Comments on: Rewriting the Dictionary

By: oldandrew

oldandrew — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:12:10 +0000

Don’t get me started on “self-esteem”.

By: Mimi

Mimi — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:32:00 +0000

I just attended a new staff training about working on the self-esteem of the students. (This was ostensibly a training about classroom discipline.) My response is that it’s my job to teach the students to read – any sense of self-esteem should come from achieving that goal (at whatever level).

My head teacher went on to say that ‘Thankfully there are only a few teachers who still think that their job is just to give information’ and I almost walked out. (Had my exit not been so obvious, I would have.)

How interesting, then, to come here and read that the definition has changed!

Thanks for writing out my thoughts for me. Saves me so much trouble!

By: elementaryhistoryteacher

elementaryhistoryteacher — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:50:52 +0000

This is a most excellent post! Your ideas resonate very clearly with me….and yes, I often feel like BOZO the Clown complete with large shoes and large red nose.

By: Mister Teacher

Mister Teacher — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:16:49 +0000

Well written, sir!!

I sometimes make my kids smile (entertaining), but I often wonder how much they’re really LEARNING. . .

By: oldandrew

oldandrew — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:54:42 +0000

“These two points don’t follow each other”

Yes they do, if you read the entire conversation. The first sentence is an explanation of why you shouldn’t use the word “systematic”. The second is an attempt to restate the previous conclusion without going so far as to claim teaching is systematic.

Incidentally, you don’t post to the TES forum as “DiogenesofSinope” do you?

By: News is Good

News is Good — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:29:02 +0000

“Teachers aren’t really meant to be systematic anymore. They are meant to fit their teaching to individual pupils instead of following a rigid style.”
“Could we say teaching is being humorously entertaining about a subject, then?”

1) These two points don’t follow each other. If you are a bespoke tailor, your job does not change from “producing suits in set sizes” to “entertaining buyers with clown clothes”.
2) Fitting your teaching to individuals does not mean it is not systematic. Using a bespoke tailor again, is such a profession not systematic in how it works?

While I appreciate that poor management can claim that you should control kids by being entertaining and uneducational, it is obviously not true that differentiation in learning has led to this outcome. While differentiation and give-up-and-make-em-smile tactics might have come out at around the same time, and even be mentioned in the same breath as answers to behavioural problems, there is no explicit link.

By: oldandrew

oldandrew — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:32:18 +0000

“May I hang this one on the staffroom wall?”

Go ahead, as long as you say where it’s from.

By: Bellringers

Bellringers — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:28:26 +0000

Your post would be hysterical if it weren’t so blasted accurate. If I have one more “education expert” tell me that we have to capture kids hearts before we “capture their minds” I think I’ll run off and join the Ringling Brothers Circus. At least then I would get to travel. Great post.

By: Lilyofthefield

Lilyofthefield — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:41:13 +0000

May I hang this one on the staffroom wall? It would cheer up the workforce who’ve just been told it’s their own fault that the school is on the LEA’s hitlist for closure for failing not only to get its grades up to 30% but actually being the cause of a 1% drop on last year’s.

By: kettleonthehob

kettleonthehob — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:20:13 +0000

Excellent piece of writing.

But when exactly did this come about? I left school in 1998 having enjoyed it for the most part. We learnt and behaved and respected/even liked the teachers. I have never been in a classroom as a pupil and had someone else say, “but you don’t entertain us sir.” (like i had last year on numerous occassions from all years in my second year of teaching). Again i have never been in classroom as a pupil and had
1. someone throw something
2. someone speak to the teacher about social things – i still can’t get my head round why you want to talk to teacher (you would have been bullied when i was at school).
3. swear at teacher – absolutely unthinkable, it just wouldn’t have happened.
By the way i only went to the bog standard comp down the road from my house.