Thanks for sharing thoughts on your path to, and the challenges of, secondary English teaching. It resonates with me because I’ve followed a similar trajectory, learning everything useful about literacy teaching through independent study beyond my ITE (which was practically useless). I now spend a lot of time thinking about how to integrate language and learning science into my classroom practice. I too start with the reading rope and defining key terms from both the word recognition and language comprehension strands. I live in hope that one day before I retire my new year 7 classes will look at me impatiently and groan ‘sir, we already know this!’
What an insight into Australian teacher training… And an honest autobiography! In the UK there’s the opportunity to ‘train on the job’, you learn to swim… or you drown. In 9 months you’re qualified so long as you studied a degree for 3 years and you’ve had 3 observations. Training for me was an emphasis on behaviour management not literacy. Your ‘prac’ schools would be randomly selected, some trainees were fortunate not to have to learn behaviour management and could get on with (and learn from) a Program they had designed. Let’s hope Australian universities can work with schools on the ground to recognise the support needed for teachers to do what we do best: Learn! And do teachers save lives? Definitely!
We should organize society, our public school systems and job training programs, around the concept of collective ownership instead of private businesses.
REMOVE MONEY, REMOVE CORRUPTION
If every worker got in exchange for their professional careers everything that they needed to have a happy, balanced life in a safe and healthy world governed by fair laws and modern practices, then our use of science and ethics to generate daily goods and services, as basic human entitlements, will have fulfilled the purpose of socialism: to ensure “universal protections for all by all” without using money anymore or national currencies to uphold private capital, maintain structural wealth, or support banks and financing and other profit-making activities.
Thanks. Lucid and honest.
Thanks for sharing thoughts on your path to, and the challenges of, secondary English teaching. It resonates with me because I’ve followed a similar trajectory, learning everything useful about literacy teaching through independent study beyond my ITE (which was practically useless). I now spend a lot of time thinking about how to integrate language and learning science into my classroom practice. I too start with the reading rope and defining key terms from both the word recognition and language comprehension strands. I live in hope that one day before I retire my new year 7 classes will look at me impatiently and groan ‘sir, we already know this!’
Very helpful insight!!!
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What an insight into Australian teacher training… And an honest autobiography! In the UK there’s the opportunity to ‘train on the job’, you learn to swim… or you drown. In 9 months you’re qualified so long as you studied a degree for 3 years and you’ve had 3 observations. Training for me was an emphasis on behaviour management not literacy. Your ‘prac’ schools would be randomly selected, some trainees were fortunate not to have to learn behaviour management and could get on with (and learn from) a Program they had designed. Let’s hope Australian universities can work with schools on the ground to recognise the support needed for teachers to do what we do best: Learn! And do teachers save lives? Definitely!
This reflects the experience of so many of us English teachers. Thanks for sharing.
We should organize society, our public school systems and job training programs, around the concept of collective ownership instead of private businesses.
REMOVE MONEY, REMOVE CORRUPTION
If every worker got in exchange for their professional careers everything that they needed to have a happy, balanced life in a safe and healthy world governed by fair laws and modern practices, then our use of science and ethics to generate daily goods and services, as basic human entitlements, will have fulfilled the purpose of socialism: to ensure “universal protections for all by all” without using money anymore or national currencies to uphold private capital, maintain structural wealth, or support banks and financing and other profit-making activities.
#ScientificSocialism
Big issues here! A current secondary English teacher, a teacher educator with an expertise in grammar and I wrote a story which explores some of the things you’ve raised. https://steveshann.substack.com/p/part-a-d78?triedRedirect=true