A homage to Mick Waters

Some things people might not realise about teaching is the number of observations you have, and how they're accountable to your performance management. They can also be accountable for your mental well-being, which in turn can affect your performance in class. 

I spent my PGCE year and majority of my NQT year being told I was 'satisfactory', which has now become 'requiring improvement', which had meant extra observations. Think of Meryl from Tough Young Teachers. Thankfully my year was not as horrific as hers but it was along a similar line and I know how she feels. It took a conference I went to held by Mick Waters, a teachers' hero, to start unburdening myself with 'grades' (however, this was difficult) and to think of myself as a human being who is doing the best job I can. Mick talked about stereotyping children in the classroom, e.g. gifted and talented, low achievers, special needs, and to label them instead as children who have different learning styles. He touched on how we label ourselves as 'outstanding teachers' if we deliver an 'outstanding' lesson, and 'inadequate teachers' if we deliver an 'inadequate' lesson. The point is, it is ONE lesson; not you as a whole. An outstanding teacher is not only one who can deliver more brilliant lessons and a handful of crap ones, but the teacher who cares about the children as a whole. This could mean extra boosting classes, after school clubs, even sorting out a friend for them if they are alone in the playground. He told us to stop beating ourselves up if we have a bad lesson, because it happens to everybody. However, it is a problem if you deliver more 'inadequate' lessons than not, because the children eventually will make little progress. 

I think the ideology stems from training programmes where we are taught the atmosphere, behaviour, and progress of the children is solely down to the teacher. We are taught strategies to 'engage' pupils who don't want to learn by targeting the lesson to what they might be interested in. This is all well and good but if it goes pear shaped and a child decides to run out of the classroom, is that really your fault? Children come to school with a wealth of problems from home and it is not necessarily always the teachers' fault. During my training year, I taught a year 6 class and the teacher had taken half the group out for an activity. I was left with the other half of the class and after an hour, one kid decided he wanted to go home so he ran out of class. I didn't think - I just ran after him and asked him why he had done that. He shrugged and mumbled something about home. It's not always the teachers' fault.

So, next time you get a grade less than 'good', don't beat yourself up about it. Reflect, think about what you should have done instead, watch another teacher deliver something similar and learn from it. Bad experiences are hidden blessings because they make you stronger and you learn from them. 


I hope this was helpful.

'Til next time!