A teacher's role description

Our employer, the Department of Education, proudly provide a role description and functional job requirements for teachers in its schools. It's an interesting read containing very few of the things teachers are required to do and leaving out nearly all of the things they do out of the goodness of their hearts ... and because they care for kids.

A colleague recently presented his list of the roles 'required' of a teacher.

We could also add
- nurse
- dentist (ask an early years' teacher how many lost teeth they have dealt with)
- banker
- emergency taxi
- mediator
- lunch maker
- stationer
- lost property coordinator

If you are a teacher or a school leader, what roles would you add?

Teacher

A friend gave me this wonderful book. It's been sitting patiently on my couch for weeks waiting to be picked up. Finally, I had an hour to myself on a plane and got sucked in straight away. Chapter One is an hilarious recount of any afternoon in most teachers' classrooms - until the end when the reader realises the distress of the author's commitment made to children's needs and their education.

This powerful memoir explores the heart of what it means to be a teacher of primary aged children. It's clear on what makes a great teacher and what our children need from their teachers. The author, Gabbie Stroud, clearly has a gift for teaching and she narrates painfully how the system finally broke her. It's brilliant writing but heart breaking to read. I felt sad when she described her Principals and their expectations of her and her colleagues. I would like to think I work hard to protect my teachers as much as possible from system expectations by framing how we teach individual children according to their needs and talents as learning for tall of us in the school. But it's hard when the pressures from above demand success in the system priorities of NAPLAN and regional targets on reporting scales press down on our already overwhelmed shoulders.

Teacher is a work of national importance. It needs to be read by every educator but more so by those who make the demands on how we meet the needs of the little people in front of us every day.

Our system can do better.

Cardboard cut outs or creative units of learning

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

I read an interesting blog in the week by Seth Godin about why all Cadbury fruit and nut chocolate bars are identical - carbon cutouts of each other. Cadbury's employees follow a manual and a process which ensures they produce a perfect bar of chocolate every time - as a result, the Cadbury brand, the organisation and the chocolate they produce is known and trusted world-wide. This is good for the market (if you have shares in Cadbury), and it's good for the customer (as you are practically guaranteed a good bar of chocolate every time.)

This got me thinking about our classrooms. We are a big school now - we have many classes in each year level; for example, there are five Prep classes this year! There are many practices, procedures and routines that all our classes and teachers use and follow; this ensures our distinctive brand, our Peregian Spirit or the Peregian Way as we sometimes call it, is evident throughout our school. We are proud of our reputation for being a 'great school' and we know what we do is working for our children so we make sure we are doing it in every class and in each specialist area across the school.

There is a special blend of fruit and nuts (no pun intended) we expect to see in every room which guarantees a quality education. And in addition, every teacher and teacher aide sprinkles their own skills and knowledge and sense of creativity over the top that contributes to every child's experience of school - they all do it differently and it means that from year to year children experience something unique, all backed by our unique brand evident in every class, our Peregian Spirit.

Schools are a human endeavour, not a factory. Our classrooms will not all be the same; teachers are not all doing the same thing or doing things in the same way; we are not producing hundreds of little chocolate bars, all perfect and all the same. There will be similarities between rooms and parents will recognise these. And there will be differences to rejoice in.

(And in case you are interested, the chocolate in the picture is my favourite - a bar of Guittard - all individually crafted, ensuring a unique tasting experience, and one is rarely identical to another).