I can’t get over the weirdness of the every teacher must become an expert at content creation fallacy.
It’s as if the logic goes great teachers can customize content for their current students so in order for everyone to be a great teacher everyone must start by creating custom content.
Is there another field where this happens?
I always think of acting as the most obvious counter example. There people who literally repeat lines entirely written by someone else and under constant direction from an expert are considered fantastic at their craft.
But it is similar in other fields where people good at their job are people who know and follow best practices passed on by others and knowing the field’s best approaches is considered plenty of work to qualify as an expert practitioner.
The cost of this fallacy must be huge in terms of frustration and lost opportunity for easily available better results.
I'm also in favour of having more admin staff do stuff that doesn't require a postgraduate degree. They get paid far less and could allow teachers to spend more time on what they're experts at, teaching. Farm out resource preparation, photocopying, laminating, uploading marks, compliance administration...
Thank you so much for this. Teachers DO want reasonable pay of course but nobody enters teaching for 'the money and the holidays'. One of the most awful aspects is the lack of respect we seem to get as professionals, and as you have pointed out before, this is an attitude not just from the general public, but also from the people in our departments, many of whom were only briefly in the classroom if at all. I resent being treated as if I don't know anything - and told to fill out more and more paperwork to show that I am catering for every individual student's needs. My principal actually said, 'If it's not written down, what are you teaching?' As if we are not working hard every day to make sure our classes are 'engaging' (argh) and 'differentiated' and 'linked to the real world' (what is school if not real?). Last week I had a new student added to a complex year 9 English class (many students with learning delays, ADHD, ASD, some behaviour issues, anxiety, attendance irregularity, EALD.....) He was a new arrival and had almost no English - and a clear disability in speech. What also became obvious within minutes, was that he also had an intellectual disability. We do have some support staff in the room, but this student needed much more than I was able to provide. When I approached admin I was told that there was no money/extra support person available and he had to stay in the class. No stress. I am a magician.
There must be a god somewhere though - as my (award winning) principal was showing one of her bosses around our new $20K school, the kid was seen in an open toilet doorway with his pants around his ankles ... suddenly - he is now in a 'transition' class...
Ah - sorry. The only glimmer of light I see is that there are people like you who are challenging the current system. Thank you
How to fix the teacher shortage
I can’t get over the weirdness of the every teacher must become an expert at content creation fallacy.
It’s as if the logic goes great teachers can customize content for their current students so in order for everyone to be a great teacher everyone must start by creating custom content.
Is there another field where this happens?
I always think of acting as the most obvious counter example. There people who literally repeat lines entirely written by someone else and under constant direction from an expert are considered fantastic at their craft.
But it is similar in other fields where people good at their job are people who know and follow best practices passed on by others and knowing the field’s best approaches is considered plenty of work to qualify as an expert practitioner.
The cost of this fallacy must be huge in terms of frustration and lost opportunity for easily available better results.
I'm also in favour of having more admin staff do stuff that doesn't require a postgraduate degree. They get paid far less and could allow teachers to spend more time on what they're experts at, teaching. Farm out resource preparation, photocopying, laminating, uploading marks, compliance administration...
Thank you so much for this. Teachers DO want reasonable pay of course but nobody enters teaching for 'the money and the holidays'. One of the most awful aspects is the lack of respect we seem to get as professionals, and as you have pointed out before, this is an attitude not just from the general public, but also from the people in our departments, many of whom were only briefly in the classroom if at all. I resent being treated as if I don't know anything - and told to fill out more and more paperwork to show that I am catering for every individual student's needs. My principal actually said, 'If it's not written down, what are you teaching?' As if we are not working hard every day to make sure our classes are 'engaging' (argh) and 'differentiated' and 'linked to the real world' (what is school if not real?). Last week I had a new student added to a complex year 9 English class (many students with learning delays, ADHD, ASD, some behaviour issues, anxiety, attendance irregularity, EALD.....) He was a new arrival and had almost no English - and a clear disability in speech. What also became obvious within minutes, was that he also had an intellectual disability. We do have some support staff in the room, but this student needed much more than I was able to provide. When I approached admin I was told that there was no money/extra support person available and he had to stay in the class. No stress. I am a magician.
There must be a god somewhere though - as my (award winning) principal was showing one of her bosses around our new $20K school, the kid was seen in an open toilet doorway with his pants around his ankles ... suddenly - he is now in a 'transition' class...
Ah - sorry. The only glimmer of light I see is that there are people like you who are challenging the current system. Thank you