My Style (Take Two)
Dear friends,
As millennial we all have that fear of, what the fuck am I doing at work? For me that is a question I have to ask myself daily, weekly and sometimes by the hour. However, as I start my 8th academic year, I feel like I finally know why my style of teaching is, and it's not what I initially thought.
In the last year or so I’ve had to meet a few new people who aren’t in the education sector, and there are a lot of misconceptions about what I do. One of which, thinking I teach at A-Level (I wish). Not a lot of my students are retake students, students who have come from other counties to better themselves. My favourite type of student, the adults who are trying to become nurses, teachers and other roles that require GCSE’s. The biggest misconception is that all the students want to be there. Boy is this not true. They are forced to be there till they age out of the system, which is 19, or if they have an EHCP 25. With so much adversity I’ve got to check up my bit constantly.
What a lot of people don’t understand, for me, a student getting a passing grade isn’t what I’m always looking for. I’ve had students who can’t produce a single sentence. This isn’t because they are lazy, it's because they can not express themselves vocally or written. Which is why, when I get a sentence from them, that is a success story. Sadly, the country and a lot of the higher ups don’t see that as an achievement. They want more tangible evidence, the forms for grades and passes. Which is something, over the last few years I’ve cared less and less about. I want people to feel confident in what they are doing. Which a lot of my colleges feel the same about.
The number one thing people always worry about when dealing with young people is their behavior. I’ve said this before, the media, boys on the street, etc, this is people's perception of what I do. For me some of that is true, but when that is a small minority, I know how to handle them. I was asked recently about how I handle behavior issues, and I was like, I don’t get them a lot. Seriously I have to really think hard about them, as they are so far and in between, I feel like generally I deal with an issue there and then. Who knows, maybe I just black it out, but it doesn’t happen much, maybe because I am very straight with people.
A lot of my younger students will like to play the cards they have to get out of things. Whether it's the learning disability, I’ve got one of those. Mental Health, I’ve got some experience with that. I’m tired and busy, did I come to this room to have a joke. But seriously, I am very strict with all my students, old and young. I know to some it might seem weird to ask a woman as old as you mum why haven't you done your work, but it allows people to know everyone is on the same playing field. So much so that I can say things like, “my students would not be playing on phones when I’m not taking a lesson” the head tilts and not meeting their eyes tells me they know when they have done wrong.
I know all of this as I recently had a trainee with me. Hard work yes, but was very eye opening. It allowed me to see what I was doing from so many different angles, and how someone who doesn’t know a lot, can see how a lot of the theory you learn I am using practically. Honestly, it gave me such a confidence boost in my job, I know what I am doing. One thing I know how to do is break up the monotony of certain things.
This has led to me being known as the fun one. As much fun as you can have with disengaged teenagers. But I like to think a lot of what I do as what we used to have fun doing? Primary school probably is the last time some of these students had fun in a classroom. Why can’t I make it feel like that again, group projects based on musicals, school discos, theme parks and christmas food. All of which is met with great enthusiasm, and then the work produced is their own. I love coming up with ideas, my colleagues love the lessons, and the students love doing it. Win win win.
My style is to be fun and not traditional. Why can’t I have them describe a picture while listening to classic music just like the book we’re reading. Why can’t the manga club watch episodes of X-Men and Spider-man to see why I love these properties? I do what I like and the thing is a lot of what I like happens to overlap with young people, so why not use that to my advantage. If I know what I'm talking about and have passion and conviction in my voice, so why not?
I never saw myself as the fun one. I knew when I became a teacher I was going to be the firm one. As time has gone I am that, but once people know what's up, that slowly goes away. which is why me being called fun rocks my brain. I am not trying to be fun, I am just trying to be me, and I am easily bored of the same old thing. Which is something I hope never goes away. Which is why I really do appreciate people like my style
Xo FabEs
