Passionate and Inspired Teachers

Inspired Teaching and Passionate Teachers
As a part of our work with Cognition Education and their Visible Learning Plus programme we looked today at the notion of 'inspired and passionate teaching'.  I have a theory that because teaching is not the best paid profession that is out there the overwhelming majority of teachers have signed up to a life of education because of a great deal of personal inspiration and passion for learning.  

It is also a fact that teaching is a very hard profession as Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas put in their Educating Ruby book; “Teachers know that controlling crowds of bored teenagers, or squeezing a few extra children across an arbitrary assessment borderline, is not what lights their fire.  It is not why they wanted to become teachers in the first place.” (2015, p. 31)  Modern teaching is a process of continually fronting up in the classroom and doing your best.  For most teachers levels of passion and inspiration will ebb and flow.  It is a conscious effort for each individual teacher to monitor themselves.  

Specific emphasis on 'passion and inspiration' is placed upon the quality of the relationships between the teacher and his/her students.  That's something that is axiomatic for most teachers... yet strained teacher student relationship would be one of the most pressing issues in modern schooling.  

Here is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that we worked through last Monday.   

Inspired and passionate teaching 12th october from WaihiCollege

This post relates to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga".  And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 4 "Responsive Curriculum, Effective Teaching and Opportunity to Learn - students develop learning to learn capabilities."