The most important thing you can be when you grow up?
Read on for the least surprising take ever.
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I think Kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else - Roald Dahl
Growth - Back to the Theory
Mr Watson got some big-boy responsibility this week - we’ve had a teaching student join us. This ambitious individual is the first first prospective teacher to come and observe my teaching practice.
It’s made me suddenly very aware of what I’m doing.
That’s not to say I’m doing anything particularly wrong or kicking back and having a laugh. I have my gold-star teaching assistant to keep me honest. Ish.
But what their presence has done is bring my lesson plans back to a more theory-based template.
As you spend more time in teaching, you get a feel for your own style and the way your students like to work. You find resources you like and take inspiration from practitioners you admire. You use strategies and methods that work for you and, bit by bit, develop a teaching identity.
Teaching theory plays more of a role in the early days and is steadily usurped by practice. Theory, while typically robust and useful, is typically very general, while the practice tends to be shaped by the immediate environment and recent teaching application.
And, as time has passed, I’ve taken less and less from the wealth of research out there.
So - for the benefit of our new arrival at first - I’ve gone back to a more explicit theory-based set of lessons.
In the end, I think it’s benefitted my own delivery more than I expected.
The theory I’ve applied is the Gradual Release of Responsibility model. Of all the teaching theory out there, this is the one that I always felt easy to apply.
The principle is simple:
Step 1 - Start with purely teacher-led delivery.
Step 2 - lead a task that requires the children to get involved with you.
Step 3 - set a task they can work on together to share knowledge and ideas.
Step 4 - set an independent task to test what they’ve learned.
Does it always flow that chronologically? No. Do all lessons suit that structure? No. Does it make enough room for independent exploration? No.
But, the time-efficient teaching of a range of skills, it is applicable and it is effective.
It’s been good to revisit this theory more closely this week. Not only does it benefit my lessons but, for a trainee teacher, I felt that this was a clear demonstration of a theory put into practice - something that isn’t easy as you’re learning the ropes.
No, I’m not an expert - not even close. But this has been a fun development being able to pass something on for a change.
I hope I can pass something on worth hanging on to.
Sidenote: this particular trainee has been excellent and given me swathes of hope for the future of teaching.
Giggles - local Karen
We’ve started reading the excellent Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Early on we’re introduced to a character called Via.
To get the children thinking, we tested them with some inferences, using clues in the text to guess who the characters might be.
“So, based on the fact that she shouted at some other children in the street who were picking on August (the main character), who do we think Via might be? Yes, Child 1.”
Great answer, this.
“Is she the local Karen?”
I don’t think I’ve ever been so caught off guard by an answer.
Oh, how we howled.
Gratitude - tolerance is all
This was a seriously special week. To supplement our learning around World War 2, we visited the National Holocaust Centre near Newark, Nottinghamshire.
What a place.
They’ve got interactive rooms decorated to replicate classrooms, homes and shops from 1930s Germany.
They’ve got a whole host of touching monuments and dedications to hundreds of Jewish people’s ancestors.
And - get this - we were given a talk by a one Robert Norton. His name used to be Robert Neubauer. You’re about to find out why it changed.
After spending his early years in Sudetenland (North-east Czechoslovakia) prior to Nazi occupation and Budapest, Hungary - a key Nazi ally - Jewish Robert escaped with his immediate family to Britain, where he’s lived since.
To hear his story was staggering.
To learn that all his other family were lost to concentration camps made my heart sink.
And to hear his final word on the matter - that we should all remember to be tolerant of others, whatever our differences - felt so life-affirming, a message with a stronger backing than perhaps any I’ve ever been gifted.
I offer my students all the opportunity I can to make their own mind up but I do want one thing from them.
I think Kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else - Roald Dahl
The most important thing you can be when you grow up is kind - not sure
What an honour it truly was to shake the hand of a gentleman who survived the Holocaust. The story of his life was so mind blowing. One of which, I will never forget.
Lovely photo too Mr Watson 😁