Some days when I was teaching full-time with my own class it felt like the academic side of schooling was a bonus when the real work lay in the emotional and social well-being of these young humans I was entrusted with for 6 hours a day. I had an inspiring lecturer at Teacher’s College that pressed upon us the importance of making sure we connected with each member of our class, every day. This sounds like a small and easy thing to do but when you multiply those small moments by 30 it requires a committed and conscious effort.
Some days I didn’t want to. Some days I forgot an important piece of work, or missed my bus or had a disagreement with my flatmate, and because this was London in the early 2000s, sometimes I was simply hung over. I do wonder how hard it must be to make these little daily connections in the modern learning environments. To be honest, I wonder how easy it is to even remember 120 children’s names.
An article today on Stuff states that even more teachers are expected to also be social workers. I don’t think this is a new thing. Many teachers are called to their vocation of teaching because they are people that care very deeply about the welfare of children. However, what we are seeing in Christchurch is unexpected behaviour from children, behaviour that looks a lot like anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
The situation in Christchurch is unique for several reasons. Generally, when you are teaching children who are anxious or stressed your own life isn’t reflected in the struggles of the child, however teachers in Christchurch are able to empathise acutely with many of the aspects of living in a post-disaster city that the children are. This adds further weight to the argument that further funding and help is necessary to support our hard working school staff.
Further to this many school staff are also managing mergers, new builds, hugely changed rolls and dramatically different teaching expectations and environments. Yet every day, they return to their classrooms, and make every effort to connect with the children, reinvesting their time, energy, knowledge and hearts. Teachers are the overlooked heroes of the rebuild of Christchurch city, and should be honoured as such.
‘Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.’
Henry Brooks Adams
_Read the full Stuff article here
Some days I didn’t want to. Some days I forgot an important piece of work, or missed my bus or had a disagreement with my flatmate, and because this was London in the early 2000s, sometimes I was simply hung over. I do wonder how hard it must be to make these little daily connections in the modern learning environments. To be honest, I wonder how easy it is to even remember 120 children’s names.
An article today on Stuff states that even more teachers are expected to also be social workers. I don’t think this is a new thing. Many teachers are called to their vocation of teaching because they are people that care very deeply about the welfare of children. However, what we are seeing in Christchurch is unexpected behaviour from children, behaviour that looks a lot like anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
The situation in Christchurch is unique for several reasons. Generally, when you are teaching children who are anxious or stressed your own life isn’t reflected in the struggles of the child, however teachers in Christchurch are able to empathise acutely with many of the aspects of living in a post-disaster city that the children are. This adds further weight to the argument that further funding and help is necessary to support our hard working school staff.
Further to this many school staff are also managing mergers, new builds, hugely changed rolls and dramatically different teaching expectations and environments. Yet every day, they return to their classrooms, and make every effort to connect with the children, reinvesting their time, energy, knowledge and hearts. Teachers are the overlooked heroes of the rebuild of Christchurch city, and should be honoured as such.
‘Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops.’
Henry Brooks Adams
_Read the full Stuff article here
RSS Feed