October Irks

Writing blogs can be a cathartic past-time and comes highly recommended for fellow teachers. In summary, October has been challenging at times. Here are some of those exasperating moments that have surfaced this month; written partly in the first person (diary style). This process is entirely positive it should be pointed out, after all, as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. If just one person can learn/ benefit from any of this, then that will be great.

Webex (warning: paragraph includes technical matters)

Technical problems are apparently common I hear; someone I know well has experienced such inconvenience when using this technology (similar to skype for business) during meetings with other professionals at various locations in the UK. I myself have been using it now for the best part of a month in the Netherlands. Thus far, the following issues have occurred directly via the site itself or otherwise. First, being killed off while being the host. In other words, during a lesson with 7 students, I, the person hosting the Webex meeting, was booted off the platform temporarily, which required restarting. The reason given was that too many tabs had been open on my laptop although as the capacity is 5GB. Second, it transpired, that the wrong url log-in details had been sent, which meant that a power point presentation could not be uploaded; this required improvisation and going back and forth between a power point and the interactive whiteboard, slowing down the feedback process when going over corrections from written assignments. The whiteboard is useful up to a point, but flawed in that if you make one typing error you have to start writing again and sentences are not kept in a block as they are on other sites (i.e. https://idroo.com/), so do not stand out when you want them to. Third, sound problems reported by participants can thankfully be dealt with by trouble-shooting, which equates to muting microphones. Thanks to what began as trial and error and then, thanks to a more technically gifted colleague, each and every one of these have been resolved so far (fingers crossed). Last, for the first time, I could not be seen via webcam as I had been, so I was asked if my windows updates were up to date by my confidante, which they were, and then, java, which hadn’t been used for 6 months, so it meant uninstalling and reinstalling until it became fully updated.?As the proof is in the pudding, and the next workshop is Monday morning, I will have to wait and see if I can be seen.

Teacher’s expectations

One comment on an interim evaluation by a student (and contact person) caught my eye. It read: the teacher expects us to do more self-study, but some of us don’t have the time. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. In the first workshop, when discussing self-study, I recommended between 2-5 hours work outside of the classroom to get good results between lessons. This is quite different from what is expected; it is merely a suggestion. I pointed out in the subsequent lesson that the comment is inaccurate. That learning should be enjoyable and interesting yes, but it should not cause unnecessary stress, which I would never sanction. Further, that I am not as strict as some other teachers might be and trust the class to mark their own answers in the vocab book, for example. Also, the deadline is only to complete a selection of online exercises that I look at and, randomly, choose a few mistakes that we go over in the following session together. I did apologise if anybody misunderstood what my expectations were, and there had been no such intention from day one. Finally, they had asked for a bit more time to complete tasks on the online platform, which I granted and was implemented.

Listen to Reason

They say you should avoid such topics as religion and politics. What about teachers’ strikes? It all began mid-afternoon during a 1-on-1 lesson with a Managing Director of a retail company. When?discussing the weekly news, the upcoming teachers’ strike was brought up by the student, and, to my surprise, that he didn’t agree with it; in fact, he thought it was ridiculous. He realised that (in his own words) it was dangerous to say this to a teacher, but one could only surmise that he is a tactless fellow and likes to give his two cents worth no matter if it’s disagreeable to the other person or not. Anyhow, after such a statement, it merited a discussion, but then when it became increasingly apparent that it was a waste of time, it seemed wise to end it quickly. Some of the points I raised were that there are teacher shortages in this country. I would have liked to add that by paying them more it would incentivise new teachers and encourage those already in education to stay in the industry. That 1% increase in the salary of secondary school teachers is an insult, I said, as it would be for one of his workers, though he vehemently disagreed, making out that this is what they are entitled to in both sectors and nothing more. He also mentioned nurses, who presumably haven’t been striking here, which makes me wonder why they haven’t as they also should be within their rights to do so.

Of course, he brought up holidays, as you might expect, but when he was told that my wife is a teacher in a high school (as I had once been) and spends most of her holidays marking, he didn’t say anything or bat an eyelid, because he wasn’t listening; he had already made up his mind and would not listen to reason. He went on that the government had already offered ‘extra money’ to teachers, to which I replied that politicians say what they want the masses to hear and I should have added that the people only remember slogans and insignificant details. The main teachers’ union (AOB), I told him, doesn’t want children to be taught by unqualified teachers as has been happening notwithstanding the closure of schools. This was the only point he agreed upon after I asked if he would want his child taught by someone wiithout a diploma or a reasonable amount of experience. Education has only recently been on the agenda for this cabinet, which is the first time since 2017. Although I didn’t say everything I would have wanted to, we agreed to disagree and I learned that it is sometimes best to avoid such topics if at all possible. It seems that most people who haven’t worked in our profession have no idea what it is like working in it and have formed their own opinion based on what they are told or what they have heard or how things used to be. This is probably the most frustrating of the three irks, but by staying calm, it really was a lesson in self-restraint. What had confounded the experience was that my student, who, I should mention, can be a pleasure to be around ordinarily, had made the following remark after he had made his position clear: well you started it.