Back-to-School: What Have I Learned Over The Years! (Highs & Lows)

Urban Teacher
Sep 2, 2018 · 3 min read
Mark Martin in his classroom

I’ve been working in education since 2004 which feels like i started the profession yesterday. Fast forward 14 years later I’m still in education and preparing for a new academic year.

Many people ask me why do I like working in education and how I’ve managed to excel in the profession. My response is very simple education is the key and I’m in the position to hand out as many as possible.

Schools are a miniature version of society, so it’s not just about being in a classroom teaching topics. It involves dealing with a range of unique individuals, emotions and aspirations coming from a variety of different backgrounds.

Teacher goals is to make learning fun, challenging and engaging. To do this teachers need to customise their subject so it’s relatable, relevant and realistic to captivate their learners.

Looking at this situation from a bird’s-eye view, the public and outside world would see this as a straight forward task and teachers have got it easy with frequent holidays and job perks. This is far from reality, in the UK there is a massive teacher shortage because many have left due to the unrealistic workload.

Over the last several years teachers have to deal with performance related pay, data collection for arbitrary Government targets and constantly having to be on top of Ofsted’s teaching and learning standards.

With all these factors I personally realised very quickly the only way to thrive in the profession was to either move up the leadership ladder or become a thought leader in my subject. I choose to be a thought leader and enhance my skillsets beyond my job role.

I did this through designing my own curriculum for keystage 3 and creating a basic teacher routine for teachers to use around the world. I then became a master teacher for several tech tools and companies. This allowed me to travel to different countries to share good practice.

However when the Information Technology Communication subject was replaced with Computer Science this was the most difficult time in my teaching career because I had to learn programming and complex concepts in a very short space of time. I spent nearly 40 hours at a University to help top up my skills so I had the confidence to deliver the new computer science curriculum.

This episode in my teaching journey had taught me a great lesson, that we are are life long students and the more we think we know is the less we know. There is always something to learn, unlearn and relearn to be a great educator.

What would I tell my younger self if I was entering into the teaching profession this week. I would firstly suggest not to take things personally, you can’t control everything that happens to you and ask for help when unsure.

The common mistake I see with new teachers is that they try to run before they can walk. You have 35+ years left in the profession to run don’t burn yourself out trying to sprint through experience and guidance.

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