When I saw this task, I was a little frustrated. I know why I am in education. I thought this answer should be readily available to all teachers. I enjoy challenging and inspiring young people. Second, I thoroughly enjoy learning myself and in my current post, out of my subject and favoured teaching age group, I am learning every day.
Reflect on these questions about your reasons for choosing a career in education, they refer to the Middle Leader who is a teacher.
Now I am disappointed with the course, is this really necessary or informative to me as a middle leader?
Why did I become a teacher? Originally I chose to complete a PGCE as I really enjoyed working with young people and I had a great role model tutor at college.
What do I hold dear as a teacher? Integrity, not doing for students, what they can do for themselves (with a little prompting and support). Professional standards, showing students you learn with the students, failure as feedback, I could go on…
What do I give to my work as a teacher and leader? As a teacher, my lesson observations would suggestion I give good/high quality, consistent and innovative teaching. As a leader, principled leadership, honesty, innovation…. What do I want my legacy to be as a teacher and as a leader? Legacy? I am not working towards a legacy. I working for the students I teach right now. As a leader I hope to influence and lead curriculum change to take into account of what we are preparing students for in their future lives. Currently – I don’t think we are preparing student with their futures in mind. What can I do to keep to my own values and beliefs as a teacher and as a leader? I write a professional blog, I read as widely as I can and I seek feedback from my students and the staff I work with
(Adapted from Livesey and Fullan)
Really, I found that task, rather pointless. Second, recording these tasks is taking rather a long time.
The next task, the boiling frog is so much more subtle. Funnily, there is even a website with a (very weak)Youtube video telling the same story. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to important changes that occur gradually. According to contemporary biologists the premise of the story is not literally true; an actual frog submerged and gradually heated will jump out.
That aside, the tasks asks if there is anything we said when we were young that we would not do, that we have in fact done. This question reminds me of the Mark Twain quote
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he’d learned in seven years.
Well, I can remember in interview for my first post I was asked if I wanted to be a school leader. At the time, I could think of little worse than not teaching and coaching. I am not sure if I will be proven wrong.
How do I feel about this changes? I dont feel anything other than a little disappointment. That to make a wider and more substantial change to the education of students, it requires teachers who love teaching to move further and further away from the classroom and move closer to the office (data to be exact).