week 3

Week 3 Journal Entry: 

• Reflect back on the teachers you considered in the first reflection task at the start of this week. Reconsider what it was about them that made you consider them to be so good. Would others that were taught by them have the same conclusions?
• They were the teachers that were fun to be with, that even though you may not have shared their passion for their subject they still managed to get you interested in the learning as a passion. They were kind and listened to you and never embarrassed you in front of your peers. The best teachers were those that were always making jokes about themselves and those pupils whom enjoyed the banter, but never made jokes about students behind their backs or those that could not take the joke in good spirit. The good teachers were never the ones that spoke about standards and expectations and traditions but these were still very much in the classroom as given and known quantities. It was almost like a code, you did not mess about in certain lessons because the teacher was nice and "on our side". They let me mess up lots of the time and spoke with you calmly and gently about why things went wrong and suggested ways to prevent it from happening again. But there was always that understanding that people do make mistakes, especially kids, and that you need to make these mistakes yourself and learn from them. At the end of the day I knew if things went really wrong (which they never did with me) there were certain teachers I could trust and go to. They were much more like coaches or mentors than teachers. A hidden force of support behind my journey through being a horrible, spotty, irrational and irritable teenager. Compare this to the OFSTED definition of a good teacher which talk about setting homework, following National Curriculum guidelines and so on. Is it any wonder that so many students are turned of school.