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| Thinking of retraining as a teacher? Do it. But do your homework first | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| When I left the newsroom for the classroom, my farewell present, in keeping with journalistic tradition, was a personalised spoof front page. The gaggle of foreign correspondents had been Photoshopped into unruly students, graphics compared the holiday entitlement of teachers with reporters, and there were quips about a sudden dive in writing standards in south-east London. Some colleagues applauded me for “getting a proper job”; others clearly couldn’t fathom why I would leave a successful career and venture into the unknown. | When I left the newsroom for the classroom, my farewell present, in keeping with journalistic tradition, was a personalised spoof front page. The gaggle of foreign correspondents had been Photoshopped into unruly students, graphics compared the holiday entitlement of teachers with reporters, and there were quips about a sudden dive in writing standards in south-east London. Some colleagues applauded me for “getting a proper job”; others clearly couldn’t fathom why I would leave a successful career and venture into the unknown. |
| Six years later, I am happy to report that my career change is proving as rewarding as I’d hoped. And I’m in good company, with several of the staff at my south London primary school having joined after working in other fields. So I’d be the first to encourage Lucy Kellaway – who has announced that she is leaving the Financial Times to pursue teaching – and anyone else thinking about education, to make the leap. As long as you’ve done your homework. | Six years later, I am happy to report that my career change is proving as rewarding as I’d hoped. And I’m in good company, with several of the staff at my south London primary school having joined after working in other fields. So I’d be the first to encourage Lucy Kellaway – who has announced that she is leaving the Financial Times to pursue teaching – and anyone else thinking about education, to make the leap. As long as you’ve done your homework. |
| Paramount before you jettison your current career is spending some time in schools. Whether you’re in the late professional demographic that Kellaway’s organisation, Now Teach, is targeting, or in your 30s as I was, it will probably have been a while since you set foot in a classroom – and teaching methods will bear little resemblance to your schooldays. | Paramount before you jettison your current career is spending some time in schools. Whether you’re in the late professional demographic that Kellaway’s organisation, Now Teach, is targeting, or in your 30s as I was, it will probably have been a while since you set foot in a classroom – and teaching methods will bear little resemblance to your schooldays. |
| So first make sure that your noble ideals about teaching are grounded in reality. Then get as much training as you can: expert as you may be in your subject area, translating that expertise into effective teaching is a skill. Too many well-meaning visitors to schools fall into the trap of telling, not teaching. If you’re a high-flying executive used to colleagues hanging off your every word (or at least pretending to), it might come as a surprise when even your most diligent pupils start mucking about during your informative monologue about Roman banquets. But allow them to re-enact the historical feast and they’ll still be enthusiastically recounting facts weeks later. | So first make sure that your noble ideals about teaching are grounded in reality. Then get as much training as you can: expert as you may be in your subject area, translating that expertise into effective teaching is a skill. Too many well-meaning visitors to schools fall into the trap of telling, not teaching. If you’re a high-flying executive used to colleagues hanging off your every word (or at least pretending to), it might come as a surprise when even your most diligent pupils start mucking about during your informative monologue about Roman banquets. But allow them to re-enact the historical feast and they’ll still be enthusiastically recounting facts weeks later. |
| Undoubtedly, you will bring skills from your previous field to the classroom, too. I joke with my colleague who used to work in theatre in London’s West End that only now does she have a performing job. If you’re having an off day in school, there’s no hiding behind a computer screen and nursing a coffee – the show must go on. | Undoubtedly, you will bring skills from your previous field to the classroom, too. I joke with my colleague who used to work in theatre in London’s West End that only now does she have a performing job. If you’re having an off day in school, there’s no hiding behind a computer screen and nursing a coffee – the show must go on. |
| Experience of the world beyond the classroom can help to enrich the experience of those pupils in it | Experience of the world beyond the classroom can help to enrich the experience of those pupils in it |
| Less industry-specific skills, such as effective time management or prioritising your in-tray, may help experienced professionals avoid some of the common pitfalls of newly graduated teachers in their first job. Similarly, finding yourself recast as a learner after a long interval can also be a useful tool in empathising with your pupils. Once, at an after-school ballroom dancing lesson, I was struggling; “concentrate” was the helpful advice from the teacher. But I was concentrating, I knew what to do, I just couldn’t do it, I said. The next morning, during a challenging maths lesson, a frustrated little boy echoed my very words. Sharing my dancing anecdote made him laugh and made me realise I needed to change tack. | Less industry-specific skills, such as effective time management or prioritising your in-tray, may help experienced professionals avoid some of the common pitfalls of newly graduated teachers in their first job. Similarly, finding yourself recast as a learner after a long interval can also be a useful tool in empathising with your pupils. Once, at an after-school ballroom dancing lesson, I was struggling; “concentrate” was the helpful advice from the teacher. But I was concentrating, I knew what to do, I just couldn’t do it, I said. The next morning, during a challenging maths lesson, a frustrated little boy echoed my very words. Sharing my dancing anecdote made him laugh and made me realise I needed to change tack. |
| Experience of the world beyond the classroom can help to enrich the experience of those pupils in it, as long as it’s woven into your teaching. Bonding with a taciturn pupil over the fact we had both been to Sierra Leone, or staging a portrait exhibition are just some of the ways my previous life as foreign correspondent and photographer has resurfaced. Teaching style is such a personal thing that your past experiences cannot help but emerge, no matter what your previous incarnation. | Experience of the world beyond the classroom can help to enrich the experience of those pupils in it, as long as it’s woven into your teaching. Bonding with a taciturn pupil over the fact we had both been to Sierra Leone, or staging a portrait exhibition are just some of the ways my previous life as foreign correspondent and photographer has resurfaced. Teaching style is such a personal thing that your past experiences cannot help but emerge, no matter what your previous incarnation. |
| All this is not to say that a move into teaching is without its headaches; indeed, the schools minister Nick Gibb admitted last month that almost a third of new state school teachers starting in 2010 had quit within five years. The oft-heard complaint about teacher workload is a valid one; the lack of respect accorded the profession does sap morale. | All this is not to say that a move into teaching is without its headaches; indeed, the schools minister Nick Gibb admitted last month that almost a third of new state school teachers starting in 2010 had quit within five years. The oft-heard complaint about teacher workload is a valid one; the lack of respect accorded the profession does sap morale. |
| The revolving door of new government initiatives, which I have witnessed first hand regularly in just six years, is irritating, as is Whitehall’s blinkered focus on data, when teachers deal with living and breathing children in all their complexity. It’s hard to assess a child, for example, using a test sat the day after they’ve been evicted. | The revolving door of new government initiatives, which I have witnessed first hand regularly in just six years, is irritating, as is Whitehall’s blinkered focus on data, when teachers deal with living and breathing children in all their complexity. It’s hard to assess a child, for example, using a test sat the day after they’ve been evicted. |
| Finally, no one should underestimate the hard work involved. As the daughter of two teachers, and the friend of many others, I knew teaching was not about four o’clock finishes and Dead Poets’ Society style inspiration. I did do my homework. Yet nothing can really prepare you for doing the job, except doing the job – but what a great job it is. | Finally, no one should underestimate the hard work involved. As the daughter of two teachers, and the friend of many others, I knew teaching was not about four o’clock finishes and Dead Poets’ Society style inspiration. I did do my homework. Yet nothing can really prepare you for doing the job, except doing the job – but what a great job it is. |