other people may see it.    Inevitably, you are the victim of what you are.

You are older than your pupils.  You have more knowledge than they have.  Of course; you’ve passed exams to become a teacher. Simply because you have been alive longer, you must have picked up all sorts of skills, knacks, tricks, and wisdoms that they haven’t. It is a very human desire to want to demonstrate that fact when the chance arises.   It is partly ego, but it is also partly because you want to pass on something worthwhile, and which you think could raise you in their estimation; you want them to think well of you.

Beware! 

For several reasons.   Here are two.

One, life being as cussed it is, it is extremely likely that it will go wrong.  And then you  are in soup up to your ears.   It is no longer a forgiveable mistake; it is a disaster which you brought upon yourself.  And serve you right.  Well, yes.  But life can be hard.

And two, even if your little trick does come off, it isn’t worth it.  They may be impressed by what you have done, but they will not be impressed by the fact that you gave in to the temptation to do it.

You may be pleased that a smart idea of yours has worked; they don’t see it like that.  It may seem effective teaching  to you, but it’s pretence and swank to them, and they can smell pretence and swank a mile off.

Take a look at my memoir sharing stories and lessons from over 40 years of classroom teaching2. Don’t get angry

This is something that can come about not only because you are trying too hard but because they are trying you too hard.  They are human, they are young, and they have their share of original sin. They don’t have the same burning desire for effective teaching as you do.

Because you are putting out a lot of nervous energy in your quest to become a good teacher, you are vulnerable; your defences are just a little bit down. You are, as I said, trying hard.  Your desire to give that effective teaching is showing.   Ideally, teaching, like acting, shouldn’t show.  When it does, it becomes that much easier to score off you.   You are likely to be smitten by all sorts of emotions, so watch out.   It will be up to you to exercise as much control of them as you can – impatience, bafflement, uncertainty, confusion, shame, exasperation, surprise, embarrassment, consternation, disbelief, frustration, even despair. They are all there like dragons in your path towards the Nirvana of being a good teacher, where you deliver non-stop  brilliant classroom teaching (of course),  and at the same time bask in adoring attention, and enjoy total control.

However hard you try, you will let out telltale gleams of all of them at one time or another, but make your greatest effort to avoid showing the slightest chink of another one – temper.

That is the greatest giveaway of all.  Then you really have let down the drawbridge.  At a stroke they can see that control has been lost.  You have appealed to the very worst  in them.  They know from then on exactly what they have to do to produce the same results.  If there are monsters in the class, that’s when their eyes begin to glitter.

If, God forbid, it should happen, mend the hole in the dyke as soon as possible.   If the red cloud has descended and won’t go away – if all else fails – leave the room.  It will give you time to calm down.

Then work out what you did wrong, what you hadn’t planned for, and see that it doesn’t happen again.  They are not the ones who should reform; it’s you.

Take a look at my series of short YouTube lectures on How to be a Better Teacher3. Don’t nag 

Here’s another trap you can fall into simply because you want to make your, you hope, effective teaching even more effective.

By all means show that there was more that they could have done to reach the required standard.   Yes, you should always try to get the best out of them.  (Note, not perfection; just the very best that they are capable of.)  Yes again, they should be made aware that you set the highest possible standards. Make sure that you maintain those standards yourself, and are seen to maintain them.  Setting an example is not difficult; all you have to do is what you expect them to do, and are trying to get them to do.

Allowing for all that, allow too for a sense of balance.  You’ve got to be pleased with them sometimes, and say so.

Good classroom teaching shows that you know when the bottle is half-empty and when it’s half-full.  It’s the difference between showing them how close to failure they are and how close to success.  How much progress they have made and how far they have slipped back.  No matter how much a naughty pupil maintains that he doesn’t give a damn, nobody enjoys failure.  And he certainly doesn’t want to be constantly reminded of it – worse still, having it proved to him.

Don’t yap at their heels; it means you’re behind, moaning, instead of in front, leading.  And they’re not listening anyway. Nags are always a nuisance, never an inspiration.

4. Don’t try to be popular

It is a very human desire to want to be liked.  Starvation of love is the worst deprivation the human spirit can suffer, and every single one of us is human.  But in the classroom being popular is only the dividend.  Remember that the situation is called ‘classroom teaching’,  not ‘classroom club’, or ‘classroom chat’.   It’s work.  That comes first.  That is the investment, and that comes from you.  And, as we all know, the dividend is proportionate to the success of the investment.

I repeat, the investment is work.  God knows, there is enough to do.  So get on with it.  Don’t keep cocking an eye to the popularity polls.  You’ll find out soon enough.

Nor does it mean that you have to be nasty.  You don’t have to BE anything – just busy, doing your best.  Making yourself useful.

Get it across.  Make it stick.  So that they know it.  And remember it.   If that happens, they might, they might just, remember you.

If you’re lucky, that’s when the dividend comes – but you may have to wait years to hear about it. A good teacher will be happy wait.

5. Don’t break your word

Like so many pieces of advice from every walk of life, this is shriekingly obvious.  How many parents have sworn that they will never break a promise?  How many parents work hard to plant deep in their child’s psyche the idea that the most sacred thing you ever give, to anybody, is your word?

In the classroom, we are a long way from courtroom oaths and Mummy’s promise, but the principle is the same, if only in a milder form.

We are talking about a teacher’s advertised plans, pious hopes, wonderful ideas.  They notice very quickly if you don’t deliver.  Be wary; if you’re not sure, don’t say.

Incidentally, this applies particularly to threats.  They soon learn to sneer at them if they don’t materialise.  Don’t threaten; just do it.  If you work it right, you will usually not need to do it again.  The message has gone across.  But think it right through first:  are you really prepared to do it?  If you mean it, they soon learn.

Summary – five don’tsDon’t show offDon’t get angryDon’t nagDon’t try to be popularDon’t break your word

Ultimately, like parents, you are working to make yourself unnecessary, not admired.  Once they’ve got it, they don’t need you any more.

For more tips on classroom teaching read about how to use stories for effective teaching

Good teachers tell stories

But you don’t just want stories that teach a lesson, for really good lessons you need really good stories.

Anyone who has spent time in a classroom – at either end of education – knows that certain things are vital to good teaching – discipline, purpose, planning, knowledge, example, humour – you can all extend that list, and be right.

I suggest that the list is not complete till you have added stories. Stories teach that teach a lesson are lessons that stay learnt.

1. Stories matter

Stories are vital to good teaching, anywhere – on mother’s knee, by the nursery fire, in classroom teaching, the university lecture hall, the Army barracks, the village pulpit, anywhere.

2. A splint for the memory

Forgetting what teachers tell us is so easy.  A story helps us to remember.  It brings drama to a lesson, suspense, humour, character, fun, awe, action, all sorts of things.  It can teach great life lessons besides the stuff that the teacher wants to get across.  More to the point, a story helps to fasten the school lesson into the memory,  If it does that, it is the story that gets the point across, not the teacher. All the teacher has to do is tell it; it almost saves him the trouble of driving home the rest of the lesson. 

3. Everyone likes stories that teach a lesson

They are not just a treat to end the primary school day; they are a winner with everybody.  They constitute one of the few activities where the enjoyment is the same at both ends; telling them can be as much fun as listening to them.  Stories, however brief, instantly change instruction into entertainment.   They are the perfect classroom anaesthetic; they can make learning pretty painless.  Even Jesus thought they were a good idea.  And he was reckoned to be a rather good teacher. His stories have got themselves remembered for centuries.

Find out more about Better Lessons here with my 5 ‘good practices’4. Anyone can do it

You don’t have to be Hans Christian Andersen or Scheherazade.  If you don’t think you can tell long stories, tell short ones – anecdotes.   Anecdotes can teach lessons too.  They can be just as biting and memorable.  Sometimes more so.  A ten-second anecdote, well put over, can be a sensation.  And it can stick for years.  Anecdotes are very do-able, but you have to work on them.  You have to polish them, hone them, burnish them, practise them; they don’t get better just by themselves.  And trim them; the barer they are, like the fan dancer, the more attention they get.

My short memoir, recounting stories from over 40 years in the classroom, shows us that, fundamentally, things don’t change5. Stories belong anywhere

Don’t assume that stories teach lessons only in English classes. Think of apples in Physics; apples in RE too; more apples on little Swiss boys’ heads.  Every subject has its own collection.  And in classroom teaching, no subject is so dry that it can’t be refreshed by a good story.

So – Write it in every teacher’s notebook:  ‘You can’t beat a good story.’   A good story with a good lesson in it is even more unbeatable.

Well – to summarise:  stories matter; a good teacher knows how valuable they are; they help us to remember education; stories appeal to everybody; any teacher can do stories – tiny ones work too; stories don’t belong only in English lessons; any subject can benefit from them, and every teacher has his own collection in his own subject; they’re all there, just waiting. 

Outside the classroom, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, be ready to spot a good story.  Develop a nose for one. The right story can offer ammunition for a lesson, in any subject, anywhere, from classroom teaching to hillside preaching.  Stories often come in disguise, and will need to be handled carefully, kneaded, moulded, persuaded gently to shed their worth.

Whenever you find one, jot it down, especially the best bits, the juicy bits, the bits which need accurate quoting, the punch lines.  If you don’t, you’ll forget, and the story will lose some of its sting.

Work out how you would develop one, shape one, present one, make it fit the context in which you propose to use it, make it suit your own style. Make it yours.

Stories grow everywhere, waiting to be noticed, picked, savoured, fashioned, and then shared.  The returns can be most gratifying.

Five good practices for teaching better lessonsIf you want to be a better teacher, obviously you must put together better lessons. How do you do that? Know your stuff. Equally obvious. So much of this business of good teaching is. It’s not rocket science. You just need to stop to think of it. Nevertheless, there is more to it than mere knowledge. Like what?1. Be clear

Teaching better lessons is not so much collecting knowledge yourself as getting it across to somebody else.  Of course knowledge matters, and pupils should be taught to respect scholarship, but if a teacher cannot communicate his knowledge, sooner or later a pupil will begin to wonder what is the point of sitting in the classroom.

Half your preparation for a lesson should indeed be spent on assembling the required knowledge, but the other half should be devoted to making that knowledge digestible and comprehensible.  (And, if possible, enjoyable, but that’s a bonus; that’s the advanced course.)  But be clear – above all, clear.

You cannot expect them to stay willing if the fog gets thicker and thicker. 

You can’t expect them to like it if they don’t understand it.

If they don’t grab it off the bat, they won’t hold it; every time you try to get some more knowledge in during the next lesson, it gets harder, because they have less and less to hook it on to.

Constantly re-examine your instructions, questions, explanations, your teaching methods.  Are they clear?  Making lessons better is often simply about being clearer.

Oddly, the more expert you become at what you are teaching, the bigger the danger of not being clear, because the repetition makes it so easy to you that you can forget that you once found it new, and hard.  It is still hard for them because they haven’t met it before. It is so easy to skip stages in learning because you’re so good at it. A good teacher understands bafflement.

2. Be fair

This again is so obvious, isn’t it?  It’s like saying ‘be good’ or ‘be virtuous’. True.  But nevertheless you have to be careful here.  The young have an acute sense of justice (or what they see as justice).  Their respect for what is ‘fair’ can sometimes be somewhat overblown.

It can be painful for them to learn that ‘being fair’ is not the only virtue.

There will be times when you are caught being unfair as they see it (you are human).  If it is a fair cop, then of course you must apologise, and do your best to repair the damage. But there will be other times when you know you are being unfair, for a good reason, and those occasions need to be explained.  If you make a good case, they will often listen.  Sometimes they don’t, because they too are human, and you will have to put up with their grudge, and hope to live it down with more fairness later on.

My teaching memoirs, sharing stories and lessons from 40 years in the classroom3. Be reasonable 

By the time a child reaches school age, he/she has just begun to cotton on to the fact that other people exist, and have wishes and desires just as they have, and those wishes and desires are as valid as theirs.

This is one of the pennies that drops perhaps slowest of all, and it is up to the teacher to give the slot machine a little clout now and then to hasten the process.  A good teacher knows when to give that clout, and how hard.

It will help if you try to be reasonable yourself.  Make yourself aware of the effects on your class of what you say and do.  How do they see it? Again, without trying to be too virtuous, we are talking about example.  They can’t define what ‘being reasonable’ is, but they recognise its value, and they know it when they see it.  They also know when it is not there.

4. Be still 

Put simply, are you a stander or a wanderer?  As far as I am aware, the experts offer no definitive answer. Do you want to be a focus or a moving target?  Does stillness bring peace and more concentration?  Does prowling give an aid to class control?  You don’t have to make a lifelong decision; different situations may demand different techniques.

If you need a hook to hang on to, I suggest the idea of comfort.  The better lessons are the comfortable ones.  Stillness may be more conducive to that than movement.   But it’s a personal thing.  If a teacher’s natural classroom teaching method puts him on the move, and they are happy with it, then so be it. Children will tolerate remarkable things if they feel comfortable.

5. Be busy

Don’t let gaps grow.  Make sure in your preparation that you are not going to run out of material. You are more likely to get trouble when they’re idle then when they’re busy.  Concentration is catching, like the measles.  A good teacher can transmit it.  It takes a really ill-disposed pupil to sit back and think up a disturbance when heads are down and all the pens are scratching away. That pupil will be out of the normal run, and you may need assistance.  A good teacher will usually spot the maverick.

This is why visitors can be such a pain.  You have worked hard to create a moment. You’ve really got them going. You can hear them listening.  Then a messenger comes in to talk about the school dentist.  When he’s left, that moment may have gone for good. Have something in reserve to plug the gap.

But when it goes right, it is the best classroom teaching method of all – concentration.  A class concentrating is an unmistakable noise.

They don’t mind being busy.   

Events sure beat boredom. Most people, of any age, like being busy.   You can’t beat work.

Summary – Five good practices for teaching better lessons: Be clear; be fair; be reasonable; be still; be busy.

If you don’t find something for them to do, they will.                                   

Check out my blog on how to handle misbehaving students

Five good practicesIf you want to be a better teacher, obviously you must put together better lessons. How do you do that? Know your stuff. Equally obvious. So much of this business of good teaching is. It’s not rocket science. You just need to stop to think of it. Nevertheless, there is more to it than mere knowledge. Like what?1. Be clear

Teaching is not so much collecting knowledge yourself as getting it across to somebody else.  Of course knowledge matters, and pupils should be taught to respect scholarship, but if a teacher cannot communicate his knowledge, sooner or later a pupil will begin to wonder what is the point of sitting in the classroom.

Half your preparation for a lesson should indeed be spent on assembling the required knowledge, but the other half should be devoted to making that knowledge digestible and comprehensible.  (And, if possible, enjoyable, but that’s a bonus; that’s the advanced course.)  But be clear – above all, clear.

You cannot expect them to stay willing if the fog gets thicker and thicker.  You can’t expect them to like it if they don`t understand it.

If they don’t grab it off the bat, they won’t hold it; every time you try to get some more knowledge in during the next lesson, it gets harder, because they have less and less to hook it on to.

Constantly re-examine your instructions, questions, explanations, your teaching methods.  Are they clear?  

Oddly, the more expert you become at what you are teaching, the bigger the danger of not being clear, because the repetition makes it so easy to you that you can forget that you once found it new, and hard.  It is still hard for them because they haven’t met it before. It is so easy to skip stages in learning because you’re so good at it. A good teacher understands bafflement.

2. Be fair

This again is so obvious, isn’t it?  It`s like saying ‘be good’ or ‘be virtuous’. True.  But nevertheless you have to be careful here.  The young have an acute sense of justice (or what they see as justice).  Their respect for what is ‘fair’ can sometimes be somewhat overblown.

It can be painful for them to learn that ‘being fair’ is not the only virtue.

There will be times when you are caught being unfair as they see it (you are human).  If it is a fair cop, then of course you must apologise, and do your best to repair the damage. But there will be other times when you know you are being unfair, for a good reason, and those occasions need to be explained.  If you make a good case, they will often listen.  Sometimes they don’t, because they too are human, and you will have to put up with their grudge, and hope to live it down with more fairness later on.

3. Be reasonable 

By the time a child reaches school age, he/she has just begun to cotton on to the fact that other people exist, and have wishes and desires just as they have, and those wishes and desires are as valid as theirs.

This is one of the pennies that drops perhaps slowest of all, and it is up to the teacher to give the slot machine a little clout now and then to hasten the process.  A good teacher knows when to give that clout, and how hard.

It will help if you try to be reasonable yourself.  Make yourself aware of the effects on your class of what you say and do.  How do they see it? Again, without trying to be too virtuous, we are talking about example.  They can’t define what ‘being reasonable’ is, but they recognise its value, and they know it when they see it.  They also know when it is not there.

4. Be still 

Put simply, are you a stander or a wanderer?  As far as I am aware, the experts offer no definitive answer. Do you want to be a focus or a moving target?  Does stillness bring peace and more concentration?  Does prowling give an aid to class control?  You don’t have to make a lifelong decision; different situations may demand different techniques.

If you need a hook to hang on to, I suggest the idea of comfort.  The better lessons are the comfortable ones.  Stillness may be more conducive to that than movement.   But it’s a personal thing.  If a teacher’s natural classroom teaching method puts him on the move, and they are happy with it, then so be it. Children will tolerate remarkable things if they feel comfortable.

5. Be busy

Don’t let gaps grow.  Make sure in your preparation that you are not going to run out of material. You are more likely to get trouble when they’re idle then when they’re busy.  Concentration is catching, like the measles.  A good teacher can transmit it.  It takes a really ill-disposed pupil to sit back and think up a disturbance when heads are down and all the pens are scratching away. That pupil will be out of the normal run, and you may need assistance.  A good teacher will usually spot the maverick.

This is why visitors can be such a pain.  You have worked hard to create a moment. You have really got them going. You can hear them listening.  Then a messenger comes in to talk about the school dentist.  When he’s left, that moment may have gone for good. Have something in reserve to plug the gap.

But when it goes right, it is the best classroom teaching method of all – concentration.  A class concentrating is an unmistakable noise.

They don’t mind being busy.   

Events sure beat boredom. Most people, of any age, like being busy.   You can’t beat work.

Summary – five good practices: Be clear; be fair; be reasonable; be still; be busy.

If you don’t find something for them to do, they will.                                   

What was National Service?  In a sense, that’s easy; the answer is in the question.  It means what it says – ‘Serving your nation’, serving your country. Is that it?  If so, what was all the fuss about?  Surely we all serve our nation, simply by being alive and going out to work and earning […]

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The Catholic Church: science and religion in the Middle Ages The science and religion debate simply didn’t exist in the Middle Ages. God runs the world – no question.  That’s what nearly everybody in the Middle Ages would have said if you had been able to ask them.  Why?  Because the Church said so.  Its […]

The post Science and Religion: Who runs the world – God or the scientists? appeared first on Berwick Coates.