Help!! I'm teaching at High School
As I have transitioned from 25 years in the Primary sector into the Secondary, I have had many moments of being hit by lightning bolts (metaphorically speaking of course)
The chasm between a student leaving primary school and leaping into the high school setting is a lot bigger than I ever thought.
Was it like this when I went to high school? of course not!!! there was no technology!! we still had a dial phone at home.....please. Typing class had one new electric typewriter than only the top girls got to use, not me.
What minefield are we sending our students into?? How are we helping that adjustment? Is secondary school behind Primary school in its true understanding of the child as a modern day learner?
I worry that they are.
I see smatterings of high school teachers who have really shown initiative and (dare I say it) have a personality for working with teenagers. But still, there are sooooo many who are not budging.
Cars have changed, phones have changed, even the food we eat has changed, so why are these teachers who have been doing this for decades not making the change? They have gone with the flow of everything else in their world that has changed, why resist a very important element of a child's journey?
They may reply that it is too hard, but I wonder if it is too uncomfortable. The fear that they will lose the focus of control. Student voice could scare them.
Teaching high school students is not just a job. I see very clearly that it requires a 'buy-in' from the teachers to see this through. Sure, be scared, I am!! But to also remember that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
My blog is called plus 2 minus 2. I probably should have called it plus1 minus 1. But it meant that we can take small changes along the journey. Do something different this week that we didn't do last week. Talk to each other!! Stop being silos. Find colleagues who also want to change, not ones that are going to fuel the 'in my day' syndrome. As for help.
Please feel free to comment below. Blessings
The chasm between a student leaving primary school and leaping into the high school setting is a lot bigger than I ever thought.
Was it like this when I went to high school? of course not!!! there was no technology!! we still had a dial phone at home.....please. Typing class had one new electric typewriter than only the top girls got to use, not me.
What minefield are we sending our students into?? How are we helping that adjustment? Is secondary school behind Primary school in its true understanding of the child as a modern day learner?
I worry that they are.
I see smatterings of high school teachers who have really shown initiative and (dare I say it) have a personality for working with teenagers. But still, there are sooooo many who are not budging.
Cars have changed, phones have changed, even the food we eat has changed, so why are these teachers who have been doing this for decades not making the change? They have gone with the flow of everything else in their world that has changed, why resist a very important element of a child's journey?
They may reply that it is too hard, but I wonder if it is too uncomfortable. The fear that they will lose the focus of control. Student voice could scare them.
Teaching high school students is not just a job. I see very clearly that it requires a 'buy-in' from the teachers to see this through. Sure, be scared, I am!! But to also remember that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
My blog is called plus 2 minus 2. I probably should have called it plus1 minus 1. But it meant that we can take small changes along the journey. Do something different this week that we didn't do last week. Talk to each other!! Stop being silos. Find colleagues who also want to change, not ones that are going to fuel the 'in my day' syndrome. As for help.
Please feel free to comment below. Blessings
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